Firestarter

“A little grunt of effort escaped her, and she bit down on her lower lip, liking the way it squeezed under her teeth. No, there was no pain involved. It felt good to shove things, and that was another thing that scared her. Suppose she got to like this dangerous thing?”

Charlie’s pyrokinesis is presented as dangerous, particularly in the way that it feels good. Morally, Charlie is worried that her ability subverts what her parents have instilled in her. It also represents self-fulfillment, which will be possible after she comes of age. This passage foreshadows her transformation.

“Pretty girls could get away with this; if it had been Duane’s day on the front desk, he could not have done. Cap was not a supporter of women’s liberation.”

Cap infantilizes the women who work at the front desk, which is in line with how he is portrayed as a villain. King uses free indirect discourse, enmeshing Cap’s thoughts about “pretty girls” within the text. This offers readers an insight into the paternal, patronizing figures who make up the governing authorities. Cap’s emphatic stance against women’s liberation suggests a governing body that is out of touch and does not care for the rights of its citizenry.

“A surprisingly wide range of phenomena: precognition, telekinesis, mental domination, bursts of super-human strength, temporary control over the sympathetic nervous system.”

Dr. Wanless summarizes the parapsychological phenomena that, at the time of King’s composition, people believed comprised human extra-sensory abilities. King, through Wanless, recites the abilities that speak to controlling others, underscoring the Shop’s primary interest.