The Dead Zone

A key theme in The Dead Zone is the power of belief. The clearest example of this theme is Vera, whose willingness and desperation to believe in anything comes to define her. As remembered by Johnny, she has always been a devoutly religious woman. However, her distress over Johnny’s car crash pushes her into fanaticism. Soon, traditional Christianity is not enough for Vera and her yearning for a justification for her son’s accident leads her into strange and dangerous places. She joins cults, believes in the end of the world, and spends money she does not have on scams which promise to help her son. Vera’s desire to believe in anything is stronger than any single belief that she holds, so much so that her life becomes a desperate outpouring of credulity as she latches on to anything and everything which claims to explain the unexplainable. Even when proved wrong–such as when the world does not end–Vera cannot bring herself to reject her beliefs. At the end of her life, her desire to believe takes a physical toll. She suffers a stroke, believing that her medicine interfered with divine will. Vera succumbs not to a single powerful belief, but to her desire to confirm that the universe around her has meaning.