29 pages • 58 minutes read
Stephen KingWord Processor of the Gods
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1983A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Corrupting Nature of Power
This story focuses on the downtrodden Richard’s miserable life. For years, he has been unsatisfied with his family: Lina, who’s lazy and unpleasant, and Seth, his teen son of whom he is “ashamed and unable to hide it.” (283) He yearns for a better life, and when given the power to change his fate, Richard metaphorically and literally jumps at the chance to harness that power and create a better world for himself without thinking of the repercussions of the potential destruction that his desires might bring. He is in awe of the word processor because of its ability to manifest the words on its screen into reality and aims to use its power for himself. However, while Richard crafts a happy ending, exercising this power results in others dying, calling into question the morality of using such power.
At first, his wishes are mundane and harmless, such as removing Lina’s portrait on the wall. However, when he realizes that the word processor can do more than just remove unwanted portraits, this power leads him to make extreme decisions to craft the life he’s always wanted but could never grasp. His desire for a better life combined with his lust for power has devastating consequences: He deletes his entire family because he covets his brother’s wife and son. When mulling over the choice to delete Seth, he hesitates until he hears Seth and his friends making fun of him and his ambitions as a writer. Angry and impulsive, he quickly quashes his ethical concerns and deletes his son, thinking to himself that it’s not murder since he merely erased him. He initially fears the consequences, thinking his wife will be furious when she discovers Seth is missing. However, he finds that deletion means no one remembers Seth at all, giving Richard the power to kill without punishment. The corruption of such power becomes clear when Richard decides to delete Lina as well: “[H]e felt a smile surface on his lips—a smile […] thin and white and cold” (299). While he describes his feelings as “simultaneously sick and exhilarated” (300), he does experience the same hesitation as he felt over deleting Seth.
Another aspect of Richard’s greed that is explored is his lust for money. The second thing Richard creates with the word processor is “TWELVE TWENTY DOLLAR GOLD PIECES IN A SMALL COTTON SACK” (292), which amount to tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of gold. While Richard resents Lina’s comments about his career, Richard feels that failure deeply himself, dreaming of a life in which he is a successful writer. While crafting the perfect family takes priority over everything else, he mulls over different possible futures just before the word processor explodes, envisioning 20 new bestselling novels that would guarantee their wealth. Unable to mold his future in this way, Richard seems content to finally have the perfect wife and child. However, the cozy promise of hot cocoa with his new family at the end of the story comes at the price of Richard’s cold-blooded thoughts about Lina and Seth; there is a darkness beneath his new life that cannot be deleted.
The Dangers of Technology
While the word processor is outdated and modified with model train switches and Erector set pieces, it still potently illustrates the dangers that come with unprecedented technological progress. The technology boom of the 1980s revolutionized nearly all aspects of life and society: People were able to have conversations with people on the other side of the world with cell phones, the Internet was emerging, and personal computers became more accessible. The world was more interconnected than ever, and new advancements came at a rapid pace.
However, progress has its limitations and drawbacks, starting with polarized reactions to technological progress. Some do not accept or understand technology due to fear, as represented by Nordhoff. Others who likewise don’t understand technology but accept it uncritically and follow the crowd are represented by Richard. Stephen King uses these two characters as foils that represent the different ways of interacting with technology. Just as George Orwell’s 1984 and cyberpunk novels focus on technology’s ability to erase individuality, resistance, and freedom, King also explores the ways technology is only as moral as the powers wielding it.
Richard doesn’t understand exactly how the machine operates, but he puts his trust in the machine anyway as it “made the whole thing easier to accept” (295). King uses Richard’s relationship with the processor to show the dark underbelly of technological progress and its almost hypnotic ability to entrance its users. Richard sits in awe of the machine’s power, calling it the “magic dream machine” and the titular “word processor of the gods” (296). While the machine can change the world in any way Richard imagines, he proves that his imagination is limited; his first instinct is to destroy rather than create, taking his wife and son’s lives before reviving his sister-in-law and nephew. Before the computer explodes, Richard envisions the wishes he might ask for, all of which are self-serving. Godlike power does not motivate Richard to change the world for the better, only to change his circumstances. That his wife and child fall victim to his own worst impulses exemplifies the hazards of technology’s power, which can change (and end) lives without the victim’s knowledge.
On the other hand, King paints Nordhoff to represent those who reject technology and warn of its dangers. When offered the chance to see how the word processor works, Nordhoff declines, but not without warning Richard to be careful, which Richard ignores. Nordhoff’s rejection of the word processor embodies those with the ethical clarity to know not to blindly follow technology and question it before choosing to accept or reject it. While Nordhoff is wary of the word processor, he is not shown to be anti-technology writ large; at the beginning of the story, he praises Jonathan’s abilities, calling him an “electrical genius.” With this, he is a thoughtful counterpoint to Richard’s impulsivity, embodying a measured approach to and respect for technology.
Regret and Cowardice
Regret and cowardice converge in Richard’s deletion of his family. His life is characterized by regret; he wishes he hadn’t married Lina or had Seth, both of whom seem like strangers living under the same roof. However, what exacerbates his regret is the cowardice that accompanies it, especially regarding his older brother, Roger. This cowardice manifests in his inability to say no to anyone or control his life. While the word processor presents the chance to change his life, it does not make him brave; he never confronts his problems head-on and simply erases the people that make him miserable.
Beginning in his childhood, Richard was never able to stand up to his brother, no matter how cruel he was. He recalls one instance when Roger smashed his Magic 8 Ball, which he cherished. When Richard threatened to tell their parents, Roger asserted that he’d break Richard’s arm if he did, setting a precedent in which Richard endured mistreatment out of fear of worse retribution. This manifested throughout his life with Roger, who married the love of Richard’s life and abused her, things Richard observed but never intervened in. Richard links the Magic 8 Ball memory with the deadly car crash, implying that his cowardice not only ruined his own life but Belinda and Jon’s; just as he stood helpless when his older brother smashed his toy, he was also helpless to prevent the crash. This fuels his inferiority complex and the regret he feels over not being able to save Jonathan and Belinda.
Richard is also afraid of his wife and lets her control his life. He hangs a photo of her that he hates in his office due to his fear of her bitter remarks. Lina belittles Richard’s dream of becoming a writer with words “too sarcastic to bear” (288), and although he resents this mistreatment, he works two jobs to support the family while Lina stays home. Likewise, Richard and Seth harbor a mutual disrespect though they share an artistic temperament; notably, Richard dislikes Seth’s interest in counterculture, which could indicate a fear of societal change or resentment over his son’s ability to pursue his own interests. While Richard feels godlike in his power to erase his wife and son from existence, his method for doing so—deleting them alone in his study while never confronting them—indicates that Richard does not overcome his cowardice. In his final moments with Lina, he resists an urge to fight back when she insults him, resolving instead to delete her on the word processor. His actions subvert the happy ending he creates for himself, as he is ultimately moving into a new future with the same character flaws; he has changed his circumstances but not himself.
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