54 pages • 1 hour read
Stephen KingThe Running Man
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1982A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Running Man
The show The Running Man symbolizes the decay of society, as well as the divide between the crowd and the show’s creators. The crowd is either unaware that it is being manipulated or willing to be manipulated as long as it is entertained. Ben literally has to run as part of the show, and practically everyone in society chases him. Shows are measured by their run time, and The Running Man has a devoted fan base that hopes for longer run times as the contestants survive for greater lengths of time.
When Ben tells Bradley, “The game’s rigged” (161), he is talking both about the show as well as about the perverse system that it represents. Ultimately, he can’t outrun the forces chasing him, and he declines to join them. The Running Man symbolizes a race that cannot be won without great sacrifice and public support. The Running Man also represents the ways in which the corrupt system feeds itself and perpetuates its existence.
Free-Vee
Free-Vee is the name for TV. Its wordplay has disturbing implications. Free-Vee is free, unlike most subscription models providing modern television. However, Free-Vee still has a cost. It controls the population by showing a curated narrative, one that shapes the public’s thoughts. Free-Vee locks people in place during prime time as polluted air fills their lungs. Ben mockingly describes Free-Vee as “the stuff of dreams, the bread of life” (9). Bread and dreams are staples of human existence. In contrast, Free-Vee is frivolous, mindless, and damaging entertainment.
Free-Vee also represents the hidden cost of engaging with an artistic medium without questioning its creators’ motives. The public does not question what they are being shown because they are grateful for a respite from their reality. Television has been a historical scapegoat for many of society’s ills, including lack of reading, diminishing curiosity, and the substitution of watching the lives of others rather than living one’s own. King’s portrayal of Free-Vee takes those negative aspects of the medium to their extremes.
The Games Building
The Games Building is a 100-story structure that symbolizes the perversity of the Network, the public’s support for violent entertainment, and the divide between classes. There is no reason for anyone in the lower classes to approach the building unless they are applying to feed the system that the Games Building represents. The building appears to become personified with human and otherworldly qualities as Ben approaches it. Its appearance reflects the dystopian, monstrous nature of society: “As he got closer to the Games Building it grew taller, more and more improbable with its impersonal tiers of rising office windows, its polished stonework” (10).
As Ben advances through the examinations, he ascends to higher floors. As he reaches each new elevation, he reaches a new level of privilege. By the time he is ready for the show to begin, he is in a suite stocked with room service, books, bourbon, and whatever else he desires.
At one point, Ben asks who he could kill if he went all the way to the top. The top of the building—which houses Killian’s office—represents the highest level of the Network’s corruption. The Games Building reflects the commoditization of violence and the base nature of humanity’s lust for blood. When Ben finally crashes the plane into the building, he destroys the greatest symbol of the Network, igniting the revolution that people like Bradley have been hoping for.
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