Rage – Stephen King (1977)

“Rage” by Richard Bachman (a pseudonym for Stephen King) was published in 1977. This psychological thriller follows troubled high school student Charlie Decker, who, after a violent altercation with a teacher, takes his classroom hostage. As the standoff unfolds, the students engage in unsettling confessions and confront harsh truths about their lives, revealing the dark undercurrents of adolescence and human nature.

Plot Summary

The morning air in Placerville, Maine, was crisp, the kind that made everything seem ordinary. Inside Placerville High, Room 16 sat half-asleep as Mrs. Underwood droned on about algebra. Charlie Decker sat by the window, staring out at a squirrel darting through the grass. The little creature had no rules, no expectations. It just existed. Charlie liked that.

Then the intercom crackled. Mr. Denver’s voice summoned him to the office.

He knew why. It had started weeks ago in chemistry when Mr. Carlson, the teacher, had called him to the board, waiting for him to fail. The class had laughed. And then Charlie had stopped thinking. His fingers had found the pipe wrench in his back pocket. It had been there for reasons he hadn’t fully understood until that moment. His arm moved. The wrench cracked against Carlson’s skull. The laughter stopped.

Carlson had survived, but Charlie had been marked. The meetings with Mr. Grace, the school shrink, had been pointless. They let him stay, watching him like he was a bomb waiting to go off. That morning, it became official. Expulsion.

But he didn’t leave.

Charlie walked to his locker, spun the combination, and let the door swing open. His textbooks, his jacket, crumpled notes from classes he had never cared about – and beneath them, a pistol. He pulled it free, slid it into his belt, then reached for the lighter in his pocket.

The flames licked up his old homework, curling the pages into blackened ghosts of themselves. His gym clothes caught next, releasing thick, acrid smoke through the vents. The fire alarm wailed, a mechanical scream echoing through the empty halls. Charlie shut the locker, watching the smoke seep from the slats. Then he turned and walked back to Room 16.

Inside, Mrs. Underwood barely had time to register his presence before he pulled out the gun and shot her in the head.

The fire alarm continued, a frantic pulse against the suffocating silence. The students – twenty-four of them – sat frozen, waiting for reality to piece itself back together. Charlie shut the door, locked it, and slid into Mrs. Underwood’s chair.

Mr. Vance was the next to die. He appeared in the doorway, his eyes flickering between Charlie and the gun. The bullet caught him in the throat. He stumbled back into the hall, clawing at the wound before collapsing.

Irma Bates screamed. No one followed.

Outside, the police arrived. The fire had been contained, but Room 16 burned in a different way. The intercom crackled. Mr. Denver, his voice thick with forced calm, asked Charlie to let the students go. Charlie ignored him.

At first, silence. Then, little by little, the students started talking. Charlie pushed them, prodding at their carefully constructed facades, peeling them back layer by layer.

Corky Henderson, the class clown, spoke of the bruises his father left behind. Susan Brooks admitted she had wished her parents dead. Even Sylvia Ragan, queen of the hallways, confessed to the quiet fear of being nothing.

But not Ted Jones.

Ted sat stiff, jaw locked, refusing to break. He was everything Charlie wasn’t – popular, confident, the kind of guy people followed without question. He had been a star on the football field until he decided he didn’t need the glory. He walked through the halls with the assurance of someone who belonged. Charlie had always known guys like Ted. Guys who never had to fight for their place in the world.

And then there was Sandra Cross.

Sandra was different. Charlie had watched her for years, though she had never really seen him. She was quiet but not shy, the kind of girl people liked without trying. She had once worn a pair of jeans to a school dance, the top button missing, the zipper halfway down before she noticed. That small flash of white fabric had burned itself into Charlie’s mind, a memory wrapped in something he couldn’t explain.

She sat in the third row, fourth seat, her face calm, her eyes steady. She wasn’t afraid.

Then the gunshot came.

