Stephen King “The Boogeyman”
Homework:
1. While reading divide the text into paragraphs and give each paragraph a headline
2. While-reading
Which of the following words would you use to describe Billings?
Reliable aggressive arrogant cunning false reliable evil sincere heartless hostile truthful obstinate headstrong domineering heroic lively timid sensible foolish cheerful depressed shattered mad anxious nervous tense peaceful psychopathic
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3. Questions for group work in class
1. Find examples of how Lester Billing is described. In particular you should pay attention to the description of his body language – please write down your examples
2. Try to describe the marriage of the Billings – are they happy? Use text examples!
3. Account for the relationship Billings has to his 3 children
4. What is your interpretation of the ending of the story? Who do you think is the murderer? Can the incidence with the boogeyman and the shrink in the end be explained?
5. King accounts for three types of horror: terror, horror and the gross-out. See if you can find examples of all three of them in this story?
6. Which of Todorov’s three categories does this story belong to? Please argue for your choice. Read the quotation from an interview with Stephen King – in which way could this quotation be relevant for “The Boogeyman”?
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4. Additional work (if you run out of things to do…J)
In your group or on your own try to come up with words you would expect to find in a horror story (e.g. moon, shriek, dark, shiver, alone etc
1. Check absence
2. Those who have not read should go outside to read, we will see you after the break
3. Did you have any specific problems with the text or things you need to get cleared?
· What has happened to Lester Billing’s children?
· Who is “The Boogeyman”?
· What will happen to Lester Billings?
4. Group work – Go through the questions one by one (in question 2 think of the relationship Billing’s has to his mother)
· IMPORTANT find at least 1 text example pr question to support your observations (remember to note down page and line)
· Each group nominate an English copper who makes sure you speak English and a time taker who makes sure you get through all of the questions
· You have this lesson for the group work and then we will sum up in class - efficient
1. He is plagued, unbalanced, miserable, a control-freak with lots of inhibitions; 28 years, haggard, old, alcoholic (p 34 l 22), baleful, hard, narrow-minded and prejudiced, violent, traditional and conservative “a person needs to know his place” (p 40 l 13), suspicious of his wife, disgusted by family life and his own role and lack of success, a sissy or coward who sacrifices his children – an antihero
2. The Billings have a dysfunctional relationship where she is soft and unhappy and he is controlling and unsatisfied and condescending towards her; The Billings are not happy. Rita is pregnant before the marriage and not necessarily with Lester. Considered a shameful sin in America. Rita is a caring and tender mother whereas Lester is an authoritarian and rather hard father who hits his children and he is tempted to slap Rita as well (p 35 l 38). After child death number two they still have a normal sex life Lester points out. Rita is obeying (p. 40). Lester has not detached himself from his mother and she does not like Rita (p. 40 l 28) He adapts his mother’s respectless view on Rita and that makes him suspect that she cheats him with the birth control. Calls Rita a jellyfish (p.37)
3. He is not strongly attached but sees them as obstacles in his life, they should fit into his own inhibited understanding of life; Children wear you down, child no 2 is an accident, children should not be treated permissively (p 35 l 38), hits his children, children drives him so crazy he could kill them (p 36 l 16), “I didn’t want my girl to get any germs” - is worried about Shirl’s safety but doesn’t give in. Andy looks like himself, in the beginning he doesn’t want anything to do with the child but he realizes that he his the one he loves the most- still he acts like a coward and sacrifices him to the boogeyman. (p. 42 l 45)
4. The title indicates something childish and tells us that Lester Billings believes in the childish although he tries to dismiss it. He might be the schizophrenic boogeyman because all of the killings happen when Rita is not there – especially the last one
5. The short story moves from showing terror to horror and the gross out; Terror: When Denny starts to be scared, saying “Boogeyman”, hints that he has been wetting his pants ((p 36 l 27). Shirl’s death is also an example of terror, nothing is revealed but we are moving into the category of horror because we hear the monster” slither”. The last boy Andrew starts out with being horror because we hear the monster but ends up being the gross-out because Billings sees the monster and we hear how the boy’s neck breaks. We get all the slimy details of how the monster looks ans smells.
6. The fantastic element is that we hesitate when we hear of the child’s death and the uncanny is that we end up thinking that it might be Billings who is schizophrenic. In this “fairytale” there is no comfort for the children; It moves between the two categories of the fantastic and the uncanny because first we hesitate and think that there must be a rational explanation to Denny’s death but in the “uncanny” end we might suspect that it is Billings himself who has murdered the children due to his personality. With regards to the quotation this is a story of how the children are let down by their father – this is not a fairytale but it has the fairytale theme of being abandoned by your parents.
Find synonyms for these words which are all used to describe Lester Billings
Haggard worn, raddled
Balefully threatening, sinister
Permissive soft, indulgent
Sardonic sarcastic
Morbidly offensive
Savage offensive, violent, brutal, wild, non-civilized
Creative writing
Write down how you would react if you heard Billings telling his story/change the ending of the story – you can use some of the words that you came up with earlier.
Extra Task:
Find synonyms for these words which are all used to describe Lester Billings
Haggard
Balefully
Permissive
Sardonic
Morbidly
Savage
The aim is that the students are able to use the concepts regarding horror and that they through textual analysis will get an idea of Lester Billings’ personality. Working into depth they should reach a deeper understanding of the story.
Form of work: Group work and class teaching – everyone should say something and understand the story
HOMEWORK: divide the story into paragraphs and give each paragraph a headline