Vampires
Vampires! They're not just evil bloodsuckers lusting after your blood. They're symbols. Allegories. Bleak avatars of sense hiding behind the blank windows of silence. They mean stuff: listen or los...
The Marsten House
Much like the vampires, the Marsten House is a symbol of evil. Hubie Marsten was a horrible man who killed many, many people, and the novel suggests that that evil lives on after him, that all of h...
The Cross
The cross is the symbol of the church. It's the symbol of God. As Barlow says, it's "the symbol of White" (14.277). Matt uses a cross to frighten away Mike Ryerson; Ben uses a cross made out of ton...
Allusions
There are a lot of allusions in this novel. (See our "Shout-Outs" for the deets.) There are enough allusions that Shmoop's evil curved claws got evil curved cramps typing them all in. On every page...
Opening
Early on in the novel, Ben tells Susan a ghost story. When he was a kid in 'Salem's Lot, he went into the Marsten House on a dare and walked up the stairs to the room where Marsten hanged himself....