The Exorcist

“It was the green stone head of the demon Pazuzu, personification of the southwest wind. Its dominion was sickness and disease.”

The Prologue introduces the demon Pazuzu. Uncovered in the desert, Pazuzu is a force of nature, an ancient and terrible figure that will bring corruption and putrefaction to a young girl’s life. Trying to battle it will be akin to trying to fight the wind.

“Rats in the attic, for pete’s sake! Rats!”

As she reads a script in bed, Chris hears a scratching sound from Regan’s room. Investigating, she blames the noise on rats in the attic. The rats are a striking image: Rats are commonly regarded as carriers of the plague, a harbinger of death and suffering. The scratching sound foreshadows the nightmare that coming to the MacNeil house when the demon (an unseen contagion) takes over Regan’s body.

“Chris did not believe that Burke was either an alcoholic or a hopeless problem drinker, but rather than he drank because it was expected of him: he was living up to his legend.”

Burke seems to be an eloquent yet disruptive alcoholic who erupts into anger and destroys property. Chris sees that Burke drinks in order to live up to this reputation—and she is eager to thus absolve her friend of clear wrongdoing. Chris’s unwillingness to confront Burke foreshadows her inability to be face to face with the possessed Regan.