Important Quotes Explained

1.      “The steps ended directly behind him. Silence. A cold hand fell on Louis’s shoulder. Rachel’s voice was grating, full of dirt.

    ‘Darling,’ it said.” –Epilogue

Despite the warnings and everything that has happened, Louis buries his wife at the Indian burial ground. This demonstrates the state of mind someone is in after a loss of someone so important to them; doing something, without thinking. Louis was dealing with a lot of pain and that made it almost impossible to think rationally, so he did something irrational and dangerous. Also king’s use of pronouns for Rachel is very significant in this passage. Rather than using “she”, he uses “it”. This would mean that whatever is there, is not human and not his wife. This demonstrates what king has been trying to say throughout the whole novel; you can never truly bring your loved ones back to you, so the best thing you can do is move on for the ones that care for you deeply. That was a message that Louis never received earlier on.

2.      “What you buy is what you own, and sooner or later what you own will come back to you, Louis Creed thought. “-Epilogue

Louis is saying that you have a price to pay for everything you do, and someday those consequences will come back to you. Louis knows that there will be consequences, but it does not mean he is in regret. This passage shows irrationality mentally with people who have suffered a great loss. Rather than thinking rationally and having the ability to do all the necessary things to stop what he’s doing to protect his daughter, he does the complete opposite. This quote doesn’t just help to characterize Louis, but society has a whole after they have suffered a tragic loss that may have been hard to move on from.

3.      “Sometimes dead is better”

This quote leads us into Jud’s view on death. Unlike Louis, he accepts death and knows the effects of burying the dead in the pet semetary. He would rather remember them for what they did before they died, rather than what they do afterwards. Obviously because after they are brought back, they are evil beings set out to kill everything in their path. His view on view on bringing the dead back through the semetary is that he’d rather remember them for being something in good in life, rather than something evil after they are brought back.

4.      “Don’t go beyond, no matter how much you feel you need to, Doctor. The barrier was not made to be broken. Remember this: there is more power here than you know. It is old and always restless. Remember.” 

The spirit of Victor Pascow, a student who died in Louis’ office after getting hit by a car, came back, from the dead, to warn Louis about the dangers of the semetary. This quote’s purpose is meant to not only foreshadow something, but to give a warning. Obviously he knows something that Louis doesn’t, so he wants to make sure it’s not too late to possibly change what he is about to do. This quote also shows how despite the warnings given to  him by spirits, and even the warnings Jud had made, wasn't enough to change Louis’s decision to bury Gage there on the Indian burial ground in the first place because the only thing that matters to him is getting his family back. This quote helps support the author’s view on the lengths and extent people would go through, in order to have their loved ones back to them.