Quitters, Inc.
Stephen King
Conflict
The center conflict of the short story "Quitters, Inc." The tittle represents this story very well. This story is about a man, Mr Morrison, who talks to his friend about how to quit smoking. His friend, Jimmy McCann, gives him this card of a place that is supposedly guaranteed for you to quit smoking. Mr. Morrison questions why he hadn't heard about this and learns it is because it is only advertised "by word of mouth." He goes in for an appointment and they have him sign a contract and make a deal with him, they will make it so he stops smoking but they have to watch him 18 hours a day and if he smokes someone close to him will get hurt. Through out the story he struggles with not smoking. The story centers around Mr. Morrison's internal conflict: his deciding to not smoke in order to make his family and friends safe.
Characters
Morrison
Morrison is the protagonist in the story. He is presented with a way to quit smoking and it is guaranteed to work. The catch to this way to quit smoking is if he does smoke someone around him will get hurt. He is a curious, impatient man who doesn't want to listen to people other than himself. His actions end up getting people round him hurt. Morrison is very impatient, "All right. But is better be good."(6.) This shows how unamused with the whole situation is and impatient Morrison is.
Donatti
Dlonatti is the man who is helping Morrison quit smoking. He is a very serious man and mysterious man. He makes Morrison sign all these documents just for him to quit smoking. The way he has Morrison quit smoking is very tricky he tricks him so that if he smokes someone around him will get hurt. He is a tricky and mysterious man. "He curled his right hand into a first and began to hammer it."(6.) The it in the quote was cigarettes. This shows he doesn't put up with anything.
Jimmy
Jimmy is a happy friend of Morison who already used this method to quit. He is happy and willing to help. When he tried this he smoked and his wife got hurt. She got hurt by getting her pinky finger getting cut off. He is very kind and thinks of others,"So do you" but Morrison knew it was a lie."(1.) In this part of the story Jimmy just told Morrison he looked great although he didn't, Jimmy did this because this gives Morrison some sort of an ego boost.
Plot Line
Exposition: Jimmy tells Morrison all about this way of quitting while they are in an airport. Morrison questions it at first but then he decides to try it.
Rising action: Morrison goes to his first sessions and meets Donatti. He is warned not to smoke or someone around him will be hurt.
Climax: Morrison decides to smoke and that he can't go without it. Once he smokes his wife gets electrocuted.
Falling Action: Morrison gets told he must lose a certain amount of weight
Resolution: Morrison meets up with Jimmy after he quits and meets his wife, he notices his wife was missing a pinky.
Figurative Language.
In the story "Quitters Inc." there is many use of figurative language. One use of figurative language is when Morrison is describing Donatti, "The smile looked all most predatory." This means that Morrison thinks Donatti looks hostile, he knows he wants to help him but is that really his true intention? This figurative language adds to the story because it gives the reader a way to depict Donatti's character.
Theme
The major theme of "Quitters Inc." is Bad actions come in consequence. what this means is if you do something bad there will be a consequence. This is very similar to karma, if you do something bad something bad will happen to you. In this story Richard Morrison is trying to quit smoking so when he smokes his bad action had to come with a consequence. His consequence was that his wife was electrocuted.
Compelling Aspect
The most compelling moment of the story is when Richard Morrison smokes. Once he smoked many thoughts ran through my head like, what is going to happen? Who will get hurt? Will more than one people get hurt? Will he get Hurt? What will Donatti do? All these thoughts ran through my head from the time he smoked until his wife got electrocuted. I could not read that part fast enough because I was dying to know what is going to happen. This was the most compelling aspect of the story,"Quitters Inc."