“The Body” centers around the journey of four twelve year-old boys, best friends who set out to find a dead body hidden in the woods of their hometown. Todd’s simple poking and prodding of the old man’s past only serves to awaken the dormant monster within Denker. Bowden’s innocence crumbles as he enters the deep waters of a psychological battle of wits with the old man. In “Apt Pupil,” the all-American teenager discovers his elderly neighbor, Arthur Denker, is a Nazi war criminal, responsible for the murders of countless Jews. It isn’t until he’s befriended by another “lifer” named Red that Andy recognizes hope can be an undeniable weapon against conformity and corruption. The cell door slamming shut that first night is the beginning of a dark new reality for Andy, one filled with sadistic prison guards, corrupt wardens, and the lingering threat of violence and sexual assault. In “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption,” Andy is sentenced to two life sentences for the murder of his wife and her lover. No one would fault Andy Dufresne for abandoning hope. The ways in which they’re tested, sustained, mangled, or transformed are often uncomfortable but always captivating. You’ll find the themes of hope and innocence woven throughout the four novellas that comprise Stephen King’s DIFFERENT SEASONS, warped and broken as they may seem.

He stressed that as we aged, it takes work to preserve those feelings, to even have the capacity to experience hope and wonder. Whether it’s the manic excitement of a sleepover with friends, the endless promise of your first love, or summer days that seem to last forever, those feelings are never as pure or as acute as they were when we were young.

They begin to chip away at our hope and innocence. Careers, marriages, and children occupy all our time. He talked about growing old, and losing the wonder and hope we were flush with as kids. At a wedding I attended years ago, the father of the bride said something that’s stayed with me.

Stephen king's four seasons