How Heavy are the Chains Holding Down our Monsters?

According to Stephen King, “If you don't control your temper, your temper will control you.” In other words, if you can't muster the power to take control of your emotions, it will turn you into a monster, leaving desolation in your wake. Have you ever asked yourself,  "Is that's all it takes? Does that mean that having a sentimental fit, turns you into something of nightmares?" In some ways, it can be both yes and no. What we can say for sure however, is that there's a beast inside all of us. Whether we like it or not, we have to force ourselves to accept that something or someone is there. It's slumbering in the bottom of our gut, ruling over our decisions at the roll of the dice. For Junior Rennie, there is no problem in accepting that his beast is in control, as he is his own monster. In Under the Dome by Stephen King, Junior is introduced to the readers as the classic, "troubled kid with a troubled past" archetype. However, as Junior's story starts to unfold, as he begins to pave his own path, the readers can begin to understand what exactly Junior is. Junior's identity began to develop with the killing of his childhood friend Angie, along with killing Dodee, Angie's friend, and has yet to come to a close. With an unexplainable dome caging Junior, and all the people of Chester Mill, trapping their hate, insecurities, and despair, it's only a matter of time until the monsters can't bear being behind bars any longer. People can relate to Junior's constant battle with the the monster hiding within himself. However, people also need to be able to control their emotions, and prevent those emotions from turning them into devilish creatures. 

Junior is a perfect example of how people are in the present. Sometimes when the chains of society and responsibilities are no longer in place to weigh us down, we let our monster run rampant and take over. When Junior decided to follow trough with the murders of Angie and Dodee, although he didn't know it at the time, but he had completely stripped away what was left of his humanity. He let one emotion take over, and use him, sucking out his personality, and leaving behind something dastardly. He had expressed such brutality in his actions, that it was hard to differentiate between the "Junior" we knew, to the savage we were now forced to trust was Junior. As he tried to reach the comfort of his home, his safe place, he felt like a thief or a ghost. Junior was tiptoeing through, as an intruder to the only place that accepted him for who he was. As he climbed into bed, slipping under the covers, he remembered performing a similar gesture as a kid to hide away from monsters. On this occasion however, Junior was was trying to hide from himself, and what he had become, as he was the monster. This shows that Junior doesn't really belong anywhere. There must have been some point in his life when everything turned to crap, and the only way he found comfort was forcing people to feel empathetic. If someone was dead, then they would have to be able to understand what it was like to feel dead. Furthermore, Stephen King suggesting that Junior tries to hide from himself demonstrates that he is so far gone that he can't run away or hide from the thing that he has become. 

In today's day and age, we are surrounded by people who make us feel small. In Junior's case, that was Angie. We try to find ways to deal with these people, however, sometimes the chains that keep our monsters at bay can snap, and we lose jurisdiction over our emotions. Some people's chains are thicker than others, and for some there are more numerous, and weaker chains to hold our creatures down. In other words, we all have the potential to break the boundaries of our self-control and become someone we don't recognize. This can also push us to make irrational decisions, as it pushed Junior to thinking that committing suicide, and leaving the face of the Earth was going to help people, as he was protecting people from himself. However, this mindset only complicated things. 

According to Stephen King, “If you can't laugh when things go bad--laugh and put on a little carnival--then you're either dead or wishing you were.” In other words, when things start to turn to crap, or if someone is making us feel small and we can't laugh it off, we change on the inside. We want to erase ourselves from the equation and wish we were never put on paper. We may feel like there is nothing left of who we are, or who we once were. Or maybe that we can't control the simple things in life like our feelings. However, having this mindset is the very thing that makes our monster stronger and more able to assert its dominance, instead of the other way around. Ultimately. we must ask ourselves if our monster have the power to control us, or if we have the power to control it.