Summary
In May 1976, Charlie Decker, a high school senior in Placerville, Maine, is called to a meeting with his principal about the cause of his suspension - an incident in which he struck his chemistry teacher with a pipe wrench, leading to the teacher's hospitalization. After repeatedly insulting the principal, he is expelled.
Storming out of the office, Charlie retrieves a pistol from his locker and sets its other contents on fire. Returning to his classroom, he fatally shoots his algebra teacher. The fire triggers an alarm, but Charlie forces his classmates to stay in the room, killing a history teacher when he attempts to enter. As the school evacuates, the police and media arrive.
Over the following four hours, Charlie toys with the authority figures' attempt at negotiation, including the principal, the school psychologist, and the local police chief. Charlie gives them certain commands, threatening to kill students if they do not comply. Charlie admits to his hostages that he does not know what has compelled him to commit his deeds, believing he will regret them when the standoff is over. As his fellow students start identifying with Charlie, he unwittingly turns the class into an impromptu psychotherapy group, causing the participants to semi-voluntarily tell embarrassing secrets regarding themselves and each other.
Interspersed throughout are flashbacks to Charlie's troubled childhood, particularly his tumultuous relationship with his abusive father Carl. As the standoff proceeds, a police sniper attempts to shoot Charlie through the heart. He survives due to having placed the combination lock from his locker in the breast pocket of his shirt.
Charlie finally realizes that only one student is really being held against his will: "Big Man On Campus" Ted Jones, who is harboring his own secrets. Ted also realizes this and attempts to escape the classroom, but the other students brutally assault him. Charlie eventually releases the students except for Ted, who is in a catatonic state. When the police chief enters the classroom, the now-unarmed Charlie feigns reaching for his pistol, leading the chief to shoot him. Charlie survives the shooting and, in August 1976, is declared insane and committed to a psychiatric hospital in Augusta, Maine.
The final chapters contain an inter-office memo concerning Ted's treatment and prognosis at the hospital where he is now a patient, and a letter from one of Charlie's friends describing developments in the students' lives during the months following this incident. The story ends with Charlie addressing the reader: "That's the end. I have to turn off the light now. Good night."
End of publication
When King decided to let Rage fall out of print in the United States, it remained available only as part of The Bachman Books . In contrast, the other novels that appeared in that compilation— The Long Walk , Roadwork , and The Running Man —are available separately in the US. Rage remained available in the United Kingdom and other countries in The Bachman Books for a time, but later appeared to become unavailable. [10] New editions of The Bachman Books do not include Rage. In a footnote to the preface of the novel Blaze , dated January 30, 2007, King wrote of Rage: "Now out of print, and a good thing."
King said, in his keynote address at the VEMA Annual Meeting on May 26, 1999: "The Carneal incident was enough for me. I asked my publisher to take the damned thing out of print. They concurred." [8] King went on to describe his view on this subject, which acknowledged the role that cultural or artistic products such as Rage play in influencing individuals, particularly troubled youths, while also declaring that artists and writers should not be denied the aesthetic opportunity to draw upon their own culture—which is suffused with violence, according to King—in their work. [8] King went on to describe his inspiration for stories such as Rage, which drew heavily upon his own frustrations and pains as a high school student. [8]
In an article on the ominous writings of Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho for Entertainment Weekly , King said: "Certainly in this sensitized day and age, my own college writing—including a short story called 'Cain Rose Up' and the novel Rage—would have raised red flags, and I'm certain someone would have tabbed me as mentally ill because of them..." [11] After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, he elaborated in a non-fiction essay, titled "Guns" (2013), [12] on why he let Rage go out of print. King's website states: "All profits from 'Guns' will benefit the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence." [13]
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