Stephen King creates a jarring and dark shift in the story “Premium Harmony” by killing two of the three major characters in the story, accentuating the frivolousness and pettiness of the couple’s arguments and highlighting a darker side of self-importance and selfishness even in light of the death of loved ones.

King begins the story with reference to metaphors of animals such as “greyhounds” and “mechanical rabbits,” creating tension with reference to the relationship of the couple even though we don’t even know who they are or what they look like right from the start of the story. Upon reading the word ‘greyhound,’ I am immediately reminded of the famous Sherlock Holmes tale “Hounds of Baskerville” and this is an interesting connection as I picture this animal that is constantly on the predatorial prowl, and the fact that King mentions a “mechanical rabbit” implies a sense of a perennial predator vs prey scenario, so this relationship seems to be quite fragmented right from the start.

Another interesting element in the play is the Jack Russell dog that goes by the name of Biznezz. I find both the name of the dog and the breed to be quite odd and I think this represents the wider theme of materialism and superficiality of the working class people as the dog is not a traditional breed, but these characters aren’t conventional by any means either as they are constantly thinking of materialistic goods such as cigarettes and food. The dog’s relationship with Ray, the only character whose thoughts we can access, draws a parallel to Ray’s relationship with his wife Mary as it started out well initially but then degraded into one of spitefulness and almost jealously. We are positioned to view both human characters from the point of view of the dog at times, and I think King does this to highlight just how trivial humans can be at times with petty, veiled and hypocritical arguments such as being fixated on saving money on food whilst having no intention to give them up.

Obviously the climax hits hard, with both the wife and the dog dying, but what I find the most interesting is how Ray does not feel grief or sorrow instinctively, but how King makes him think of another man kissing him as a result of mouth to mouth resuscitation and the leftover coconut crumbs on the dog’s face. These descriptions are quite shocking and reveal gut-wrenching qualities that humans can have at times, and to me, they sum up the story’s central theme of human imperfections and a lack of empathy and awareness that we can have at times.