While the general setting in these works is similar, 1970s New England, the main setting and secondary setting is different. "The Boogeyman” takes place in a psychiatrist’s office. The secondary setting takes place in the Billings’ family homes and the rooms where the children die. Conversely, “Sometimes They Come Back” takes place in a classroom at Harold Davis High School. The secondary setting is the dream Jim has detailing his brother’s murder. The plots are also dissimilar. The plot of “Sometimes They Come Back” moves at a steady pace. Once introduced to the main character, the reader hangs on as the horror story unfolds. The reader learns why Jim is so scared of his past. As Jim finally deals with his brother’s killers, the reader feels compelled to cheer for him. Mr. King, however, steals that feeling of “being freed” with Jim’s realization that he may never be spared from his past. The of plot “The Boogeyman” unravels by Lester going to a psychiatrist, “…to tell [his] story…To get it off [his] chest.” (“The Boogeyman, 2012, p. 111). Lester relates how his children died one by one and how he allowed it to happen by failing to acknowledge the children’s cries for help. Mr. King uses characterization differently in these tales of fiction. In “The Boogeyman”, the protagonist is Lester Billings. Lester is a static stock character. He is a 28 year old, divorced father of three. His psychiatrist notes, Lester looks haggard and old with thinning hair and a sallow complexion. Lester’s eyes held all the miserable secrets of whiskey (“The Boogeyman, 2012). Lester is a coward and weak. Unlike Lester, the protagonist in “Sometimes They Come Back” is dynamic character. Jim is a 30-something adult male. Jim is marr...
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...to keep the reader guessing is a technique that increases the fear and horror and appears is most of his tales. If you are daring enough to delve into his works, remember to leave the light on, lock all the doors and be prepared for a true fright.
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King, S. "Strawberry Spring." Night Shift. New York, NY: First Anchor Books. 2012. 182-191. Print.
Terror. (2014). In Merriam-Webster online. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terror?show=0&t=1399240204
Conover, Ted. Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 2000. 331. Print.
The readings “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving and The Monster by Stephen Crane are to amazing readings. However, these two texts represent violence and conflicts in different ways, which shows that although they have the same concept their tactic for this same concept is used in a different approach.
Suspense is the feeling of uncertainty or excitement, in waiting for an outcome or decision. Edgar Allan Poe uses suspense in his story “Masque of the Red Death” by using objects and great descriptive detail. Poe’s story is about a prince that tries to escape from the inevitable. He tries to lock himself away from the ‘red death’ and has a masquerade ball that doesn’t end happily. Prince and all of his guests die inside or around the seventh apartment room. The seventh room is preceded by six colored rooms which are meant to symbolize either the stages of life, or the seven sins. Inside the last room there are black velvet tapestries that hang all over the ceiling and down the walls. The window panes are a deep blood red color which gives the room an unwelcoming atmosphere. On the western wall, there is a gigantic clock of a deep black wood. Inside it has a pendulum that swings back and forth with a dull monotonous clang. When the minute hand marks a new hour, there is a clear, loud, deep sound, which can be heard from far away. Although it can give off an eerie feeling, the great eb...
Asma, Stephen. On Monsters :An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
The Tell Tale Heart, written by Edgar Allan Poe, and Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock were both formidable, revolutionary and horrifying creations to the audience’s of their times and to some extent, still are today. Hitchcock drew audiences in into his work by utilizing certain camera angles, mise-en-scene and diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. However, Edgar Allan Poe used a variety of literary techniques such as varying sentence structure, imagery and irony to draw his readers in. While these two masterpieces are unique in terms of content, both of them explore a prominent theme, fear.
An Anthology For Readers and Writers. 5th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. 1283-1296. Print.
Writers may use different techniques to get the same effect out of the audience. In the short story, "Old Mother Savage" by Guy Du Maupassant, a tragic story of a woman who losses everything is told. The story is scary in that it has an ending that one would not expect. Also, it can be looked at as a sad story because the mother seems to be sad throughout the entire story. At the end the only thing that she has to be satisfied about is that her murdering four young men can make other women feel how she felt when she found out about the death of her son. This story can be compared to Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", when you talk about the strategies that both authors use to make the audience frightened. They both describe scenes in full detail to give the effect of disgust. However, Du Maupassant, makes the audience feel sorry for the mother in this story turning it into a tragedy instead of horror.
Written during the American Romanticism period, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” by William Irving, personifies the belief in the primacy of imagination. The period of Romanticism in America is often seen as the crucial period of American culture, as it was the central movement of the Renaissance period that moved into a more free-feeling and artistic approach to literature. American Gothic literature made its early appearance with William Irving, first with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in 1820, and carrying over to “The Devil and Tom Walker” in 1824, both of which use a macabre approach to establish a moral ending (Matterson). Told by a narrator known as Geoffrey Crayon, “The Devil and Tom Walker” takes on the tone of a legend or tall tale as the story describes the life of a greedy money lender by the name of Tom Walker, who sales his soul to the devil to gain wealth. Irving ultimately uses literary elements such as symbolism and character development, as well as including themes such as greed and hypocrisy to establish a moral to the corrupt man’s tale.
Through the use of suspense, authors can truly draw the reader into the story. Suspense in the case of gives the reader the sense of apprehension about was is going to happen next and anticipation. Two stories where suspense is depicted is Roald Dahl’s short story, “The Landlady” and Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Tell Tale Heart”. Roald Dahl’s short story, “The Landlady,” is about a young man, Billy Weaver who wants to find somewhere to stay for a night for cheap, since he is traveling for business. However, when he comes across a cheap bed and breakfast, the Landlady there, ends up acting very strange and Billy only uncovers some of her secrets, before it is too late for him to escape. In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Tell Tale Heart,” is about someone, the narrator, who finds an old man’s eye immensely disturbing. After of seven nights of attempting murderer, on the eighth night, not only does the
b. Thesis Statement: Stephen King uses many different elements in order to scare his readers. The elements include supernatural elements, real life scenarios, and fear of the unknown.
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Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson, eds. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 1, 2nd Ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1190-1203. Print.
Ginsberg, Allen. “Howl” The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter and Richard Yarborough. 6th ed. Vol. E. Boston: Wadsworth Cencage Learning, 2010. 2582-2590. Print.