The Man in the Black Suit

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947. His parents separated when he was young, and his mother raised him. In the early seventies he taught high school English, while working on his first novel Carrie. After his first few novels, he spent some time traveling abroad. Many of his novels have become major motion pictures including Hearts of Atlantis, the Green Mile, and The Shinning are some examples.

The Man in the Black Suit, is the story of an old man, who retells the story of his encounter with the devil when he was nine years old. From the beginning he admits that some people will not believe him, but that was not the goal for writing this story in a diary. When Gary was nine his brother Dan died from a bee sting. After that his parents where cautious about everything Gary did. One day after doing his chores he goes fishing, where he meets the man in the black suit. This man smells of burnt matches and proceeds to tell Gary that his mother just died from a bee sting. The man in the black suit tells Gary that he will end his pain of his mothers death by killing him. Gary runs away from him and meets up with his father. After retelling the story his father reassures him that his mother is alive, when they return to the spot where the encounter took place, there is dead grass where the man in the black suit had laid.

The reason I picked this short story of Kings was because from the moment I finished I thought it was an awesome story. The idea of an encounter with the devil was intriguing, but to have it involve a child seemed a bit twisted. I have to admit I enjoyed the horror aspect of the story. I like the supernatural qualities of not having to obey the laws of reality. When I was younger I always loved reading horror stories. For me I like stories to scare me through senseless gory in combination with unforeseen events.

The story reminds me of my imagination when I was younger. The devil is like the monster that you would hide from when it was dark outside. Neither of them were truly there but your imagination ran wild and you thought the worst. I believe that Gary was just dreaming everything about his near death experience up due to the traumatic time he had when his brother died. I know that when my Uncle died, in a car accident from not wearing his seatbelt, I had awful dreams of being in a car accident. Through my faith in god, I also conclude that if Gary's experience was real then god played