English 12Name______
The Body by Stephen King
Chapter 1:
1.What does the narrator say about “the most important things?”
“The hardest things to say are the words you are afraid to say.”
2.How old is the narrator when the events in the story take place? What year is it?
Gordon LeChance is twelve and the year is 1960.
Chapter 2:
1.Describe the tree house. What doe the boys do there?
In a big elm, which overhung a vacant lot. It was a social club to play cards, smoke cigarettes, and read magazines. It had planks on the side of the tree house, a corrugated tin roof, rusty screen door, planks on the side of the tree house, and a secret compartment in the floor to hide stuff.
2.Describe teddy Duchamp and his history.
He is 12 years old, weird, with thick glasses and hearing aides. He couldn’t see very well and misunderstood what people said to him. His father held Teddy’s ears over a cast iron burner when he was younger. He has a Beatles haircut to cover his ears because of embarrassment. His father has PTSD from WWII
3.What happened to Gordon’s brother, Dennis?
Dennis was killed in a jeep accident.
4.Who arrives at the tree house? What does he ask the boys?
Vern Tessio comes to ask the boys if they want to go see a dead body.
Chapter 3:
1.What is the Ray Brower Story?
Ray Brower is a boy their age that had gone out with his mother’s pot to pick blueberries. He never came back, and he was reported missing to the sheriff. A search party was started, but he was still missing three days later.
Chapter 4:
1.Why was Vern under the porch?
He was digging for the penny jar he buried when he was eight. He couldn’t find it because his mom burned his map by accident.
2.What does Vern overhear Billy Tessio and Charlie Hogan discussing?
He hears his brother and his brother’s friends discussing the dead body. They say they think the boy got hit by a train. They didn’t report it because they stole a car, and the police would ask how they got out to the body.
Chapter 5:
1.What do the boys decide to do? Why?
They are going to look for the body and report it, so they can be on the news.
2.What do they plan to tell their parents?
They are going to pretend they are camping out together at Vern’s. They will then say they got bored at Vern’s and went to camp in the woods. Chris, Teddy, and Gordie will say they are eating at Vern’s. Vern will say he’s eating at Chris’s house. Neither Chris’s family or Vern’s family have a phone.
3.Describe Chris’ family.
His father is a mean drunk who beats him all the time. His brother Frank ran away from home, joined the Navy, and did jail time for rape and criminal assault. His brother Richard dropped out of school and hung out with friends.
Chapter 6:
1.How does Gordon’s father feel about his son’s friends?
Gordie’s father doesn’t like them. He thinks they are bad company—“a thief and two feebs (feeble). Vern is 12 and in the 5th grade. He judges them.
2.Describe Gordon’s parents.
They are preoccupied with the death of his brother. His father is sad, tired, used, and 63. His mother is 55, had 3 miscarriages, and was told she could not have children. Had Dennis 5 years later and Gordie 10 years later.
3.What is Gordon’s relationship with his parents like?
They were older and didn’t treat him badly. They treated him like an invisible man; they only hear him when he does something wrong. His Dad’s garden is a symbol for his parenting—water too much-Dennis, water too little-Gordie.
4.What is Gordon’s relationship with his brother like?
He didn’t hate him or idolize him. He rarely argued and never had a fist fight. He liked to go places with him. Dennis read him bedtime stories and taught him cribbage. His feelings of love for Dennis were replaced with clinical awe.
5.How did Gordon feel about Dennis’ death?
He felt mildly shocked and mildly sad. He felt he didn’t know Dennis that well because of their age difference.