Thursday 26 January 2012
Suffer the little children
1) Wherein lies the horror?
2) What happens with Buddy Jenkins?
3) Is it all in Miss Sidley´s mind or are the children actually evil little monsters, or perhaps there is a third solution?
4) What does the title imply?
5) Who is the narrator and how does the language effect the story?
6) Think about the contrasting themes of good/evil; madness/sanity; chaos/order etc. in terms of message.
Apply the theories below to the story:
1) Freud´s model of the mind (id, ego, superego)
2) The Uncanny- Freud´s concept of things being familiar andforeign at the same time)
3) Cognitive dissonance (the uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously).
4) Thodorov´s literary theory of the Fantastic.
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1) Ms. Sidley is a control freak. She is afraid of losing structure of the class. On page 182 it says: "she had her little tricks, of course, success, she firmly believed depended as much on the little things as on the big ones"
ReplyDeleteThese trick or ways of keeping everything in control are very important for her. As soon as Robert does not show any fear for her, as the kids always does Ms. Sidley loses control.
"She was not going to be one of those old maid schoolmarms dragged kicking and screaming from their classes at the age of retirement" page 184
If she loses control of the situation she will turn to "violence" if the structure of her Tyranny fails then the Id will take over and use all sorts of primitive, animal ways to get power and control.
Samuel and Michelle
The horror lies in the fact that the environment is one normally associated with innocence; a school environment. In "Suffer the Little Children" this is turned into the uncanny; the innocent children suddenly seem to be the ones who are in charge, cunningly playing games with the adults. The latter consequently questioning their own sanity.
ReplyDeleteNearing the end of the story, Stephen King turns the story upsidedown; thus confusing the reader, as the latter has been led to think otherwise and form ideas of his own. This confusion can be explained by the phenomenon "cognitive dissonance", which is the dissonance occuring in the mind as a result of conflicting ideas, beliefs, expectations. Evidence of this is also to be found inside the story, where the importance of "patterns" is made clear; when Miss Sidley's patterns are broken, she ceases to be able to live, and, as a result, kills herself.
If one were to apply Todorov's theory of the fantastic, it might be concluded that "Suffer the Little Children" is a case of "the marvelous"; the twist near the ending drives the reader towards the conclusion that there is, in fact, something inexplicable or supernatural happening.
*Le Bastian