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1.    Describe Lester Billings. Feel free to use some of the adjectives below.

Mad

Truthful

Sincere

Nervous

2.    How is Lester Billings described in the text? Find examples in the text. In particular you should pay attention to the description of his body language – please write down your examples

Billings lay straight as a yardstick on the couch, not giving it an inch of himself

His hands were folded corpselike on his chest.

He thought that Billings looked haggard and old. His hair was thinning, his complexion        sallow

3.    Try to describe the marriage of the Billings – are they happy? Use text examples!

They seem like a normal married couple.

4.    Account for the relationship Billings has to his 3 children

He loved his children very much so. But he wasn’t overprotective, he’s very old fashioned.

5.    What is your interpretation of the ending of the story? Who do you think is the murderer? Can the incidence with the Boogeyman and the shrink in the end be explained?

No it can’t it is a very scary ending and leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

6.    King accounts for three types of horror: terror, horror and the gross-out. See if you can find examples of all three of them in this story?

The story is throughout kind of horrifying although the ending is terrorizing..

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He is special, depressed, heartless, shattered, mad, domineering, psychopathic

1.    How is Lester Billings described in the text? Find examples in the text. In particular you should pay attention to the description of his body language – please write down your examples He looked haggard. We think that he is schizophrenic and that he killed his own children

2.    Try to describe the marriage of the Billings – are they happy? Use text examples!
No, they are not. They don’t communicate with each other; she wants a child, but he doesn’t and she lies about using contraception. He accuses her of being … because she chose to have sex with him before marriage

3.    Account for the relationship Billings has to his 3 children
He likes Andy the most, because he is most similar to him. He doesn’t really like the other children.

4.    What is your interpretation of the ending of the story? Who do you think is the murderer? Can the incidence with the Boogeyman and the shrink in the end be explained?

He is schizophrenic and he is the murderer, but he doesn’t know; it’s his other personality and he is afraid of it himself.

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1.    How is Lester Billings described in the text? Find examples in the text. In particular you should pay attention to the description of his body language – please write down your examples

Billings looked haggard and old. His hair was thinning, his complexion sallow. His eyes held all the miserable secrets of whisky.

Picture of a man enduring necessary humiliation. His hands were folded corpselike on his chest. His face was carefully set.. He looked at the plain white composition ceiling as if seeing scenes and pictures played outthere.

2.    Try to describe the marriage of the Billings – are they happy? Use text examples!

He got the power in the family, he threatens to hit his wife and does not admit when he is wrong.

3.    Account for the relationship Billings has to his 3 children

He loves them but he hate kids. Hate/love relationship.

4.    What is your interpretation of the ending of the story? Who do you think is the murderer? Can the incidence with the Boogeyman and the shrink in the end be explained?

Either way Billings is crazy or there is a boogeyman.

5.    King accounts for three types of horror: terror, horror and the gross-out. See if you can find examples of all three of them in this story?

Gross-out is seen when the baby is described. Terror is seen when the therapist is aggressive and anxious. Horror elements is the boogeyman and when the closet is a little bit open.

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STUDY QUESTIONS

1.    Describe Lester Billings. Feel free to use some of the adjectives below.

Aggressive, sincere, depressed, shattered, anxious, mad and tense.

2.    How is Lester Billings described in the text? Find examples in the text. In particular you should pay attention to the description of his body language – please write down your examples

Billings lay straight as a yardstick on the couch, not giving it an inch of himself. His feet protruded stiffly over the end. Picture of a man enduring necessary humiliation. His hands were folded corpselike on his chest. His face was carefully set. His body is stiff and his body language says that he is pretty nervous

3.    Try to describe the marriage of the Billings – are they happy? Use text examples!

They are trying to put things together at home, through the hard times but it does end up as a fail.

4.    Account for the relationship Billings has to his 3 children

He loved all of his children but had a special bond to the last one, Andy - maybe because he looked so much like his father and he was also the kid that gave his parents hope to live a normal life again.

5.    What is your interpretation of the ending of the story? Who do you think is the murderer? Can the incidence with the Boogeyman and the shrink in the end be explained?

I think it an overdramatic ending, because the story actually was kind of tense through the whole story, but it all escalates in the ending and gets really non-realistic and I think it has a bad effect on the story. The murderer was the Dr. Harper?

6.    King accounts for three types of horror: terror, horror and the gross-out. See if you can find examples of all three of them in this story?

I think it can be all three of them; Terror because we don’t really know if its just Lester Billings who is crazy or is there really this Boogeyman? Horror because the story is terrifying in a way that gives goose bumps and the things and pictures that shows in our minds are creepy. It’s a little bit gross-out because there’s blood and the Boogeyman is gross.

7.    Give examples of horror elements in the short story, e.g. fear, suspense, shock/surprise, the unknown, the unseen, the unbelievable

The closet is a scary element in the story, cause you while reading thinks about what’s inseide.

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He is depressed, heartless, shattered, mad, domineering, psychopathic

1.    How is Lester Billings described in the text? Find examples in the text. In particular you should pay attention to the description of his body language – please write down your examples He looked haggard. We think that he is schizophrenic and that he killed his own children

2.    Try to describe the marriage of the Billings – are they happy? Use text examples!
No, they are not. They don’t communicate with each other; she wants a child, but he doesn’t and she lies about using contraception. He accuses her of being … because she chose to have sex with him before marriage

3.    Account for the relationship Billings has to his 3 children
He likes Andy the most, because he is most similar to him. He doesn’t really like the other children.

4.    What is your interpretation of the ending of the story? Who do you think is the murderer? Can the incidence with the Boogeyman and the shrink in the end be explained?

He is schizophrenic and he is the murderer, but he doesn’t know; it’s his other personality and he is afraid of it himself.