Corruption is Vampirism For centuries, vampires have always been the symbol of corruption. It has been said and illustrated by many in books and essays that corruption is extremely similar to vampirism. It starts off with just one and it then multiples like cancer, dominating the society. Once corruption starts, it spreads so quickly that it is as though it is impossible to stop it. In Salem’s Lot, King uses vampires coming into the town to symbolize its destruction due to the corruption within a society. Salem’s Lot vampires’ thirst for blood is represented as the political corruption that destructs the society. The wealth and the power are the blood that the corrupted are in constant hunger for; no matter how much they have, there is never enough to satisfy them. Vampirism is symbolic of corruption. Mirroring vampires’ desire for blood, the corrupted always desire more money and more power; the more they have, the more they want. According to Casebeer, “King has created many novels which allegorically address current social dilemmas: the corruption of school and church, the government, the small town, the family, and etc.” (43) In 1975, King wrote his novel, the Salem’s Lot demonstrating the vampires’ invasion to the town as a symbol of the corruption in the world. Mr. Straker and Mr. Barlow are the outsiders that stand for the beginning of a corrupted society. A vampire comes

Chiu 2 to the small town of Jerusalem's Lot, Maine. He converts some of the people to vampires, and they transform others into vampires, until almost the whole town is undead. There are mysterious disappearances and death as people are turning into vampires; the community of the Lot is quickly devoured by vampires, illustrating how the effects of corruption can spread rapidly throughout the society. From the Vampires and the Cyclical Theory of History by Marilyn Michaud,