The novel “Under the Dome” by Stephen King was published for the first time in 2009.
Chester’s Mill is a normal Maine town until one day a transparent dome covers it completely. Its origin is unknown and the only activity it shows is to blow up all the electronic devices that get too close, otherwise it’s a passive barrier that seems impossible to breach.
Chester’s Mill’s isolation immediately becomes an opportunity for James “Big Jim” Rennie, one of the city’s selectmen, to assert his power. Taking advantage of the weaknesses of the other selectmen and the death of the police chief, whose pacemaker exploded near the Dome, he quickly turns the police into his personal militia. Dale “Barbie” Barbara, an ex military man, and Julia Shumway, the owner of the city newspaper, are among the few who oppose him.
Stephen King started developing the idea behind “Under the Dome” in 1972 but abandoned it and the manuscript got lost. He tried again a decade later but again he wasn’t happy with the result and published some parts only in 2009 to show that he didn’t copy the concept of the Dome from “The Simpsons Movie” (2007), in which Springfield is covered by a transparent dome.
The idea is to describe the behavior of people who are suddenly trapped inside a dome whose origin and nature are impossible to understand and nobody knows if and when it will disappear. Initially, the event generates chaos, partly because some people are victims of the consequences of the Dome’s appearance and there are families that get split because part of the population was out of town.
The novel describes a progressive takeover by Big Jim Rennie, who apparently is a used car salesman who never misses the opportunity to show that he’s a good Christian. Among his works there was a fundraiser to build a new church for Chester’s Mill’s population, which was actually also financed with Big Jim’s second activity, the production and traffic of methamphetamine. Big Jim interprets the Dome’s appearance as a divine sign, a blessing of his plans.
Big Jim Rennie is inspired to Dick Cheney and Chester’s first selectman, the weak and incompetent Andy Sanders, is inspired to George W. Bush. Despite this, the political element is not heavy because Stephen King develops “Under the Dome” mainly through dynamics based on personal relationships among the various characters. The story takes place in a small town where everyone knows each other so there’s a complex network of relationships with several people who owe Big Jim favors and he immediately starts taking advantage of that after the Dome’s appearance.
“Big Jim” Rennie’s main enemy is Dale “Barbie” Barbara, an ex soldier who lived for a while at Chester’s Mill. The two antagonists’ nicknames are a touch of humor from Stephen King. Barbie wanted to leave the city after a fight with Big Jim’s son, a thug who doesn’t know he has a brain tumor that’s making him more and more violent, and his friends but is stuck because of the Dome. His former senior officer, Colonel James Fox, gets in touch with him again to try to resolve the situation in the city but the US military seems powerless against the Dome.
The military’s inability to break through the Dome only stimulates Big Jim Rennie’s plans so he expands the local police by using it as a personal militia. The science fiction element is used by Stephen King above all to develop what is in some ways a dystopia in which a quiet town turns very quickly into a dictatorship. The new policemen are petty and unintelligent people who take advantage of the power they received and act like criminals.
There are many characters in “Under the Dome” but only a few are really developed. Many of them represent the various reactions to the Dome’s appearance, from those who are manipulated by Big Jim Rennie to those who panic, from those who oppose Big Jim to those who seek a way to break through the Dome or find its origin. This really gives the impression that it’s the story of a whole city, on the other hand it’s sometimes quite heavy so in particular readers who love really articulate stories will like it.
The ending probably reflects Stephen King’s opinion of the damage a certain type of politician can do. As for the science fiction element, who knows if it reflects his opinion on how much human affairs matter in a perspective much broader than the Earth?
A few years ago a TV show was produced from “Under the Dome” but there are various differences in the characters and above all the plot is developed in a very different way. Personally I found it absolutely mediocre, with many the plot often forced.
In my opinion, “Under the Dome” is not among Stephen King’s best novels but if you’re not afraid of very long books and stories that sometimes are really brutal you might like it.
