The Man In The Black Suit

Horror is a genre in fiction (or film and other types of media) intended to produce feelings of unease and terror in the reader. Horror may include elements of the supernatural, or it can have an earthly setting. In the construction of a horror narrative, the author needs to elicit a series of emotions that gradually accumulate to a feeling of terror or disgust—usually a combination of both.

The first narrative element that a horror story requires is imagery that evokes horror themes. This imagery can be subtle, but it must stick in the background of the reader’s mind. The first image King uses is the farmer’s murder of his family (46). In the same section Gary mentions that when he was young, Motton was full of ghosts. King does not dwell on these details, but their presence creates a vague feeling that something is amiss.

The second narrative element in horror is a warning. The warning is usually a direct statement to the protagonist not to do whatever they are about to do. In this story, Gary’s parents warn him not to go beyond the fork in the stream. They repeat the warning several times, and Gary promises to obey them several times as well. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Brown’s wife pleads with him not to go on his journey that night, but Brown rejects her warning. In King’s case, he includes the warning, but because Gary does not reject it, the reader does not suspect that anything bad will happen to him.

In the horror genre, strange events that occur in the present are always linked to the past. Therefore, as part of the story’s setup, there is usually an allusion to something strange or unpleasant that happened in the past. Because the reader does not know the story’s outcome, the historical allusion may not strike the reader as important at the time, but it is a plot element that will become vital to events later on. In this story, Dan’s death is the precursing event that makes the Devil’s appearance possible.

Next, the author must create a feeling of anxiety. Anxiety is not yet fear, but the story’s events must place the protagonist in a situation that causes them a significant amount of stress. In this case, the anxiety-producing event is the bee landing on Gary’s nose. He freezes, tries to blow it away, and fantasizes that it is evil. He would prefer to run away—or have the bee fly away—but King creates a situation from which Gary cannot escape. The stakes are not high because Gary already knows that he is not allergic to bees, but the situation puts him “on the edge of panic” (52). This section also sets up the idea that Gary is about to wet his pants from fear, but he doesn’t because his level of fear is not yet that high. King’s narrative techniques work particularly well because Gary tells the story in the first person. This forces the reader to experience everything that the protagonist experiences. When Gary feels trapped, the reader feels trapped, and so forth.

Horror as a genre requires the reader to participate in the narrative emotionally, and to accomplish this, the author must make the reader invested in the protagonist’s safety. The author must also provide enough intrigue and suspense to engage the reader in the story’s strange or supernatural elements. These narrative techniques create a paradox for readers; they care about the protagonist’s safety, but they are also curious to see how events unfold.

Next, King creates a sense of fear. Anxiety is the anticipation of a fearful event. Fear is the confrontation with a painful, threatening, or dangerous event that forces the protagonist into action. The first moment Gary experiences real fear is when he sees the Devil. King convinces the reader of Gary’s fear by describing the Devil in vivid sensory detail. Horror is a difficult genre to write because so many horror cliches exist. King’s Devil is unique, which also means that, though the reader can imagine that something bad will happen to Gary, they cannot predict what the Devil will do.

The moment of terror is the climactic event in a horror narrative. In horror, this is often a pursuit because it puts the protagonist in extreme danger while giving them a chance to escape. The reader’s emotional investment in the story is at its highest point: they become fearful of what will happen to the protagonist while enjoying the thrill of the chase. For Gary, this occurs when the Devil begins to chase him. King describes the Devil’s bizarre, horrific appearance as he runs after Gary, and several times the Devil almost reaches him. Older Gary is telling the story in hindsight, so readers know that Gary must escape, but they are caught up in the moment of the story.

Horror narratives have two possibilities for resolution. Either the protagonist escapes, or the monster consumes them. In both cases, in the denouement, the narrative world returns to homeostasis. Whether the protagonist fails or triumphs, the monster disappears and is neutralized. The resolution gives the reader an emotional respite, allowing them to absorb the story’s events. Even if the monster seems permanently beaten, the most effective horror narratives imply that it may return. Older Gary is writing the story because he fears that, in his old age, the Devil may return, and this time he will not be able to escape.