Close Reading: Stephen King, The Reach.

In Stephen King's story, "The Reach", we see Stella Flanders in her last final days. She lived on Goat Island, and never wanted to cross the reach to the mainland. Throughout the story, Stella saw the ghosts of her friends and family that had past. It started with her visions of her husband telling her to come across the reach. Throughout the story the question, "Do you love?" kept reoccurring. It is not until the end, that the reader could notice any significance that these three words could possible have.
Towards the end of the story, as Stella walked toward the reach, she talked with her deceased husband. On page 387, Stella remarked again how she did not want to go across to the mainland, "But the wind spoke other words. She did want to. She wanted to have this adventure." This paragraph essentially explains that she has been holding back because of the cancer. The closer she came to dying, the more apparitions she saw. Even though the story might have been confusing, jumping back and forth between thoughts and reality, along with the many characters that were constantly being mentioned, the point of this story was made clear at the ending.
Stella was afraid of dying. She thought that the reason for the visions of her husband Bill was to warn her that there was nothing to be scared of at all. As she crossed the reach and made it to the mainland, Stella died. Again the question appeared, "Do you love? Do they love?" Her son found her and recognized his dead father's hat on her head. That was when he realized that yes, the dead do, and are able, to love.