31 pages • 1 hour read
Stephen KingSurvivor Type
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1982A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Epigraph
Content Warning: The source material features graphic descriptions of shipwreck, accidental injury and death, self-amputation, self-harm, autocannibalism, illegal drug trading and use, and psychological distress.
An epigraph is a short citation that serves as an opening of a work of literature. In “Survivor Type,” the epigraph serves to introduce the audience to the topic of the short story and to foreshadow some of the events by asking rhetorical questions.
The author opens up with a quote inspired by his neighbor: “Sooner or later the question comes up in every medical student’s career. How much shock-trauma can the patient stand? Different instructors answer the question, in different ways, but cut to its base level, the answer is always another question: How badly does the patient want to survive?” (399). The subject of the citation foreshadows the events by introducing the topic of survival and the ability to withstand pain. Moreover, the epitaph includes rhetorical questions, which are figures of speech where a question is asked to highlight an idea or to generate a dramatic effect, rather than obtain a response. Questions such as “How much shock-trauma can the patient stand?” or “How badly does the patient want to survive?” (399) do not have a direct response following them, but are rather aimed to convey to the reader that the narrative that follows will make them consider these questions. As discussed in the theme of The Instinct to Survive, the reader is prompted to reconsider these questions when they are embedded in the narrative, often in unexpected or subversive contexts.
Flashbacks
Throughout the narrative of “Survivor Type,” the author employs multiple flashbacks, interrupting the present-moment action to recount a narrative about Pine’s life before the crash of the cruise ship Callas. These recollections serve as the principal means of characterization, allowing the reader to gain insight into Pine’s personality and to better understand how he has found himself on a deserted island. Through the flashbacks the audience learns about Pine’s strained relationship with his parents, the connection to his former neighborhood, his career as a football player, which helped him gain access to higher education, his love for surgery, and details about his involvement in the illegal drug trade. The author intentionally does not make the transitions between the main narrative and the flashbacks smooth, but rather injects Pine’s memories between the elements of the frame story, which emphasizes how disordered his mind is and how the difficult conditions of the island are contributing to his mental degradation.
Apostrophes
An apostrophe is when a character addresses someone who isn’t present, such as a deceased person, an abstract idea, or an imaginary figure. In “Survivor Type” the author uses multiple apostrophes throughout the narrative to immerse the audience in the storyline.
Pine’s physical isolation means that his entries take the form of written messages to an unidentified presence. He makes comments such as “Make no mistake about it. I am going to get out of this” (401). He is almost speaking to the reader, as though the audience defies or challenges him, and, in his mind, if he manages to convince the reader of his capacity to survive, he will be saved. This technique helps to bring the story to life and immerse the reader into the narrative. As his isolation wears him down, Pine continues to have almost imaginary dialogues with the audience, urging them to listen, as he recounts the events of his life. He even asks the invisible presence questions, such as: “Can you understand that? If you’ve used a strong morphine-based drug yourself, perhaps you can” (411). Writing to an invisible presence becomes a coping mechanism Pine uses to endure the isolation but it also suggests that he is writing to himself as “you.” As is usual with a private journal, the “you” of the addressee is both an imagined reader and the writer themselves. Pine’s use of apostrophe reveals his psychological processes around justifications for past transgressions and, especially, as he reasons himself into self-mutilation and autocannibalism.
Parataxis
Parataxis is a writing technique in which phrases and clauses are placed one after another, without the use of conjunctions. Sentences become shorter and phrasal or fragmentary (i.e., not fully coordinated or subordinated). In “Survivor Type” the author uses parataxis to demonstrate the main character’s diminishing ability to write coherently, as he slowly succumbs to malnourishment, pain, dehydration, and distress. This gradual process is highlighted by the fact that Pine’s story begins as a complex and grammatical narrative and that his sense of personal expression is linked to his identity and status as an educated man. The gradual loss of his eloquence is used as a device to demonstrate his loss of self.
As the narrative progresses, the short sentences become a tool for the author to convey the horror of the situation to the reader. Parataxis is used more frequently as the story comes to an end: “Took the other leg at the knee. Sleepy all day. ‘Doctor was this operation necessary?’ Haha. Shaky hands, like an old man. Hate them. Blood under the fingernails. Scabs” (418). The complete lack of coordination between the sentences demonstrates that the main character is very close to death due to his physical state. Short sentences are employed to punctuate the desperation of the main character’s situation. Many of the sentences trail off with unsaid information that the reader has to guess for themselves: By making the reader imagine what the character is referring to, the author forces the reader to become implicated in the narrative and experience the horror more vividly in their mind.
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