Language and Meaning

One of the trademarks of King’s writing is his use of dialects and slang to differentiate his characters. For instance, Gary in “The Man in the Black Suit” demonstrates the bad grammar typical of a young boy with his use of a double negative: “Promise not to go no further than where it forks, ma’am” (48). Gary’s mother corrects his grammar. It can be inferred that it is a low-level hospital worker who has been sent to stop Howard’s autopsy based on the dropped consonants and relaxed pronunciation of the uneducated: “Holy shit, doc, whatja tryin to do? Stroke im back to life?” (14). The sisters in the story “The Little Sisters of Eluria” also have speech patterns that differentiate them from the others. Consider: “How speedy ye are!” (174). These sisters use “ye” in place of you. This is also seen in this quote: “What do’ee mean by that?” (174). "Do’ee" is a contraction for "do ye" in this case.