Understanding Harold Lauder

Thank you attila; your kind words are much appreciated.

I think that knowing Harold's background in the book is important to understanding the book itself. I am fairly familiar with it, so I tend to skip over his backstory when I re-read the book. Even so, Harold's background, when I read it, strikes a chord in me, for he could very well be describing my situation.

Harold and I experienced much of the same stuff when we were growing up. Indeed, because the parts about what Harold went through are so well-written, I strongly suspect that King went through a lot of the same things himself. Harold was fat; I have a mild case of cerebral palsy, and a serious hearing impairment. Both of us were bullied, heavily made-fun of; neither of us got much family support. Neither of us had any real friends when we were in school, and we were both very isolated.

I think that Harold would have grown out of it had Flagg not sunk his claws into him. Most awkward kids do this, and grow up being reasonably responsible adults. I did. I worked at Boeing for 28 years and then I was able to retire on a good income. In fact, next month, I go on Social Security, the federal pension system that almost everyone in the USA goes on, and this will greatly increase my income. So, in spite of the difficulties in my childhood, I am now very well-off--financially at least.

The same thing would probably have happened to Harold had the plague and the subsequent events not intervened.

What happened in Harold's life prior to the plague were factors in his decision to go with Flagg, but still he had a choice. And he chose wrong.

His choice was the same as Nick Andros. Flagg tried at first to sway Nick offering him his hearing and speech. And Nick had had many of the same problems as Harold in a purely social sense, but unlike Harold, he chose right.

So Harold had a fair chance but he chose not to go for the brass ring.

<I think that many people, including myself; forget Harold Lauder's background.
Unfortunately nothing of Harold's background is revealed in the miniseries.
That information is in the book. The miniseries can only really hint at
the relationship between Harold and Fran before the plague.>

I just now thought of this, and would like to point out that the relationship of Fran and Harold in the book is quite a bit different than the way it is presented in the mini-series.

In the book their relationship is primarily through Harold being the younger brother of Fran's best friend, and in the film, it seems to be a much more direct sort of thing. We are told in the film that Harold had a crush on her of long duration. The sister is mentioned only briefly and we are not even told that it is the sister, being just given a name.

<agree with most of your post, and I am very familiar with both book and mini-series - but I would move the point where Harold started to hate to when he secretly observed Fran and Stu together; up until then he was sure Stu was bound by his word - also, Fran at some point observes that one of the other younger females may be showing some interest in Harold - so we must also consider Nadine, Flagg's pawn, in turning Harold from an angry teen who maybe would snap out of it (as he became Hawk and began to realize his value to Boulder) as he returned home that one day, and instead of just letting it all go, found Nadine waiting to stimulate both his sex drive and his hatred - really just reinforcing all the things that he actually had left behind finally in his prior life - what a great tragic character - great OP, btw>

Your very nice compliments are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I would still have to stand by what I wrote in the OP concerning when Harold's hate of Stu started. If you recall from Fran's diary, when they were back in Stovington she made the comment that Harold was always sniping at Stu, extremely hostile to him and that she hoped it would not boil over into an open war between the two of them or words to that effect, and also that after Mark and Perion joined them in upstate New York, and Mark died after Stu's unsuccessful effort to save him, they (Stu and Fran) embraced and Harold (who could see no difference bewteen lover's hugs and survivor's hugs was very angry at this and stalked off into the woods, not returning until after supper.

Granted, Harold's hatred intensified after seeing Stu and Fran make love, and I think that he began plotting revenge at that point, but his hatred was always there and had been there ever since Stu joined them in New Hampshire.

Hope this helps to explain my position a little better.

<I enjoyed reading these interpretations of Harold and his motivation. I just wanted to add that it always makes me sad at that moment in the book when Harold, very briefly, toys with becoming "Hawk."

And then throws it away.>

Yes; it is sad that he threw it away. He appeared to be at a point where he could honestly jettison the hate, accepting things as they were, and moving on with his life, but Flagg who seemed to be sensitive to these things, told Nadine what to do and she did her job admirably.

Could part of the reason for Harold's actions be that he was afraid of the acceptance because he did not know how to cope with it? Please note that in the book, he at first rejects the 'Hawk' nickname, as he did not want to be friends with the guys on the Spade Squad; indeed, he fought against it. The name brought back unpleasant memories of his time in high school when he was made fun of by the other boys and the 'Hawk" to him at least was just another example of this. As I have said before, Harold knew how to cope with rejection; after all, he had plenty of practice at that. But the acceptance of his fellows was something new for him. It was a strange experience; he bwas entering unknown territory, and, drawing from my own experiences here, perhaps he was suspicious of their motivations. Were they trying to trick him, so they could torment him further?

In trying to understand Harold, this might be considered.

<Anyone been rejected like Harold? He almost scored with the Molly Ringwald character and the Stu comes and takes her. I I've been there, seen it, experienced
it firsthand. It's hard to control your hate if you have a history like Harold, been rejected and bullied all your life. I therefor feel sorry for Harold, and even if I denounce his extreme hatred i feel sympathetic to his situation. Love can become hate so easily, add jealousy and it can be really bad.>


If you have read any of my posts at all on this, you would find that my background and Harold's are somewhat similar. When I was in school, I was frequently bullied, made fun of, and constantly rejected by females. Like I gather it was with Harold, I also got almost no support from the school, very little family support, and my life was anything but pleasant, and it continued in this vein until my senior year of high school.

So, I can sympathize a lot with Harold for what he went through. Indeed, it would a very fair statement that I thought that Stephen King could have been describing my situation when he wrote about Harold.

Please let me ask you this question: have you read the book, or just seen the mini-series?

Totally agree with this post. I always saw Harold as a tragic character as opposed to one that should be hated or loathed. He was used by Flagg and unfortunately was unable to take his second chance at life and make himself into something new. I remember the book mentioning how much Harold had actually changed by the time they reach Boulder. He has lost weight, his acne was gone, I believe he had even stopped wearing glasses, and he was becoming a valuable and respected member of the Free Zone. But ultimately he couldn't get over that feeling that everyone was against him and harbored feelings of resentment towards those who kept him from getting what he wanted. I don't excuse his actions in anyway, but I do think his demise was tragic.

I'm gonna toss out an idea I brought up on the old IMDB boards, a short while before those forums were deleted. It might still be here in these boards, but if so I can't find it. It's definitely not in this thread. Anyway ...

One cross Harold has to bear is that for him, there really is no such thing as a completely fresh start, at least while Fran is around. Quite apart from anything romantic or sexual, or even Fran being female at all -- he's gotta be worried that one way Fran's gonna worm herself in to Boulder society is by telling tales of his pre-plague days. And such worries would be justified -- Fran did that on at least two occasions in the book, telling people "you mustn't trust Harold because he was the high school nerd" when it was completely unnecessary for her to do so. Not saying that anyone else would even care about that sort of thing, but Harold might fear they would -- after all, a person who hasn't lived through anything beyond high school could well think teenage matters are still important to thirty year olds.

To see the point, look at Larry as a contrasting case. Pre-plague, he was a guy who went on drug binges, ran up bad debts, walked away from whatever problems he had created and left others to clean up his messes, etc. Yet he's able to leave all that behind. He still has his own inner demons to deal with, but the bad track record is gone. Suppose Wayne Stukey had been in Boulder, whispering to the other committee members, "hey, before you trust Larry with anything important, lemme tell you a few stories about this guy."

Agreed! Gary O is quite a writer. I’ve been enjoying all of his posts here very much.