Sunday, March 15, 2009

March 15 - "Suffer the Little Children"

Sundays with Uncle Stevie
“Suffer the Little Children”
by Stephen King
Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993)

* * * (Good) Supernatural

Miss Sidley began to notice a change in some of her third grade students. They no longer feared her; they had become something to be feared.

It would be difficult to do your job if everywhere you looked you saw evil. If even the innocent and innocuous became things of terror, it might be enough to drive a person mad. King does a wonderful job – as always – taking a sane, if not entirely good person, and detailing her descent into madness. Miss Sidley’s reaction to these monstrous children is not something we tend to joke about in the current day, but it fits the story. The most chilling aspect of the tale is at the end, when this awareness of the evil inside children – all children – becomes apparent to even those placed in charge of Miss Sidley's care. Is it madness passing, or something far worse?

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