Elevation: A Novel

“Castle Rock was a small town, and word got around.”

This subtle assessment of the town has broad implications for the role of setting in the story and in matters of prejudice and interpersonal relationships. The subtext of this statement suggests the cultural values and social practices in a small town differ from elsewhere, and that these differences will shape how the novel’s characters experience and overcome conflict. It also suggests that gossip in such an environment will inevitably bring conflicts and social ills into the open, which informs the thematic conclusion that ignoring them isn’t an option.

“You could feel weight, yes—when you were carrying too much, it made you ploddy—but wasn’t it, like time, basically just a human construct? Hands on a clock, numbers on a bathroom scale, weren’t they only ways of trying to measure invisible forces that had visible effects? A feeble effort to corral some greater reality beyond what mere humans thought of as reality?”

Scott’s weight loss carries a deeper, more symbolic meaning than merely being a symptom of an illness. The paradoxical nature of weight loss that has no visible effects, as in Scott’s case, adds depth and complexity to this symbolism. Elevation deals with topics of suffering and the long-term effects of daily burdens, as well as the question of what gives life meaning. Depicting these abstract concepts as a measurable quality—literal weight—is a way to “corral some greater reality”; to contextualize complex ideas through a thought experiment.