“The Boogeyman” – Stephen King (1978)

Summary Lester Billings, the father of three children is talking to a shrink. He seems mentally disturbed. His first two children died of mysteriously courses, but both(prenominal) of the children had cried bugaboo right before their death. After Lester had his third tidings, one night the word of honor screams and Lester sees that a bugaboo is exhausting his son, but Lester doesnt help his son, motley of he runs a steering and when he returns his son is dead. When Lester Billings leaves his shrink, he sees that the shrink is genuinely the boogeyman.Their spousal Lester and Rita Billings marri season has probably never been characterized by equality. He is the kind of man who believes that womens station in life is to follow their husbands. (page 5. ) When Rita denies that she has taught Denny the word booger, he calls her a liar and feels akin slapping her around. This certainly indicates the opposite to a marriage based on mutual confidence, love, and support. Lester d oes non arrest rattling much respect for Rita. I think back he has married her give away of necessity. Now he tries to imagine that their marriage is happy, perfect and like his generate cherished it to be.Lester actually thinks that Rita is a jellyfish. I think he sees either woman as jellyfish -something, which is inferior. He has to control Rita She still wanted to do what I told her. Thats the wifes place, right? This womens lib makes people sick. The most important thing in life for a person is to know his place. Page 5. Time Seen in a position of time the majority the American population regarded pregnancy before marriage as a grave matter. The marriage between Lester Billings and his wife does not seem to be the happy ending of some love story.They were both very young, and the reason why they got married was the unexpected pregnancy, LB odd college to decease a job and support the little family. The marriage was, somewhat, a solution to the situation at the time, a solution to keep an unobjectionable position in society. Lester billings Charact. He is against womens liberation, which takes place at the time. He wants to appear powerful and to possess the leading role of his marriage The way in which he has been raised has probably inspired him to develop this attitude. bingle attitude caused by the mother is the one towards his children concerning where they be to sleep.Billings believes that his mother has been in any case over-protective with him, and this has had a negative influence on him. He mentions the episode from the beach. Lester Billings does not really take notice of the rest of society. He does not prefer a position in the matter of the Vietnam War or the black-market Americans civil rights movement. He and Rita isolate themselves in the little family. He thinks exceedingly of himself. He believes that his decisions and methods are the right ones because he is the man of the family. Lester Billings is not a soft family man.In the beginning of the story he claims that children tie a man d possess. He is not very gentle towards his first son Denny. He hits him if he does not stop crying. He says that it is actually unattainable to remember your kids when they are lost at a young age because you have not come to feel very attached to them yet. This is an tremendously cynical idea in my opinion. Dr. Harper The psychiatrist is portrayed as a passive spectator. He only replies to Billings story with a some comments. However, he makes Billings talk and perhaps he authorizes something from this monologue.The ending could symbolise the victory of anxiety, fear that he maybe have realized what he was appalled of realizing. Interpretation I think the ending is a simple jot to the reader that suppressed anxieties and frustrations create these hidden boogeymen that are able to terrify ourselves as well as others. They take many shapes and perhaps everybody has got one. mayhap the doctor simply wears t he mask of the boogeyman in the end, as a representative of LBs personal internal conflict. The boogeyman lives in our subconscious mind, it lives in childrens minds- in their fantasy.Small children are the most sensitive roughly fear. They need their parents protection and you cannot get too overprotective to children at that age. Lester cannot realise this. That is why he has to pay with the most precious in life- his own children and finally his own life. I started to think, maybe all the monsters we were scared of whence we were kids, Frankenstein and Wolfman and mummy, maybe they were real. Real enough to kill kids that were supposed to have fallen into gravel pits and drowned in lakes or were just never found. peradventureThe Boogeyman represents many things, such as, anger, fear and paranoia. You think that it is only children who are afraid of boogeymen, but in this story we see that in like manner adults get afraid and paranoid and believe that there is something in the closet, under the bed, good deal in the basement etc. It is fear of the unknown and the superstitions, which every humans being has thought about, but some gets very paranoid and they think something is out to get them. I think Kings stories also appeal to the female readers and not just to men.I think that women would fancy the stories just like men. But it is right to say that King uses Women like subordinate parts in his stories and it is mostly men who has the leading parts. The boogeyman represents Lesters fear of being the father who gives his children a bad upbringing. I do believe that Billings has killed his children himself. Some of his statements indicate this. Christ, kids drive you crazy sometimes. You could kill them. (Page 4) The frustrations from his own childhood may have affected him so deep that he kills his children.