Chris Chambers' death

Chris Chambers, the de facto leader of the four boys who set out to find the body of Ray Brower in the summer of 1960, was killed in Portland, Maine, near the end of 1971. He was stabbed in the throat while attempting to intervene in a petty argument between two men at a Chicken Delight restaurant. The man who killed him had been released from Shawshank State Prison only the week before. Chris died almost instantly, a violent and absurd end to a life that had been a constant, uphill battle against the crushing weight of his family's reputation and his own past.

Life and Struggle

Chris was the smartest of the four friends, but he was also the most burdened. He came from a family that the town of Castle Rock had already written off: his father was a drunk, his older brother Frank was in prison for rape and criminal assault, and another brother, Eyeball, was a juvenile delinquent. When a small amount of milk-money went missing at school, Chris was immediately blamed and suspended, even though he had tried to return it. The teacher, Miss Simons, kept the money and bought herself a new skirt, a betrayal that confirmed for Chris that the world would never give him a fair chance. He was marked by the bruises his father gave him, and he carried a deep, secret fear that he would become an alcoholic like the men in his family. Despite this, he was the gang's peacemaker, the one who could comfort Teddy Duchamp after Milo Pressman called his father a loony, and the one who pushed Gordon to pursue his writing, refusing to let him settle for a life in the mills.

The Journey and the Confrontation

During the two-day hike to find Ray Brower's body, Chris was the group's anchor. He led them across the terrifying railroad trestle, and when they were cornered by Ace Merrill and his older friends, Chris was the one who produced his father's .45 pistol. He faced down Ace, the toughest kid for miles, with a chilling calm, asking him where he wanted to be shot. This act of brinkmanship forced Ace to back down, a victory that was both exhilarating and pyrrhic. After the confrontation, Chris broke down, crying and screaming in the mud, overwhelmed by the strain of having to be the one who held the line. He knew that Ace and his gang would retaliate, and they did, breaking his arm in two places and leaving his face battered. Chris lied to the hospital, saying he had fallen down the cellar stairs, a lie that protected his brother Eyeball from being arrested for the assault.

Education and Transformation

After the summer of 1960, Chris made a pivotal decision. He enrolled in the college preparatory courses, a move that shocked the town and infuriated his father, who accused him of putting on airs. The work was brutally hard; he had to re-learn fractions and basic grammar, and he wore out a copy of Warriner's English grammar, which became a kind of Bible to him. He studied with Gordon almost every night, sometimes for six hours at a stretch, driven by a desperate rage at how far behind he had been allowed to fall. By their junior year of high school, he had been accepted. He graduated nineteenth in his class and went on to the University of Maine's Portland campus to study pre-law. He was the only one of the four friends who seemed to have a real chance of escaping Castle Rock.

Death and Aftermath

Chris's death was a random, meaningless act of violence. He was getting a three-piece Snack Bucket at a Chicken Delight when two men began arguing over who was first in line. One of them pulled a knife. Chris, who had always been the best at making peace, stepped between them and was stabbed in the throat. Gordon Lachance, now a married man and a teacher, read about it in the newspaper under the headline "STUDENT FATALLY STABBED IN PORTLAND RESTAURANT." He told his wife he was going out for a milkshake, drove out of town, parked, and cried for nearly half an hour. He could not do that in front of his wife; it would have been "pussy." Chris's death, like those of Vern Tessio and Teddy Duchamp, confirmed the grim prophecy he had made to Gordon on the train tracks: that some people drown. Chris had fought harder than anyone to keep his head above water, but in the end, he was pulled under by a stranger's rage.