“‘I don’t want Church to ever be dead! He’s my cat! He’s not God’s cat! Let God have His own cat! Let God have all the damn old cats He wants, and kill them all! Church is mine!’”

         Considering the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no better time to read Stephen King’s 1983 novel Pet Sematary and Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. Currently, my cat Shealot is fourteen years old and rather ill, and each day may be her last. Consequently, this quote from King has entered my mind more in the past week than during my first read of the novel this summer. Considering that Shealot may not even survive until Christmas, I am constantly filled with a state of fear and unease, just like the characters struggling in these novels.

         Pet Sematary discusses the challenge of death for any age group. The novel starts with the protagonist, Louis, watching a college student die in front of him in the university’s health center where he works; this particular death is quite gruesome and leaves the main character traumatized on his first official day on the job. Louis then must grieve over the death of his daughter’s cat, his infant son, and his neighbor. Losing a pet is an extremely painful process, at least for me. Losing a family member is even more painful than the loss of a pet. Losing my grandfather was the most painful experience I have ever endured. I know that the only reason I was able to overcome this ordeal is because I was able to rely on God. If I did not have my faith, I know that I would have taken my own life.

         The characters in King’s novel tend to experience a similar sense of guilt and despair. However, King makes it obvious that Louis’s family is not a Christian family and does not seem to have any form of faith to hold onto during these times of loss for his daughter’s cat and his own son. These deaths are extremely hard on Louis and Rachel’s oldest child, Ellie, who is only five years old at the time. When Louis attempts to teach her about death, she responds with the opening quote. She is too young to understand the permanence of death and its repercussions. Considering her age, she seems to process this concept a bit too quickly to sound believable.

         Due to the pandemic, many people have passed in the recent months. The CDC website says that since January 21, 2020 there have been 256,840 deaths in the United States. There are roughly twelve million cases in the United States, but only a small number of deaths in comparison. My church is currently experiencing a great deal of loss since most of the members are elderly and have come in contact with the virus.

In addition to worrying about Shealot like King’s Ellie worried about Church, I am also stuck in a house with my parents. My parents are kind people; however, they argue constantly, and I cannot help but feel a bit like Jonathan, the protagonist of Dracula. As Jonathan travels to Count Dracula’s castle to meet the vampire, he asks himself the following question: “What sort of grim adventure was it on which I had embarked?” This is another quote which has been circulating in my mind for some time. Being sent home to my parents is one of the most frustrating experiences I have endured since attending Gettysburg College. I cannot tolerate staying at home where I constantly hear my father grow angry over extremely simple things and intentionally antagonize my mother. Granted, she occasionally starts arguments with him too. However, I have reached the point where this mindless bickering is driving me insane. I miss my friends and the peace and quiet of my motel room. I am incredibly thankful that my grandmother lives close to us, allowing me the opportunity to study down at her house.

Jonathan, a real estate agent, is trying to help Count Dracula purchase a house in London. The protagonist has no idea that Count Dracula is actually a vampire; he merely believes that the man is odd and has strange habits. As the novel progresses, Jonathan realizes that he and his loved ones are in severe danger. Mina--Jonathan’s fiancée--and her friend Lucy are unsure of who else could be a vampire and how to protect themselves until they meet Dr. Van Helsing who is able to offer them help and protection. Jonathan is initially unable to protect his fiancée from being trapped in Count Dracula’s castle since he is extremely ill.

Once people begin to change into vampires, they become weak and ill. The only way these transformed vampires can be cured is via blood transfusion. If these vampires are unable to change back within a short amount of time, the only way to stop them is by murdering them. Those who have learned that vampires are walking among them have grown quite paranoid since they cannot tell who is infected and who is not.

         “The Dialectic of Fear” by Franco Moretti is an essay which focuses on the economy and discusses what made Frankenstein’s monster and Dracula truly terrifying. Moretti tends to focus on money and capitalism when approaching these monsters. However, humanity has no idea what the future has in store; as Moretti says , “[B]ecause the monster expresses the anxiety that the future will be monstrous.”  Humans may not know what the future holds, yet they still fear the unknown. Whether this fear is due to the economy or the health of humanity, this fear constantly lurks just out of sight.

COVID-19 is not an obvious disease like the Black Plague. Some people are even asymptomatic, but still transmit the disease. The virus is dangerous because its location is constantly unknown, just as “Stoker’s Dracula can be everywhere and nowhere.” The virus is similar to Dracula in that sense, since no one in the novel can easily locate the vampire. Even the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing never knew Dracula’s exact location, nor did Jonathan, who ended up living with the vampire for several months. Erik Butler’s novel Metamorphoses of the Vampire in Literature and Film: Cultural Transformations in Europe discusses the ideas of “imposters,” which were derived from Stoker’s use of the word. These imposters create an alienation or separation from people who appear to be like them. For example, most of these articles discuss authority figures or tax collectors who are unjustly draining money from people.

