"Quitters, Inc." is a short story by Stephen King published as part of his 1978 short story collection Night Shift. Unlike most other stories in this book, "Quitters, Inc." had been previously unpublished until February 1978 under Doubleday Publishing. It was featured in Edward D. Hoch's 1979 "Best detective stories of the year" collection. The plot follows Dick Morrison's discovery of the brutal enforcement methods used by Quitters, Inc., the firm which he enlists to aid him quit smoking. Like much of Stephen King's work, this short story exhibits elements of horror fiction and gothic fiction. The tale was adapted in the 1985 American anthology horror film Cat’s Eye. The names of the main characters of the text, Dick Morrison and Jimmy McCann refer to the tobacco company Philip Morris and the advertising company, McCann. The story portrays the upper-middle-class in the late 1970s, particularly the way in which smoking was widespread in popular culture. This began with the affluent in upper management roles who, like King, could ‘afford’ the effort to quit smoking. Although King previously wrote about blue-collar characters, there is a shift here in "Quitters, Inc.", where King explores the horrors of the upper class. She writes that outright promises and contracts generate new moral obligations, and when we put other people's interests on the line, we must be realistic about our prospects of success. She says that when Morrison is at Quitters, Inc. for the first time, Mr. Donatti's speech is unshakable and persuasive. He uses an assertive tone and repetition of the personal pronoun ‘we’ to present a desired image and, as Rusko writes, a hypnotic effect. He also draws a link between this story and Roald Dahl’s 1954 story "Man from the South", especially as both feature the wife of a minor character having her pinky cut off.

Autobiographical elements

thumb|Author [[Stephen King employs elements of autobiography in his many works, including the short stories in Night Shift.]]

Stephen King has criticized psychoanalysis several times throughout his career. King tries to convey the evil of behavioral psychology specialists from his point of view, says Dr. Lenore C. Terr. She says that King developed his childhood fear of psychiatry despite the possibility that it could have helped him. In "Quitters, Inc.", this manifests in the terrifying addiction counselor Vincent Donatti and the satire of self-improvement "guru" Dale Carnegie. His addiction to alcohol, drugs and cigarettes was so severe that King says he barely recalls writing his 1981 novel Cujo. and "Quitters, Inc." (1978).

Adaptations

Cat's Eye (1985)

"Quitters, Inc." was adapted onto the big screen in the 1985 anthology horror film Cat’s Eye, alongside "The Ledge" and "General". This dramatization features James Woods as Dick Morrison, and Alan King as Dr. Vincent Donatti, produced by the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. Like the other adaptations, this film downplays the horror from the original, by elevating the humour in the work. The film opens in New York with a cat having escaped and is captured by an agent for Quitters, Inc.

In Cat’s Eye, Morrison's attempt to smoke secretly leads to a chain of horror clichés; thunder and lightning, creeping around the house at night, a shocking glimpse in his own reflection and a golf bag that jumps out at Morrison from a wardrobe.

  • “Bigalow’s Last Smoke” (1985) an episode of Tales from the Darkside: Mr. Bigalow, a chain smoker, wakes up to find himself trapped in a replica of his own apartment. A mysterious figure appears on the television screen which subjects him to endurance tests in order to force him to quit smoking, which pushes him to the edge of sanity. When he recovers, he finds he has no interest in smoking at all, only to be confronted by the figure about his addiction to caffeine, and that now they are going to treat him for that.

See also

  • Stephen King short fiction bibliography
  • "The Hellgramite Method"

References

  • "Quitters, Inc." at StephenKing.com