Stephen Edwin King is considered to be one of the most outstanding authors of contemporary horror, suspense, science and fantasy fictions of the world. He is famous for his novels such as Carrie, The shining and others. Stephen King is a very talented writer, he manages to create the air sphere, like a ball that can burst at any moment and cause fear, the reader finds himself in this ball as if in a gloomy, full of tension world, from which is impossible to get out until you read it to the end of the book. He created this world by using a lot of brilliant dialogues and witty paradoxes are distinguished features of his creation. His “The Boogeyman” is an absolute classic part surreal and funny field guide, part existential crisis, that’s why the phenomenon of his success is being explored.
Under the title of the book the writer means fear! The theme of fear is a central to the short story The Boogeyman by King. The narrative is focused on the fear of Lester and that why of his children. The Boogeyman in this part is the principal fear of all children’s so author choose this title to emphasize the influence of the people’s fears.
The key problem raised in the first part that I’ve read are about the inner fear of the protagonist, he comes to a psychologist with the problem that his children have died, he doesn’t go to the police or a detective, because he subconsciously understands that the problem lies in himself, from his childhood he has fear and translated it on children’s.
The most attractive thing for the readers attention is King’s style. The typical feature of the author’s style is his using a great number of the high-flown words to describe a Lester’s rejection of his childhood fear and his guild in this tragedy, which entailed such consequences. His brilliant dialogues between Lester and Dr. Harper’s are worth mentioning as they give the atmosphere of conflict and not having to admit to myself that provoke interest to the readers.
Author using a lot of stylistic devices like metaphors - boogeyman; epithets- impatient flick, thinning hair; personification-boogeyman left a mark on the floor)- thats all are used to give the reader the whole picture of emotions. The author describes Lester but we know nothing about Dr. Harper’s, his emotions, his fears, his minds-nothing what makes one think and is this a real person or just a part of Lester’s imagination? Who knows?
In my opinion, the author doesn’t sympathize with the protagonist, he shows his real insides and the whole story revolves around the constant fears of the protagonist that destroy everyone and everything around him and this will continue anywhere in the world until he gets rid of him.
I am totally recommend this horror short story for all of us.