The Boogeyman

Woven around central themes such as The Nature of Fear and Guilt as Self-Punishment, “The Boogeyman” tells the story of a man who must grapple with monsters both within and outside of himself. The story’s central conflict occurs in the past, with the plot of the present-day timeline being driven by Lester Billings’s desire to tell the story of how his children died. This desire is fueled, at least in part, by the guilt he carries.

One of the first things Lester says to Dr. Harper is that he cannot go to a priest, because he is not Catholic. This invokes the idea of confession, during which believers can admit their sins to a priest and be absolved of them. Lester perceives a therapist as the next best thing. By the end of the story, however, Dr. Harper is unconvinced that Lester wants to relieve his feelings of guilt, suggesting he may be holding on to those feelings to punish himself for killing—or at least failing to save—his children.

In this short story, Stephen King uses foreshadowing, repetition, and a plot twist to build a sense of dread. At the beginning of the story, we see the effect a closed closet door has on Lester—he stops mid-sentence when he notices it and cannot continue until Dr. Harper has opened the door and proved that no monster lies within. This moment foreshadows the fact that every subsequent mention of a closet door accompanies a character’s death. In each of these instances, the repeated assertion that the closet door was open “just a crack” (103) contributes to the mounting sense of dread that sets the tone for the whole story. The closet door becomes a recurring motif representing Lester’s fear. Once the Boogeyman makes a surprise entrance in Dr. Harper’s office, readers are left to interpret if a monster truly terrorized Lester, if the monster was only ever in his head, or if the Boogeyman is a figurative reflection of Lester’s own monstrosity.

Much of the story takes place in first-person narration via Lester’s dialogue. This technique provides insight into his disturbed psychological state. The rest of the story is told via third-person narration, giving the reader brief glimpses of what Dr. Harper sees in Lester’s facial expressions, body language, and words. Dr. Harper’s identity is called into question when the Boogeyman appears wearing a mask of his face. King does not elucidate whether Dr. Harper is killed by the monster when Lester briefly leaves the room, or if the Boogeyman impersonated the therapist during the session. The ending is deliberately ambiguous, provoking further unease in the reader.

A tone of dread and unease provides the backdrop for the text to explore the theme of The Nature of Fear. The theme of fear is emphasized by the presence of the Boogeyman, who embodies the darkest terrors conjured by the human imagination. Lester frequently demonstrates contradictions in his views about fear. He reveals how his mother’s anxieties transferred to him when he was a child, prompting his own determination not to raise “sissies.” However, through his commentary, Lester’s own fears are shown to be numerous, including fear of the dark, water, and “the other.” Lester’s fear of “the other” is highlighted not only in his response to the Boogeyman but also in his disparaging comments about women and people of color. The author suggests that in his desire to eradicate his children’s fears, Lester reveals self-loathing of his own fearfulness.  

Throughout the text, there is an ongoing push and pull between Supernatural Versus Human Monstrosity—between the monster that is the Boogeyman and the monster that is Lester. As Lester describes his terrifying encounters with the Boogeyman, his own monstrosity is revealed. His character represents toxic masculinity, as his dialogue is littered with casual examples of racism and misogyny. The motif of domestic violence emphasizes how Lester is guilty of harming both his wife and children. Lester’s account also demonstrates his parental neglect of his children, which, at least in part, contributes to their deaths. “The Boogeyman” is not a story about good versus evil, as many of King’s works are. Instead, the narrative highlights the human capacity for evil by mirroring it in a supernatural being.

Just as there is a push and pull between the supernatural and the human, there is also a push and pull between imagination and reality in the text. Just before the death of his third child, Lester entertains the idea that the Boogeyman is only real because he believes it is—that the more you think about and believe in something, the more real it becomes. This idea seems to be supported at the end of the story, when the Boogeyman appears in Dr. Harper’s office. It was not there at the beginning of the story when Lester checked the closet, but after an hour of talking about the monster, it manifests just in time to kill Dr. Harper and confront Lester.

Overall, the elements of the text work together to create a sense of unease that leaves the reader wondering what is true. The ambiguous nature of the ending leaves readers questioning whether the Boogeyman is real, or if Lester’s account of the Boogeyman is a veiled confession to murdering his children. After all, Lester admits to Dr. Harper that “kids drive you crazy sometimes. You could kill them” (103). The only certainty is that Lester’s children are dead, and he is, in one way or another, responsible.