Cujo

This section of the narrative is primarily plot driven. The characters make decisions that influence the narrative arc for the rest of the story: Brett decides not to tell his father of Cujo’s illness; Donna confesses the affair to Vic; and Vic decides to go through with his work trip despite his marital problems. Cujo is driven to make his first kill, becoming the novel’s antagonist. These crucial character decisions and actions are integral to Cujo’s theme on negotiations of fate and choice. The events in this section provide the bedrock for debate over whether—or to what extent—the characters are on a course of destiny over which they have no control.

One of the most important choices in this section is initially unassuming: Donna’s confession about why she cheated on Vic may seem a plain domestic scene, with little bearing on Cujo’s horror. However, it’s essential to the novel’s dramatic trajectory—and especially Donna’s character arc. In the first half of Cujo, Donna is a lost woman who struggles to adapt to her family’s move to Castle Rock, Maine. She most fears being swept into empty suburban domesticity in the dreaded role of “housewife.” As she reveals to Vic why she cheated on him, she laments, “‘I didn’t want to sell Tupperware and […] I don’t need to join Weight Watchers. […] You don’t know about emptiness, Vic. Don’t think you do” (90). Donna cheated on Vic to combat the emptiness that was beginning to overwhelm her. Donna feared her lack of agency in her new Castle Rock lifestyle. Her confession is important not simply because she’s communicating with Vic but because she’s admitting these things to herself. Her choice to admit everything to Vic allows her to identify her internal struggle. Choice and fate come to a head for Donna as Cujo’s subsequent events unfold.

Cujo’s self-realizing moment when he commits his first murder is significant because Donna and Cujo confront their internal struggles at the same time (Donna, her powerlessness; Cujo, his growing insanity). Donna and Cujo mirror each other throughout the novel, and a significant thread is the idea that the two are doomed to meet and grapple with each other until only one survivor emerges. King structures the novel around Donna meeting, confronting, and defeating Cujo. This is why Donna is the protagonist—and Cujo her antagonist—in the large cast of characters. Just as Donna resolves to leave her infidelity behind and face her powerlessness head on, beginning with her confession to Vic, Cujo goes the opposite route with his internal struggle. The dog can’t defeat his encroaching illness. Whereas Donna’s character arc is about finding power, Cujo’s is about losing power. Cujo’s descent into madness and his loss of agency are reflected in the paragraphs dedicated to his point of view. Consider Cujo’s scene with Brett:

Cujo recognized his voice. It was THE BOY [...] Once he had loved THE BOY and would have died for him had that been called for. There was enough of that feeling left to hold the image of murder at bay (98).

Cujo still clings to his individuality and agency here, opting to save Brett’s life by running away and denying his powerful illness from taking hold over his actions. Pointedly, King describes Cujo in this scene as being “the last of the dog that had been before the bat scratched its nose” (99), signifying that this is the final scene in which Cujo is just Cujo. In subsequent scenes, the dog transforms into a monster, and the first instance of his loss of agency is his attack on Gary Pervier. In contrast to how the dog reacted to Brett, when Gary attempts to calm Cujo, the dog can’t control the effects of his illness: “[T]he words coming from THE MAN meant nothing. They were meaningless sounds, like the wind” (111). The dog no longer has free will; instead, he becomes a monstrous beast. Cujo becomes a vehicle for an evil fate—one that will meet Donna and Tad in subsequent pages.