Gerald's Game

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses sexual assault, child sexual abuse, mutilation, and the desecration of dead bodies.

“Psychologists could be incredibly stupid about many things, almost willfully stupid, it often seemed to her, but about the horrible persistence of some memories she thought they were bang-on. Some memories battened onto a person’s mind like evil leeches, and certain words—stupid and ridiculous, for example—could bring them instantly back to squirming, feverish life.”

This passage is applied to Gerald’s memories of being bullied as a child, but it also foreshadows the significance of such memories to the present moment. As Jessie acknowledges that she is triggering Gerald’s memories with the words “stupid” and “ridiculous,” King also alerts the reader to pay close attention to Jessie’s own memories and the actions and events that trigger them.

“But, and this was odd, another part of her really didn’t want to escape the tilted, foggy corridor at all. This part suggested that she’d be a lot better off staying here. That if she left she’d be sorry. So she did stay for awhile.”

Jessie is caught between the instinct to fight for her survival and the learned behavior of giving up. It is clear that she usually backs down from disagreements with Gerald, but she is now in a position where giving up means dying. Though part of her would prefer to deny the situation at hand, she only allows herself the comfort of giving up for a moment before returning to the present situation.

“The sound of her own screaming voice almost sent her into another panicky, convulsive interlude, and the scariest part wasn’t Gerald’s continued failure to move or respond; it was the realization that the panic was still there, still right there, restlessly circling her conscious mind as patiently as a predator might circle the guttering campfire of a woman who has somehow wandered away from her friends and gotten lost in the deep, dark fastnesses of the woods.”

The language of this passage uses personification to indicate that Jessie’s panic is more like an animal, but the contextual information also conceptualizes this panic as a man preying on a lone woman. Given that Gerald just attempted to assault Jessie, it is fitting that King conceptualizes panic itself as a man. In this moment, King indicates that Jessie’s panic will not be relieved until she can free herself, even if she is able to hold off the panic for brief periods of time.