“1408”: Stephen King’s retelling of Adam and Eve Since the dawn of time, man has always told the story of creation. From different cultures to different religions, there have always been similarities of the first days on Earth. From Milton’s “Paradise Lost”, Percy Shelly’s “The Revolt of Islam”, to D.H. Lawrence’s “Sons and Lovers” the story of creation has been found in most works of literature. No doubt, the story of origin has been repeatedly told to reach a new younger audience so that it does not become outdated and lost in time. Different genres in literature help reach a younger, more various, audience to read about the story of how we came to be. In Stephen King’s “1408”, from the geographic boundaries to the substantial parallels of biblical figures, the heavy use of symbolism implies Stephen King is retelling the biblical story of Adam and Eve for a modern generation. By examining the geographical location of The Dolphin Hotel in King’s short story, the reader recognizes that the hotel is the Garden of Eden. “In the Holy book of the Hebrew faith, the Torah, it states that Eden is in the center of Earth” (Rabbi Katz). The Christian Bible states, “The Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden” (The Holy Bible, Genesis. 2.8). With this religious geographical insight, we must next examine where the fictitious Dolphin Hotel would be located if it was in the real world. King states that the hotel is “on Sixty-First Street, around the corner from Fifth Avenue” (King). After looking at a map of New York City, one can see that the Dolphin would lie just east of Central Park, the center of Manhattan. A second concern that allows the reader the knowledge that King wrote the Dolphin Hotel as the Garden of Eden deals with the name of the hotel. One of the most recognized symbols in the Christian faith is the fish. While dolphins are not fish they do reside in the watery depths, and while The Fish Hotel would make it more clearly to the reader King had to use dolphin to fit the higher societal class that encompasses Sixty-First Street and Fifth Avenue. With this information present, one can conclude that Stephen King alluded to the idea that with the geographical location of The Dolphin Hotel is actually the Garden of Eden. Within the garden there has to be the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Secondly, Mr. Olin, one of the characters not negatively affected by 1408, is King’s version of God. Mr. Olin is the overseer of the hotel, which as discussed previously is the Garden of Eden. Throughout the Bible anytime God wanted to speak to anyone, he would wait until he or she were alone to show His true self. For example, when God talked to Moses He waited until Moses was alone, where God showed himself through the burning bush. In King’s story it states that, “Mr. Olin sighed again, but this sigh didn’t have the disconsolate quality of hiss lobby sigh. Yes, it was the office, Mike reckoned. Olin’s office, his special place. Even this afternoon, when Mike had come accompanied by Robertson, the lawyer, Olin had seemed less flustered once they were in here” (King). The reader sees that Mr. Olin, like God, shows his true self only when he is alone talking to whomever Mr. Olin wants. In addition, Mr. Olin tells Mike Enslin that every person who has stayed in that room has died; just like in the Book of Genesis, God told Adam if he ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Adam would die. One can only conclude that, as the overseer of the hotel, and how Mr. Olin act towards other when alone, on top of the grave warning, that Mr. Olin is Stephen King’s version of God. However, despite his warning, Mike Enslin still tempted to eat the fruit blossoming from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In addition, the room, 1408, is Stephen King’s version of the Tree of Knowledge. When God created man and placed him in the garden, He told man “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (The Holy Bible, Genesis 2.16-17). In King’s story, Mr. Olin tells Mike “The Dolphin is small by New York standards, but we run at ninety per cent occupancy” (King). This allows the reader to know that Mike has other rooms, or trees, to go to in this hotel. Mr. Olin then goes on to state that, “I should guess, for example, that every hotel in New York has had its suicides, but I would be willing to wager my life that only in the Dolphin have there been a dozen of them in a single room” (King). Mr. Olin goes on to state that there have been 30 natural deaths inside 1408. As discussed previously, Mr. Olin tries to convince Mike that he will die if he stays, or eats the fruit, in room 1408. By entering the room, the tree of knowledge, they ate the fruit and now are dead because of such events. Just like Adam, Mike was warned by Mr. Olin not to enter the room or he would die. However, through the temptations of pride brought on by his writing, Mike Enslin is lead to eat the fruit because of a key. Moreover, the help of a slippery serpent caused the first sin and the fall of man. In the Bible, it states that, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made” (The Holy Bible, Genesis 3.1). Inside the Garden of Eden, the serpent was the oddball of the garden; in Stephen King’s 1408, Mr. Olin informs Mike that, “The Dolphin went to a MagCard system in 1979, Mr. Enslin, the year I took the job as manager. 1408 is the only room in the house that still opens with a key” (King). However, it was not just the serpent that led to the original fall; it was the temptation that was the driving force behind the fall. Similarly, it was Mike’s pride in his writings that led him to fall; Mike only visited The Dolphin Hotel so he could write an entry in his new book. While in Mr. Olin’s office King states that, “As always when he saw his books in someone else’s hands, Mike Enslin felt the oddest mix of emotions: pride, unease, amusement, defiance, and shame,” (King). This boast of emotions, especially pride is what led Mike to allow the key to open the door of 1408. The temptation of Eve, as stated in the Bible, happened as a result “when the woman saw that the fruit was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom” (The Holy Bible, Genesis 3.6). Through their temptations, both Mike and Eve allowed the serpent to guide them and help them eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Seeing how the key to open 1408 leads man to eat from the fruit of 1408 and that the key is the oddball of the hotel one can conclude that the key is the serpent in King’s short story. With four different reasons as to how one can conclude that Stephen King is retelling the origin of man and his fall, one should still question who is Adam and who is Eve. Lastly, at first to the reader, Mike would be considered as Adam; however, with as King’s story goes on we can see that Mike is Eve. The reader can come to this conclusion by looking at the woman in the black dress. As stated by King, “the woman was blond, dressed in black, of course, and the light, flowery smell of her perfume seemed to summarize New York” (King). In the Bible, Eve was pure unlike the women the King makes out in his story. In order to create a pure Eve, King gender bends the role so that it cannot only appease with the younger audience, but give the sense of purity. Mike Enslin even states that he has never once experienced a supernatural phenomenon while writing his books. Like Eve, Mike is pure and has a sense of innocence draw to him that is until he eats the fruit. Once Mike eats the fruit, he sets himself on fire exposing his naked torso; much like Adam and Eve covered their naked bodies after eating the forbidden fruit. Shortly after Mike leaves the room, consumed in fire, Rufus Dearborn saves him. Just like the Bible, after Eve taste the fruit she gives some to Adam. In King’s short story “Dearborn looked up, and it seemed – this was crazy, but it seemed the door to the room the man had come out of was filled with the burning light of an Australian sundown, the hot light of an empty place where things no man had ever seen might live” (King). By looking into the room Dearborn ultimately ate the fruit right after Eve, exposing him to the evils of the world. In conclusion, many authors allude to the story of origin to keep it fresh and youthful for younger generations. The story of the creation of man is one of the most well-known religious tales across all world religions, and can be found in a large number of literary works. Through strong parallels of biblical figures and from geographic locations provide, one can only come to the conclusion that Stephen King meant for “1408” to be a horror-filled version of the biblical tale of Adam and Eve for a younger audience.

Works Citied
King, Stephen. “1408”. Blood and Smoke. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1999. Print
Rabbi Katz. Personal Interview. 28 June 2015.
The Holy Bible. New International Version. Colorado Springs: International Bible Society, 1984. Print.