Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Roadwork

 Roadwork
type
TVTItem
 Roadwork
label
Roadwork
 Roadwork
page
Roadwork
 Roadwork
comment
Roadwork is a 1981 novel written by Stephen King under the pen name of Richard Bachman.Barton George Dawes, grieving over the loss of his son and the disintegration of his marriage, is pushed to the edge when he learns that both his home and workplace will be demolished to make way for an extension to an Interstate highway.
 Roadwork
fetched
2024-03-03T07:01:36Z
 Roadwork
parsed
2024-03-03T07:01:36Z
 Roadwork
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Roadwork / int_269e82c1
type
Death of a Child
 Roadwork / int_269e82c1
comment
Death of a Child: Dawes' son dies from a brain tumor before the book begins.
 Roadwork / int_269e82c1
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_269e82c1
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_269e82c1
 Roadwork / int_272abb98
type
Shoot the Shaggy Dog
 Roadwork / int_272abb98
comment
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: After all is said and done, the epilogue reveals that there was no real reason for the extension project; the city was required to build a certain number of miles of road per year or start losing federal funding on future construction.
 Roadwork / int_272abb98
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_272abb98
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_272abb98
 Roadwork / int_29429eec
type
Community-Threatening Construction
 Roadwork / int_29429eec
comment
Community-Threatening Construction: Dawes learns that his neighborhood and workplace are scheduled for demolition, to make room for an interstate highway extension. Dawes has a mental breakdown and can't bring himself to leave. At the end, he wires his house with explosives, gets into a gun fight with the police who try to evict him, then blows up the house while he's still inside.
 Roadwork / int_29429eec
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_29429eec
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_29429eec
 Roadwork / int_31a2a33c
type
Stuff Blowing Up
 Roadwork / int_31a2a33c
comment
Stuff Blowing Up / Do Not Go Gentle: Dawes buys two high-powered firearms and a crate of plastic explosives. When the police arrive to forcibly evict him, he shoots it out with them all morning long and then kills himself by blowing up the house.
 Roadwork / int_31a2a33c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_31a2a33c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_31a2a33c
 Roadwork / int_3a893c13
type
Spell My Name with a Blank
 Roadwork / int_3a893c13
comment
Spell My Name with a Blank: The city where the novel is set is never named. It's almost invariably referred to simply as "the city", and at one point where the context demands a formal name, it's given as M———, W———. Probably the most prominent candidates (or at least the most famous) based on those initials would be either Milwaukee or Madison, both of which are in Wisconsin; though whether this was King's intention is anybody's guess.
 Roadwork / int_3a893c13
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_3a893c13
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_3a893c13
 Roadwork / int_47e27ad3
type
Pointless Civic Project
 Roadwork / int_47e27ad3
comment
Pointless Civic Project: The titular roadwork turns out to be this in the end.
 Roadwork / int_47e27ad3
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_47e27ad3
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_47e27ad3
 Roadwork / int_4e3d253b
type
Downer Ending
 Roadwork / int_4e3d253b
comment
Downer Ending: Par for the course for a Bachman book. The siege of Dawes' home ends with Dawes blowing the place up with him inside, his defiance was completely useless and the epilogue twists the knife further by explaining that the roadwork was just something done to keep the city's budget at a certain level, making the whole situation mind-numbingly worthless.
 Roadwork / int_4e3d253b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_4e3d253b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_4e3d253b
 Roadwork / int_68da6712
type
Canon Welding
 Roadwork / int_68da6712
comment
Canon Welding: Dawes works at Blue Ribbon Laundry, the setting of The Mangler and where Carrie's mother works.
 Roadwork / int_68da6712
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_68da6712
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_68da6712
 Roadwork / int_8344209e
type
BFG
 Roadwork / int_8344209e
comment
BFG: Dawes purchases a heavy-caliber pistol (.44 Magnum) and rifle (.460 Weatherby Magnum) early in the story. The rifle (described by its seller as "a freaking anti-tank gun") has enough recoil to make his shoulder ache when he test-fires it, and both weapons do quite a number on the police cars that arrive on the morning of his eviction.
 Roadwork / int_8344209e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_8344209e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_8344209e
 Roadwork / int_9c1f758a
type
Kill It with Fire
 Roadwork / int_9c1f758a
comment
Kill It with Fire: Dawes tries to do this to the road construction equipment and office trailer, using a load of Molotov cocktails. The damage he causes only delays the project by a couple of weeks.
 Roadwork / int_9c1f758a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_9c1f758a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_9c1f758a
 Roadwork / int_c49935fa
type
20 Minutes into the Past
 Roadwork / int_c49935fa
comment
20 Minutes into the Past: Zigzagged. The novel was published in 1981, while the story takes place between August 1972 and January 1974. Frequent references to real-world events of the year make it feel a bit like a period piece; but the novel was in fact written in the early-to-mid seventies; it just took a while to get published.
 Roadwork / int_c49935fa
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_c49935fa
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_c49935fa
 Roadwork / int_e1fa8421
type
Dead Person Conversation
 Roadwork / int_e1fa8421
comment
Dead Person Conversation: Dawes has internal conversations with his dead son.
 Roadwork / int_e1fa8421
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_e1fa8421
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_e1fa8421
 Roadwork / int_f0f03464
type
TheSeventies
 Roadwork / int_f0f03464
comment
The '70s: Except for the prologue, the story takes place during the energy crisis of 1973-74.
 Roadwork / int_f0f03464
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_f0f03464
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_f0f03464
 Roadwork / int_name
type
ItemName
 Roadwork / int_name
comment
 Roadwork / int_name
featureApplicability
1.0
 Roadwork / int_name
featureConfidence
1.0
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Roadwork / int_name
 Roadwork / int_name
itemName
Roadwork

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Roadwork
hasFeature
American Literature (N to S) / int_42f02f3e
 Roadwork
hasFeature
BFG / int_42f02f3e
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Community-Threatening Construction / int_42f02f3e
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Forgotten First Meeting / int_42f02f3e
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Hand Cannon / int_42f02f3e
 Roadwork
hasFeature
Pointless Civic Project / int_42f02f3e