Plot Overview

The story Tick Tock by Dean Koontz mainly focuses on

the idea that Tommy Phan, a young Vietnamese man,
wants to live his dream of becoming an American, not a
Vietnamese-American but only an American. Throughout
the story Tommy tries to overcome a feeling of guilt for
separating from his family for many years in trying to
pursue his dream of becoming an American and a writer.
Although he never truly feels like a complete American,
he is a writer to start with. His mother is very strict and
expects a lot from Tommy. He does not seen her in many
years because she is disappointed about him becoming a
writer and not a doctor like she and his father had hoped
him to. One day after coming home, someone knocks on
Tommys door but when he opens no one is there. All he
sees is a rag doll, thinking that someone might have
dropped it, he brings it inside. He then turns to his
computer screen and on a blank page reads, tick tock
and, the deadline is dawn. Tommy thinks that someone
had came in the house when he was not looking. After a
few minutes of wondering why someone might be
wanting to hurt him, Tommy turns back to the rag doll
and notices that it had moved. Tommy moves closer
towards it and watches as the stitches start to open and a
demon like thing comes out of it. He tries running away
but the demon somehow manages to turn the lights off
before he does so. As minutes pass by the demon grows
bigger and stronger. After crashing and burning his new
Corvette, Tommy runs by the highway and is then forced
by Del to get in her car. Now that the two of them are
together, the demon has two targets to kill. Tommy then
struggles to focus on both the demon and Del because
although he falls in love with her, their is something
supernatural about her that scares him.

About the Author

Dean Koontz is a thriller story writer. He was born on
July 9, 1945 in Everett, Pennsylvania. Koontz grew up
with an alcoholic father, to get away from this, he liked
to read and watch movies. Although it is not stated in the
biography, the movies he watched and the books he read
as a way to get away from family problems can be
inferred to be his inspiration to becoming a writer. Other
works written by him are: Night After the Last Race,
Demon Seed, Hanging On, Night Chills, Darkness in My
Soul, The Face of Fear, The Vision, Whispers, Phantoms,
The Door to December, Strangers, Watchers, Lighting,
The Servants of Twilight, Midnight, re Journey, Night
Visions 4, Cold Terror, The Bad Place, Cold Fire, The
Voice of the Night, Hideaway, The House of Thunder,
The Mask, Dragon Tears, Mr. Murder, Winter Moon, The
Funhouse, The Boneyard, Dark Rivers at Heart, Twilight
Eyes, Strange Highways, The Key to Midnight, Intensity,
Darkfall, Sole Survivor, Fear Nothing, Seize the Night,
False Memory, From the Corner of His Eye, One Door
Away from Heaven, By the Light of the Moon, The Face,
Odd Thomas, The Taking, Santa's Twin, Life Expectancy,
Velocity, Forever Odd, The Husband, Brother Odd,
Icebound, The Good Guy, The Darkest Evening of the
Year, Odd Hours, In Odd We Trust, Shadowfires, Your
Heart Belongs to Me, Relentless, I, Trixie, Who Is Dog,
Breathless, Trixie & Jinx, Darkness under the Sun, Odd
Is On Our Side, What the Night Knows, The Moonlit
Mind, 77 Shadow Street, House of Odd, Odd
Apocalypse, Oddkins, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd,
Wilderness, Innocence, The Neighbor, The City,
Wilderness and other Stories, You Are Destined to be
Together Forever, Saint Odd, Last Light, Final Hour,
Ashley Bell, and Secret Forest. The time period in which
Koontz wrote this book was in the year of 1996. It seems
like the time period did not influence the writing because
in these days some people still believe in aliens and
demons and some people still get married in Las Vegas,
just like in the book.

Historical Context
The year in which this book was written was 1996.

Novel Notes
Tick Tock
by Dean Koontz
Areli Agudo
October 8, 2015

Essential Quotes
On the computer screen, the four words began to flash:
THE DEADLINE IS DAWN (Koontz 43).
Twenty nine years ago, when my mom and dad were
driving...they were abducted by aliens (330).

Add Work Cited Here:

http://www.biography.com/people/dean-koontz
http://www.fictiondb.com/author/deankoontz~21081.htm

The time period did not have any social influences

because the ways that the characters act and think are
very similar to how people do today. Just like the
characters in the book, many of us believe that aliens
exist, which is one of the main ideas in the story. There
were no economical influences either since social classes
were arranged as we have them today. People in the
upper class lived in bigger houses while people in the
lower class lived in smaller houses and worked more.
There were no cultural influences because just like today,
parents expect a lot from their children and become
disappointed when they do not make good decisions in
life.

Character Analysis

Themes

Tommy Phan:
LoveTommy is the main character in the book. His speech can
Tommy and Del fall in love
be described as serious because he worries too much
their love gets them out of the situation
about the demon all the time. In the story, Tommy mostly
they are in because they fight with the demon to
thinks about escaping and surviving, but he occasionally
save each other
imagines what it would be like if he and Del were
love is the reason to why the demon
together. Tommy affects others by dragging them into the
appeared, Mrs. Dai, a friend of Tommys mom,
situation he is in. While running away from the demon he
made it to teach Tommy that he has to stick with
gets in Dels car and makes her another one of the
his family more
demons targets. Later on in the story he also gets his
because of Tommy and Dels love, Mrs
mom in the car and then the demon tries killing all three
Dai saw that she could not do anything to
of them. In the book Tommy is only described by Del,
separate them and gave up, the demon went
she describes him as smart, tall, and handsome. Finally,
away
the actions taken by Tommy are very simple and
Fearmindless because he is in so much fear that he cannot
Tommy and Del are afraid of the demon
think straight.
their fear goes on throughout the whole
story
Del ( Deliverance Payne):
they are scared when the demon goes
Del is the character that saves the day because she is the
away too because they think Mrs. Dai will try to
one that takes action in result for her supposed fate with
separate them
Tommy. She orders Tommy to get in her car when she
Disappointmentsees him running away from the demon, from there on
Tommys mom is disappointed in him
Del is the one who manages to escape from it and make
for marrying a white woman and not a
Tommy survive. Tommy describes her as tall, skinny,
Vietnamese one
beautiful and blonde. Her speech is always sarcastic and
his whole family is disappointed because
not serious. Dels thoughts are planned out and wise
he had gotten away from them to accomplish his
since she has supernatural abilities and is part alien,
dream of becoming an American writer
although Tommy does not find out until they get married.
family does not like the fact that he
wants to be an American and not Vietnamese
mom thinks he hates her, never calls or
visits her
Regretfulness Tommy regrets having lost time in his
writings rather than spending time with his
family
after growing up and remembering about
the time when he was small, Tommy regrets
being so embarrassed about his mom
when Mrs. Dai realized that she made a
mistake while making the demon that made it
want to kill Tommy, she regrets having gone so
far in trying to bring Tommy closer to his family

Motifs and Symbols

Motifs

Demon represents the

disappointment of Tommy's family
Mrs. Dai created it
because Tommy's mom always talked
about how Tommy had been getting
further away from family and Mrs. Dai
wanted to teach him a lesson
demon brought Tommy
and Del together
Time represents Tommys fear
before the demon
appeared, someone left a message saying
tick tock and the deadline is dawn
on Tommy's computer screen
Tommy and Del are
always checking the time hoping that it
is almost dawn
Del and her mom talk
about how sleep is optional for them and
a waste of time and at the end of the
story reveal their true identity of being
part alien

Symbols

Family represents the demon

family is the reason to
why the demon came
Mrs. Dai felt bad for
Mrs. Phan because she always talked
about how Tommy was getting away
from the family