Phantoms- Dean Koontz (Cate) by Student Caitlyn Phillips

Setting Analysis

phillipsch3 — 2024-04-25 20:44:07 UTC

The setting of this book starts in a town called Snowfield. It is a mountain town. A ski resort town. It is high up in the mountains and a quite small town meaning it is not very easy to get to and it is very quiet. It also has few resources. Making it the perfect place for a horror/mystery book setting. Think about it an old secluded mountain town before ski season with around 350 occupants. It's the best place for a mystery especially one with no witnesses to the 350 deaths.

Character Analysis/ Psychoanalysis (Jenny)

phillipsch3 — 2024-04-29 19:43:10 UTC

Jenny is the town doctor and as the town's doctor she feels she has a responsibility to help the people of the town. She goes looking for anyone left alive that may be injured but she has only found dead people so far. Jenny is a very rational character. She plays detective as she finds more and more dead bodies. She thinks about the rational and logical reasons all the townspeople may be dead. But, based on the name of the book being Phantoms I doubt there is a logical reason for any of the deaths. This leads me to believe that Jenny is going to get herself and Lisa in a very dangerous situation. But, Jenny is not rational enough. She is too brave and curious for her own good. Any rational person would have skipped town after the second dead body they found. Though this is a horror novel so the characters have to be dumb enough to stay in these kinds of weird or sketchy situations for the story to go on. All of this leads me to believe Jenny represents the ego. She is very rational and does things based on her moral and rational instincts first and foremost. And her moral instincts tend to be to help people or try to help anyone left alive by at least figuring out what killed so many people. She also uses her instincts to try to get Lisa to relax and not panic.

Character Analysis/ Psychoanalysis (Lisa)

phillipsch3 — 2024-04-29 19:51:54 UTC

Lisa is Jenny's little sister. Lisa previously found her mom dead after having a heart attack. Lisa is a bit less brave about the situations. Although Jenny acts like she has to be brave for her sister she really doesn't need to be brave. She should get out of the town. Lisa is smart to be scared and want to get out of the situation. But her sister Jenny is going into these situations regardless of Lisa's fear causes Lisa to follow along with her sister. Though I don't think them going into those situations at all is a good idea I think Lisa is smart to at least not want to split up. I think Lisa's fear is going to help keep them both alive throughout the book. Though eventually, I think Jenny might lose her bravery and join her sister in fearing what's happening in the town. And when she decides to listen to her sister they may both get out of the town safely. All of this leads me to believe that Lisa represents the Id. She is trying to follow her primal urges to be afraid of these situations and just get out as fast as possible, as well she tries not to get into the situations in the first place. She is driven mostly by her fight-or-flight responses, which she is usually trying to choose flight. However, her sister often convinces her not to behave that way at least on the outside. Lisa still wants to choose flight even if she isn't because of her sister.

Excerpt Close Reading Analysis

phillipsch3 — 2024-05-07 20:28:58 UTC

This excerpt from the text describes the scene when Jenny and Lisa found Karen and Tom Oxley. They have been finding all the townspeople dead and a lot of them have had this same look on their faces. Their faces were all frozen in fear. Which is odd because none of the bodies had rigamortus yet. And since Jenny is a doctor she knows after people die they go limp and all the muscles relax before rigamortus sets in. Meaning none of them should be frozen in fear like they are. This seemingly simple detail makes everything going on seem even more strange and confusing. It's not quite right and Jenny and Lisa are realizing that more and more. It seems as if the people may have been attacked but without stab wounds or bullet wounds, or any wounds at all on some of the bodies it doesn't make sense for the deaths to have been caused by an attacker. At least maybe not a human one.

Etymology Analysis- Fundamentally Illogical

phillipsch3 — 2024-05-09 20:37:06 UTC

The word fundamental means the base or core of central importance. Meaning in this context your core values and basic beliefs. The word illogical means lacking sense or clear sound reasoning. So put together Fundamentally illogical in this context would basically mean you're questioning your core values and beliefs and it isn't necessarily sensible to do so. This phrase is used when Jenny is on the phone trying to get talk to the police in the town over and there is silence on the other end but it feels like a presence. Jenny starts questioning her logical reasoning. She is starting to believe what is happening in Snowfield isn't human. A monster, something paranormal is going on. While she is trying to refuse to believe her inner thoughts that it is not human she is starting to lose that battle.

Modern Pop Culture Connection

phillipsch3 — 2024-05-13 19:58:03 UTC

Often horror movies are about people going around killing other people. Serial killers mostly, sometimes other creatures. But this book has a different type of trope. A sort of something isn't right here trope. In the sense that something is wrong but not in a normal way. More so in a paranormal or otherworldly way, in which the characters can't quite figure out usually until it's too late. There are a few horror movies we see today that have this same sort of trope. Birdbox and A Quiet Place are good examples of this troupe. A select few people had to figure out what was going on and how to work around it as hundreds of people were dying or going crazy around them. People doing their best to stay alive without any knowledge of what's happening.

Archetypal (Hero's Journey)

phillipsch3 — 2024-05-13 20:37:32 UTC

The hero's journey for Lisa and Jenny starts off in their ordinary world. Driving up to Snowfield and heading inside Jenny's home. Expecting dinner they call out to let the housekeeper know their home. That is the act one of the separation. As well after starting to find people dead trying all the phone lines only to realize those are dead too. Their ordeal is realizing the town has no signs of life everyone is either dead or vanished. They realize they're alone and whatever killed everyone else is still there. And they fear they are going to be killed too. The unification happens when the police and FBI/Military as well as Dr Flyte show up and the thing that killed everyone finally reveals itself. And everyone who is still alive figures out a way to kill the creature using the lab the FBI brought and a piece of the things flesh. Or at least they think they killed it.