Content Warning: The source material features discussions of suicide, self-harm, and distressing imagery. It also includes ableist language, specifically the author’s use of the r-word.

The cigarette that Mike tucks behind his ear every day symbolizes Mike’s superstition. Mike uses the cigarette the way most people might use lucky tokens like a rabbit’s foot or a four-leaf clover. During his meeting with Olin in the office, Mike instinctively reaches up to touch the cigarette. He repeats this gesture later on after Olin leaves him on the 14th floor, pairing it with a flick of his lucky shirt collar.

Mike also claims that the cigarette is a final measure in times of crisis, comparing it to cigarettes one might find inside emergency cabinets. Mike fulfills this purpose by pulling the cigarette out when he feels there is no escape from room 1408. Incidentally, doing so allows him to start a fire that gets him out through the door. In this sense, Mike is saved by his superstition.

The cigarette is also symbolic of Mike’s grief over his dead brother and the reflection of his own mortality. Whenever Mike disposes of the day’s cigarette in the toilet, he perceives the “faint yellow-orange residue of [.