Amanda's Literature Spot: Pet Sematary Where loss is everything.

Church (Deadlantern.com)

Is it right for Louis and Rachel to keep death hushed around their children? Or does Ellie deserve to know the truth about what could happen?

Two of the strongest themes of the novel Pet Semetary by Stephen King are loss and the reality and inevitability of death. Louis Creed struggles to deal with the death of his daughter Ellie's cat Church. Church is hit by a car and is in his neighbor Jud's yard and he leads Louis up into the forest into Micmac burial grounds to bury it. Later that day, Louis finds that the cat is brought back from the dead, but doesn't tell his family about anything that happened.

"Church wasn't supposed to get killed because he was inside the magic circle of the family" (King 121).

Louis is in denial about the loss of Church and can't understand why it had happened. Just recently before Church's death Louis tried to explain to his daughter Ellie that Church could die and the concept of death when really Louis doesn't seem to handle it himself. Ellie is upset after going to the pet cemetery and begins questioning death and if her cat will die. His wife Rachel wants to keep everything hushed about death because she doesn't want to upset Ellie and because she has a bad past with death.

"The way she was crying in there just now," Rachel said, gesturing toward the door to his office with a batter-covered spoon, " do you think it's just a pet cemetery to her? It's going to leave a scar, Lou. No. She's not going up there anymore. It's not the path, it's the place. Here she is already thinking Church is going to die" (King 53).

Both Louis and his wife Rachel struggle with telling their children about the overall concept of death. Is it wrong to keep such things a secret from Ellie? Remember, Ellie is only in kindergarten and doesn't know any better. Also, Rachel has a bad past with death as well. She hasn't coped with the loss of her sister Zelda. Rachel is still tormented years and years later. Can she really be expected to tell her daughter about something she can't grasp?

"I knew that her ghost would hate me like she did, but her ghost wouldn't be stuck in bed, so I screamed.. I screamed and I ran out of the house screaming 'Zelda's dead! Zelda's dead! Zelda's dead!' And the neighbors . . . they came and they looked . . . they saw me running down the street with my blouse all ripped out under the arms . . . I was yelling 'Zelda's dead!' Louis, and I guess maybe they thought I was crying but I think . . . I think maybe I was laughing, Louis. I think maybe that's what i was doing" (King 207).