         On the contrary, people infected with COVID-19 may also face this same sort of discrimination. Infected people are forced to quarantine for two weeks until they are well enough to work again. Coworkers and family members of an infected person may also have to go through the testing process to make sure that they have not caught the virus.

King’s novel also addresses the concept of “otherness.” If a family member were infected with COVID-19, that person would feel like a foreigner. Count Dracula may have also felt like a foreigner since he continuously changed locations to avoid suspicion. When Jonathan returned from Count Dracula’s castle, he was dazed and confused from being trapped there for numerous months. He may have had a similar sensation. The family may grow scared of becoming sick themselves. This infected family member may have to quarantine in their house: “The containment, which houses within the space of the family both the familiar and the unfamiliar.” This virus is foreign to people; the fear of the unknown eats at people and causes them great anxiety. This fear is what caused the quarantine and remote learning to occur.

Similar to previous diseases and outbreaks, the fear of COVID-19 will also come to an end, in time. COVID-19 is a serious disease, but the death rate is incredibly low compared to those who have been infected by the illness, just like those in Dracula who ended up becoming vampires. Though Count Dracula is believed to have attacked many people, there were few who actually transformed.

Death is a tragic thing, but it is a part of life. People cannot and should not be able to come back from beyond the grave (although, Louis may disagree). Whether these people are undead or merely buried on spiritual grounds, the people who cared about them must learn to let go and move on.

         Now is the time to move forward, not dwell on one’s fear or the past. Humanity will never progress and improve if it chooses to lock itself away until this virus passes. Life is short and this virus may take years to pass. Count Dracula’s hold on his converted subjects did not vanish overnight. COVID-19 is a bit like vampirism: humans may not be afraid of becoming infected with the disease, but they are afraid of death. Humans are unable to comprehend death and they tend to be afraid of things that they cannot comprehend. Pet Sematary also presents a similar train of thought. People fear death and they do not want to abandon those who matter to them.

         These novels have important underlying messages; however, they both struggle when they discuss women. The women in these novels are written as rather static characters. They are only involved as catalysts to advance the plot when they could have easily been autonomous characters. They were only created to prove their husbands’ or fiancés’ strength and bravery. They function as a foil to their significant others. The women also create a sense of sympathy because the reader may pity the men who have to rescue them. Both novels present women as delicate creatures who are unable to care for themselves without the aid of a man. Mina and Lucy were easily manipulated by their fiancés and, of course, Count Dracula. Rachel was terrified of death and was easily swayed to follow Louis’ insane ideas due to her fear. At times, the extent that their respective authors went into detail for a certain scene felt rather excessive. Some of Stoker’s descriptions were unnecessary. In addition to King’s famous sex scenes that have little to do with the actual plot. However, these novels show that fear can be a powerful motivator and that humanity, as a whole, will permanently struggle with the fear of death. Although neither of these novels portray women realistically, they are both worth reading and provide useful insight. They provide readers with a way to reflect on human nature. The plot of each is incredibly creative, and the questions these novels raise are unique from other novels of their respective eras.

       These two novels can distract the reader from the pandemic, and allow him/her to focus on the thought of immortality, providing a sort of escapism that the world is not offering right now. Considering that the entertainment industry has not been as active recently in creating new novels and movies, now is the perfect time to turn to the classics. If the classics do not suit the reader, the reader can turn instead to a book which is almost forty years old and contemplate an issue that circulated the minds of man during the AIDS era. In Pricsilla Wald’s novel, Contagion, she writes about the spread of disease and society’s view on cleanliness. Wald writes: 

             “The media treatment of superspreaders survived the scientific refutation of the concept, fueled by the regular appearance of their more notorious predecessors. The Times piece, for example, explained that ‘“Gaetan Dugas, the gay airline attendant blamed for much of the early spread of AIDS.’” 

            Many people died then, and it was obvious from the news coverage at the time that these people were sincerely missed. The same holds true with COVID-19. However, this virus is not as deadly as AIDS, yet spreads a great deal faster than AIDS. People are dying from COVID-19 on a daily basis around the world, but if humanity does not try to move forward, this pandemic may never pass.

Both of these novels focus on the fear of loss and death. The novels mention how people, who try to move forward, feel that they are giving up on those they care about. Fear is a strong motivator which explains why these novels have such a strong following after all these years since their publications. Humans may never truly learn to let go of fear and move forward. There will always be a new “monster” lurking just out of sight. However, if humanity--and specifically the United States--can look past COVID-19, then perhaps life can feel a bit more “normal.” At the minimum, perhaps life will feel more like it did before the pandemic.

To conclude, COVID-19 is serious and should be avoided, but there is no reason for the entire world to be shut down over a mere sickness which infects more than it actually kills. Humans should not fear death, for death is unavoidable. Humans must learn to cope with this loss and choose to focus on the future instead of the past. Nothing useful is derived from dwelling on the past. Humanity continues to progress, and that progression should not stop. Why do people dwell on the past? Why are people  afraid of the unknown? How can people focus on the future?