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 first major conflict of “1408” exposes the subtle differences between two similar ideas. When Olin challenges Mike’s beliefs, imploring him to heed his warning about room 1408, Mike is forced to admit that he doesn’t believe in the subject matter of his writings. Mike cannot accept the paranormal because he has never encountered it, but he insists that he is open to the possibility that hauntings are real: “I may never win the Pulitzer Prize for investigating The Barking Ghost in Mount Hope Cemetery, but I would have written fairly about him if he had shown up” (373). However, Mike does not require “evidence” to indulge in various superstitious behaviors. In the very first scene, he tells Olin about his “lucky Hawaiian shirt […] the one with the ghost repellent” (367). While Mike’s smile indicates that the latter remark is ironic, he later admits that he attaches quasi-supernatural significance to the shirt; when Olin observes the cigarette that Mike wears behind his ear, Mike confesses that it is “[p]art affectation, part superstition […] Like the Hawaiian shirt” (368).