The window shattered, glass spraying across the floor as Charlie staggered back. The bullet slammed into his chest, and for a moment, he thought it was over. Then he felt it – the weight in his pocket. He reached in and pulled out Titus, the Helpful Padlock, dented where the sniper’s bullet had flattened against it. He laughed.

And then the game changed.

Tommy Russell stood up, his hands trembling, and slapped Ted across the face. The sound cracked through the room. Ted reeled, stunned, touching his cheek as if he had been shot instead. The others watched, silent, then the dam burst. They turned on Ted, not with fists but with words, stripping away the perfection he had spent years building. They tore into him, voices rising, accusations spilling free.

It wasn’t about Charlie anymore. It was about them – the students of Room 16, the ones who had spent years suffocating under expectations, swallowing their pain, hiding behind masks. The walls came down, and Ted was left standing in the wreckage of his own carefully constructed world.

Charlie watched, fascinated. This wasn’t what he had planned. But it was beautiful.

Then the police chief stormed in, gun raised. Charlie’s pistol was gone now, taken when the others turned on Ted. But when the chief ordered him to the ground, Charlie smiled, raised his hand, and shaped his fingers into a gun. He pulled the imaginary trigger.

The chief fired.

The bullet tore into his stomach. The world tilted sideways.

When he woke, the classroom was gone. The students, the police, the school – all of it behind him now. The ceiling above him was white, sterile. Straps pinned his arms down. The pain was there, dull and distant, creeping under his skin. A doctor stood over him, unreadable.

The words came soon after – criminally insane, psychiatric hospital, Augusta, Maine.

Placerville High reopened. The students of Room 16 returned to their lives, changed but silent. No one spoke about what had happened, not really. Charlie Decker was gone, locked away where he couldn’t hurt anyone.

But somewhere, deep in their minds, they still heard his voice.

Main Characters

• Charlie Decker – A disturbed high school student with a traumatic past. Intelligent but unstable, he shoots his teacher and takes his class hostage, forcing them into raw discussions about their lives.
• Ted Jones – The class golden boy – popular, athletic, and confident. He becomes Charlie’s primary antagonist within the hostage situation, refusing to be broken.
• Sandra Cross – A well-liked student whom Charlie has an unspoken affection for. She represents the innocence and repression that contrast Charlie’s outburst.
• Mr. Denver – The school principal, a man of authority who ultimately fails to understand or control Charlie.
• Mr. Vance – Another teacher who tries to intervene but is killed by Charlie, further escalating the situation.
• The Students – Each classmate plays a role in exposing the complexities of teenage struggles, with personal traumas and suppressed anger surfacing as the story unfolds.

Theme

• Psychological Trauma and Abuse – Charlie’s history of abuse from his father plays a significant role in his violent breakdown. His actions stem from deep-seated anger and psychological scars.
• Repression and Emotional Catharsis – The hostage situation becomes a bizarre form of group therapy, where students open up about their darkest fears and secrets.
• Authority vs. Rebellion – Charlie’s defiance against teachers and administrators highlights the tension between youth and institutional control.
• Violence and its Contagion – The novel explores how violence can spiral and influence those around it, leading to an unsettling blend of fear, empathy, and complicity among the students.
• The Masks People Wear – As the students talk, their carefully maintained facades break down, revealing the hidden pain beneath their seemingly normal lives.

Writing Style and Tone

Stephen King, under the Richard Bachman pseudonym, employs a raw, intense, and psychological writing style. The narrative is deeply introspective, filtering events through Charlie’s erratic and often cynical mindset. King’s use of sharp, realistic dialogue and stream-of-consciousness reflections heightens the tension and emotional weight of the story.

The tone is unsettling, darkly humorous, and deeply disturbing. There’s an eerie sense of detachment in Charlie’s narration, making his violent actions even more chilling. The novel captures the angst, rage, and suppressed emotions of youth with an almost claustrophobic intensity, keeping readers uncomfortably engaged from start to finish.