Federal government

The Federal government is a recurring but largely offstage presence in Pet Sematary, representing the rational, legal, and bureaucratic order that is fundamentally incapable of comprehending—let alone controlling—the ancient, malignant forces at work in the Maine woods. Its involvement takes two primary forms: the protracted legal dispute over Micmac tribal land claims and the War Department's investigation into the resurrection of a dead soldier. In both instances, the government's procedures serve only to underscore the impotence of official authority in the face of a power that operates outside the boundaries of law, reason, and even death itself.

Land Claims and Legal Entanglement

The Federal government is first mentioned in the context of the Micmac Indian tribe's claim to nearly eight thousand acres in Ludlow and the towns east of it. The realtor explains to Louis Creed that the complicated litigation, involving both the federal government and that of the state, "might stretch into the next century" . This legal limbo creates a space where no clear ownership exists, a jurisdictional vacuum that mirrors the moral and spiritual vacuum of the Micmac burying ground itself. The government's slow, rational process of adjudication is set against the timeless, irrational power of the place, which operates on its own rules and recognizes no deed or treaty. Jud Crandall later reflects on this tangled history, noting that different people laid claim to the land at different times, but "no claim ever stuck" . He mentions Anson Ludlow, who had a grant from King George, and Peter Dimmart, who claimed to be a Ludlow on the other side of the sheets, but all these claims became hopelessly muddled as landmarks like the "great old maple" fell and streams silted up . Jud concludes that the Indians will likely get it back in the end, and that this is as it should be . The Federal government, for all its power, is just another claimant in a long line, unable to assert dominion over a place that seems to belong to something older than any nation.

The War Department and the Baterman Case

The most direct confrontation between the Federal government and the supernatural occurs during the Timmy Baterman affair. When reports surface that Timmy, a soldier killed in Italy in 1943, has been seen walking the roads of Ludlow, the War Department is forced to act. Jud Crandall recounts that Hannibal Benson, the second selectman, received a call from a Lieutenant Kinsman, whose job was to "sort out malicious mischief from plain old tomfoolery" . The government's response is bureaucratic: anonymous letters have been received, and Kinsman is concerned. He notes that if it were one person writing many letters, he would suspect a psychopath, but the letters come from different people, all saying the same crazy thing—that Timmy Baterman "makes one hell of a lively corpse walking up and down Pedersen Road" (E02604-E02605). Kinsman threatens to send a man out or come himself, wanting to know if Timmy is dead or AWOL, and demanding to know "who was buried in Timmy Baterman's box, if he wasn't" . The government's concern is entirely with its records, its procedures, and its chain of command. It has no framework for understanding what has actually happened. The local men—Jud, Hannibal, George Anderson, and Alan Purinton—know that the government's investigation will uncover nothing but confusion and scandal, and they take matters into their own hands, confronting Bill Baterman directly (E02607-E02612). The War Department's investigation is preempted by the local, extralegal resolution: Bill Baterman kills his resurrected son and himself, burning their house to the ground. The government's paperwork is rendered moot by a fire that leaves nothing but ash and a question that no official report can answer.

The Driver's Fate and the Limits of Law

The Federal government's reach is also felt, indirectly, in the aftermath of Gage Creed's death. The driver of the Orinco truck that kills Gage is not drunk or on drugs, and has no previous speeding violations. He tells authorities that when he got to Ludlow, he "just felt like putting the pedal to the metal" . He later attempts suicide by hanging himself in his garage . Rachel reports that his wife has taken the kids and left him . The legal system, represented by bail and the prospect of a suspended license and a fine, is shown to be a wholly inadequate response to an event that seems to have been driven by a supernatural compulsion. The driver is a victim of the same dark power that claimed Gage, but the law can only see a man who made a terrible mistake. The Federal government, through its courts and its traffic regulations, is powerless to address the true cause of the tragedy, just as it was powerless to understand the Baterman case. The novel suggests that some evils are beyond the reach of any human institution, and that the Federal government, for all its size and authority, is ultimately just another set of rules that the ancient, indifferent power of the Micmac burying ground can ignore or exploit.