Rage (King novel)

Plot summary

Charlie Decker, a Maine high school senior, is called to a meeting with his principal about a previous incident in which he struck his chemistry teacher with a pipe wrench, leading to the teacher's hospitalization and Charlie's suspension. For unknown reasons, Charlie subjects the principal to a series of insulting remarks, resulting in his expulsion. Charlie storms out of the office and retrieves a pistol from his locker, then sets the contents of his locker on fire. He then returns to his classroom and fatally shoots his algebra teacher. The fire triggers an alarm, but Charlie forces his classmates to stay in the room, killing another teacher when he enters. As the other students and teachers evacuate the school, the police and media arrive at the scene.

Over the following four hours, Charlie toys with various authority figures who attempt to negotiate with him, including the principal, the school psychologist, and the local police chief. Charlie gives them certain commands, threatening to kill students if they do not comply. Charlie also admits to his hostages that he does not know what has compelled him to commit his deeds, believing he will regret them when the situation is over. As his fellow students start identifying with Charlie, he unwittingly turns his class into a sort of psychotherapy group, causing his schoolmates to semi-voluntarily tell embarrassing secrets regarding themselves and each other.

Interspersed throughout are narrative flashbacks to Charlie's troubled childhood, particularly his tumultuous relationship with his abusive father. Several notable incidents include a violent disagreement between two female students and a police sniper's attempt to shoot Charlie through the heart. However, Charlie survives due to the bullet's striking his locker's combination lock, which he had earlier placed in the breast pocket of his shirt.

Charlie finally comes to the realization that only one student is really being held against his will: a seeming "Big Man On Campus" named Ted Jones, who is harboring his own secrets. Ted realizes this and attempts to escape the classroom, but the other students brutally assault him, driving him into a battered catatonic state. At 1:00 p.m., Charlie releases the students, but Ted is unable to move under his own power and remains. When the police chief enters the classroom, the now-unarmed Charlie moves as if to shoot him, attempting suicide by cop. The chief shoots Charlie, but he survives and is found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a psychiatric hospital in Augusta, Maine until he can answer for his actions.

The final chapters contain an inter-office memo concerning Ted's treatment and prognosis at the hospital where he is now a patient, and a letter from one of Charlie's friends describing assorted developments in the students' lives during the months following this incident. The story ends with Charlie addressing the reader: "That's the end. I have to turn off the light now. Good night."

Connections to actual school shootings

The novel's plot vaguely resembles actual events that have transpired since the book's publication, to such a degree that the author is no longer comfortable with the book's being in print for fear that it may inspire similar occurrences ("[Rage is] now out of print.") as it had already been associated with incidents of high school shootings and hostage takings:

End of publication

When King decided to let Rage fall out of print in the United States, it remained available only as part of The Bachman Books. In contrast, the other novels that appeared in that compilation - The Long Walk, Roadwork, and The Running Man - are available separately in the USA. Rage remained available in the United Kingdom and other countries in The Bachman Books for a time, but later appeared to become unavailable. New editions of The Bachman Books do not include Rage.

In a footnote to the preface of the novel Blaze, dated 30 January 2007, King wrote of Rage: "Now out of print, and a good thing."

King said, in his keynote address at the VEMA Annual Meeting on May 26, 1999: "The Carneal incident was enough for me. I asked my publisher to take the damned thing out of print. They concurred." King went on to describe his view on this subject, which acknowledged the role that cultural or artistic products such as Rage play in influencing individuals, particularly troubled youths, while also declaring that artists and writers should not be denied the aesthetic opportunity to draw upon their own culture—which is suffused with violence, according to King—in their work. King went on to describe his inspiration for stories such as Rage, which drew heavily upon his own frustrations and pains as a high school student.

In an article on the ominous writings of Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho for Entertainment Weekly, King said: "Certainly in this sensitized day and age, my own college writing—including a short story called 'Cain Rose Up' and the novel Rage—would have raised red flags, and I'm certain someone would have tabbed me as mentally ill because of them..." After the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, he elaborated in a non-fiction essay, titled "Guns" (2013), on why he let Rage go out of print. King's website states: "All profits from 'Guns' will benefit the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence."