The Boogeyman by Stephen King, first published in 1973 in Cavalier magazine.
Read the story here The Boogeyman
Read the story here The Boogeyman
A man named Lester Billings visits a psychiatrist, Dr. Harper, in order to tell his side of the story about how his three children died. Lester proclaims that it is his fault, he is the reason they died. Seeming anxious and a bit paranoid, Billings begins to tell Dr. Harper the story of his first son, Denny and how he died. Lester is not looking to repent, he simply wants to get this information off of his chest. He begins to explain that when Denny was two years old, one night he started crying and when Billings checked on him, Denny said the word "boogeyman". Billings ignored this and put Denny back to sleep, later he heard his son scream. When he went back to check on him, Denny was dead and the closet door was cracked open. Just a little, but Lester swears it was closed earlier. Proclaiming that he is not crazy, Lester believes that the Boogeyman is what killed his children.
At one point, Lester asks Dr. Harper to open the closet door so that he can make sure there is nothing in there before he continues telling his story. About a year after Denny dies, Billings second child Shirl begins to cry saying the words "boogeyman" and "claws". This scares Lester but he does not move his daughter out of her room. Like with Denny, Billings doesn't want to coddle his children and feels overprotection will make them weak. Later he finds her dead, with the closet door cracked open. Billings then talks about a dream he had about a black-green creature with long claws and seaweed hair.This scares Billings into thinking that the Boogeyman might just be real and perhaps it is haunting him. Almost two years later Lester and his wife, Rita, have their last child named Andy. Lester claims to have loved Andy the most out of all his children, even going so far as to spoil him with toys a little bit. So he decides to leave his old home and move into another one. Hoping that the Boogeyman won't be able to follow him.
At the new house, Lester decides to let Andy sleep with him and Rita in their room. Rita ends up leaving to take care of her ill mother for a month. After Rita left, Billings began to notice the closet door was cracked open more often. Andy was two years old when he died. Getting worried that the Boogeyman was after him, Lester moved Andy into his own bedroom for the night. When he heard Andy scream, he knew what it was. Lester ran into the room to check on his baby boy. Like Denny and Shirl, Andy was crying "boogeyman". Lester leaves Andy and later that night he hears one last scream. He finds Andy dead on the floor out of his crib. In shock, and being a coward Billings leaves the house to go to a diner, before returning and calling the cops.
Billings explains that all of the deaths were labeled accidents. Despite this, he implies that Rita blames him. Lester begins to cry a little, covering his eyes with his arms. Dr. Harper insists that Billings make another appointment with him to deal with his guilt. Reluctantly Billings agrees and walks out of the office to make an appointment at the nurse's desk. With the nurse gone he walks back into the office. Dr. Harper seems to have disappeared when he hears a voice from the closet that is now cracked open. He hears a voice chanting "So nice". The Boogeyman drops a Dr. Harper mask and walks out of the closet.
Analysis
A few themes that Stephen King explores in this story are imagination vs reality, fear, and guilt. An underlying message about not neglecting children is also present throughout Lester's story. From the way, Lester describes his wife Rita and how he deals with the kids the audience gets the impression that his family is a burden to him. It's possible that his subconscious desire to get rid of his family is what drives him to ignore his children's screams.
Lester implies that Rita did not get pregnant on accident because "children tie a man down". He then says that sometimes when the kids cried at night he wished he could just throw them and Rita out a window. These are suspicious things that make the audience consider whether or not Lester himself is the boogeyman, as a split personality.
Throughout his own story, Lester says a few things that seem sexist which make him seem like less of a good man. At one point he mentions wanting to slap his wife because he thought she is the one that taught the kids to say the word "boogeyman". Even though Lester claims to not be insane, the way he talks and describes things make the audience question his sanity.
At the very beginning, Lester immediately proclaims that he killed all three children. This clearly shows that he wants to get rid of his guilt. He then quickly makes the distinction that his children were murdered, but it's his fault because he let them get murdered. Certain moments during his story he beings to cry and show remorse. This would suggest that Lester is telling the truth about his children being killed by the Boogeyman and that he simply feels responsible. This goes against the idea that Lester is the Boogeyman.
It's not until Andy's death that the audience really feels that Lester is responsible for the death. With Denny, Lester had no idea there was a boogeyman. Yes, he could have moved Denny when he was crying but he really had no knowledge that not moving him would lead to his death. With Shirl, Lester does move Shirl into Denny's old room, and just hoped that nothing would go wrong. But the difference with Andy is that Lester knew the boogeyman would go for Andy instead of him, so he consciously let the boogeyman kill him. This is where the audience can feel his guilt. Lester let his fear turn him into a coward and it cost him his most beloved child.
Lester raises an interesting philosophy about what is real and what we believe. He says that perhaps if we believe in something strongly, then that makes it more real. The idea being that the more fear Lester has of the boogeyman, the more he believes in the boogeyman, the more real the boogeyman becomes, and the stronger it gets. It's an interesting concept that is a recurring theme in fiction. King even reuses this idea in his story IT. There are often demons that feed on the fear of their victims. Which would make sense if the boogeyman has been listening to Lester tell his story?
It's implied that Dr. Harper was actually the Boogeyman the whole time. A great twist because Dr. Harper acts as a typical therapist, never do we question he's not a therapist. The only clue I could find in the story that would suggest Dr. Harper is the Boogeyman is when Lester says Shirl said the word "craws". Which Lester thought she meant "claws" and Dr. Harper says maybe she meant "crawset" as in "closet". Could be that since he's the boogeyman, he was there when Shirl died and maybe knows what she was actually trying to say. That's the only clue, and it's very subtle, that the doctor might not be who we think he is.
Thoughts
So there are a few ways that this story can be interpreted. There's the straightforward way of reading the ending, where Billings has been talking to the boogeyman disguised as Dr. Harper. There is some evidence in the story to support this, as I mentioned. This means that the boogeyman is real and that Lester Billings was not crazy but indeed telling the truth.
But there is an argument to be made that perhaps Mr. Billings is actually the boogeyman. Maybe he has developed a split personality or is schizophrenic like he claims not to be. In the story, a lot of his has some eerie expressions such as smiling when talking about horrific things. Are these brief smiles a result of his inner boogeyman coming out when talking about the kids' deaths? Not to mention his thought about slapping his wife and seeming to have a short temper.
The last interpretation is that Billings was talking to the real Dr. Harper, but because he was talking about believing in the boogeyman and how that makes him more real, the boogeyman then shows up in the end, killing Dr. Harper. This is less likely the case, but still an interesting idea to explore. In the end, the boogeyman takes off a mask of Dr. Harper. But what happened to the real Dr. Harper? Did the boogeyman simply eat him and use his skin as a disguise? The story is open to a few interpretations and depending on what kind of person you are, you chose to believe a different one.
When I first read the story I was surprised at the ending to find out that Billings had been confessing the whole time to the real boogeyman. Or had he? It made me think of what was real and not. I like the idea that the because Lester was finally talking about the boogeyman, that it was able to find him, then ate Dr. Harper in the closet. Although I tend to believe the story's actual ending that the Boogeyman was posing as Dr. Harper the whole time. What I like about the story is the build-up to the Boogeyman. King is excellent at building the suspense. The story also does a good job at showing married parent life from the perspective of a young man in the late 1960's. The guilt that Lester feels is slowly revealed and by the end of the story, the audience is convinced in his regret.
This is my first Stephen King story I've ever read, and I will continue to read more short stories from him. So hope you enjoyed this review. If you've read the story please share your thoughts and comments below. Which interpretation do you believe to be true? Tweet to me @BelleArboreus and check out the blog's Instagram page @fantastic_literature. Thanks for reading and it has just been "so nice"!
Be sure to read my review for his short story "The Man Who Loved Flowers"
Great analysis of the story. Personally, I like reading it as a confession to the boogeyman. What a true horror ending.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting! It is a horrific ending. I love the reveal that he has been talking to the Boogeyman the whole time. I've read the story about 5 times now and the ending is still terrifying.
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