1. Important characters in the short story are.
Mike Enslin who is the main protagonist of the story, is the author of three best selling books , Ten Haunted Houses, Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Graveyards and Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Castles. Mr.Enslin was looking to continue this series by writing Ten Nights in Haunted Hotels. This is why he becomes interested in room 1408.
Gerald Olin is the hotel manager of the Hotel Dolphin on 61st Street in New York City, he tries to convince Mr.Enslin that room 1408 is best avoided while telling him of all the deaths related to people of have encountered the room.
Sam Farrell is Mike's agent who under the rules of the state of New York gets Mike room 1408 through a lawyer. No person shall be denied a room if a room is vacant even if it is haunted.
Rufus Dearborn is the character walking the halls of the 13th floor who went to fetch ice and ultimately saved Mike Enslin's life. Mr.Dearborn dumps ice on Mike who had set himself on fire in order to escape room 1408.
Kevin O'Malley is the first suicide occupant of room 1408. He killed himself by jumping from the 13th floor. He was the first of many deaths related to occupying room 1408.
A concept that should be noted is that room 1408 seems to have a mind of its own.
2. Mike Enslin who is the main protagonist of the story is looking to write a book about haunted hotels to add to his other best selling haunted books. He himself is not a believer of the supernatural or the paranormal but still visits many haunted sites. Mike uses a tape recorder when he visits all these haunted places instead of taking notes. He finds that using a tape recorder he better able to capture to emotion. Upon arriving at the Dolphin Hotel, Mike is greeted by Mr.Olin the hotel manager. There they begin to small chat. After a while Mr.Olin tries to convince Mike not to stay in room 1408 as no one has stayed there since 1978. Despite this fact Mike insists on staying the night in room 1408. Upon arriving on the 13th floor his legs are heavier then usual and his tounge can't seem to come up.. As he walks toward his room he notices that the door appears to be crooked leaning to the left. He then looks at the door again which appears to be straight and upright. Shortly after he looks again and it appears to be crooked again (though this time leaning to the right instead of the left). Before entering the room he notices a security camera towards the end of the hall. This leads to his assumption that Mr.Olin only wanted to scare him for a simple joke. Upon entering the room, Mike takes out his tape recorder and his observations into it. He then walks over to a table and picks up a box of matches and puts it in his pocket. After he notices a menu on the bed. At first he reads the breakfast menu and thinks it is in French, then in Russian, then in Italian and then he sees it in English. Then things became chaotic from there. The pictures on the wall came to life with a lady showing ravage teeth. Mike saw a picture where he never saw one before. He begins to run for the door only to realize he is unable to escape. He reaches for the phone and picks it up and hears the words, "This is nine! This is nine! Nine! This is ten! Ten! We have killed your friends! Every friend is now dead! This is six! Six!". There Mike began to panic and picked up the matches he had pocketed before and set himself on fire. There he was able to escape the room and ended up in the hallway where Mr.Dearborn poured ice on his engulfed body. After his stay in room 1408 Mike was forever traumatized. The reason the story came about was through Mike's audio recording that Sam Farrell had found. All the detailed audio snippets of the chaotic stay in room 1408 is what lingered in the mind of Mike Enslin.
3. Question for discussion.
What was the voice on the telephone that yelled out "This is nine! This is nine! Nine! This is ten! Ten! We have killed your friends! Every friend is now dead! This is six! Six!". Ultimately what was room 1408 that drove people to suicide and people to there "natural deaths"?
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4 comments:
I enjoyed the way you wrote your blog. Your technique reminded me of someone elses style. I just can't seem to figure out who!
The voice in the telephone was the room, yelling out how many people it has killed. There is not enough information to even begin to speculate on what the the room is. My theory is that maybe before the room became like this something horrible happened in the room, or maybe a series of incidences. The room became saturated with grief and terror and finally developed its own personality. Since it was born from grief and terror that is all it knows and that is what it causes in those who inhabit the room. Over all though there is no way to tell what is actually in the room.
Room 1408 is a puzzle. The story like Alexandra said does not provide enough information to make a conclusion about concerning the events that took place in the room. I would personally argue that the room represents one's conscience. A lot of people refuse to reconize their conscience and simply act by instinct. The room represents the leap into consciouness, where one can review his actions. I think that these people realize all the wrong that they've done and either had to kill themselves or die from the this revelation.
Room 1408 definitly provides readers with a great sense of thrill and horror. I was a bit horrifyed reading this article and watching the movie. I would certaintly not want to see dead human figures in the room nor see things moving! Like everyone had said, I agree with the fact that the room created it's own personality and that it absorbed all the incidents that occured within that room. People who committed suicides, the room absorbed the scene and acts like a memory device where it plays when someone new enters the room. Also to show people who enter that this room has been bad luck for way too long.
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