boogeyman

[EveBA]

Hi there,
I'm looking 4 some info. about "the boogeyman".
Couldn't find much about it here.
Besides my passion to SK's books I'm also suppose to write an essay about the psychological state of mind of the character. I have too much to write about and I'm spreading too much.
can anyone help? maybe in couple of points...
Tnx. in advance,
E v e

[strange]

The most I know about the boogeyman it's almost like a universal folk tell in a lot of cultures to do with people coming and stealing children or hurting them. If you want information about the boogeyman himself then maybe consider his state of mind being one of torment almost purpose and enjoyment because that's what it thrivs on and enjoys harming others, even toying with them as shown by him disguising himself as the shrink in an attempt to almost humour and secretly laugh at his victim.

Although if you mean the man that's interesting because its sort of fear that's universal and more about primal fear. Most kids know about it and even adults and experiences like that could effect him mentality by scarring him. It's like an irrational fear although in the story that fear becomes reality, which makes it even more intense. It's like King says in the intro to Night Shift, we know sometimes things aren't their but we still do things because of primal fear.

Yet theres the fact that the boogeyman haunts him and makes him self-absorbed and only thinking of himself as he becomes selfish abandoning his last child instead of protecting him. Fear that becomes so intense it causes him to forsake anything else. Also you got the sort of paranoia of closets and the guilt and need to tell someone in order to help himself.

Hopefully this is usefull, either that or I've been useless

[EveBA]

Again thank you for the thread.

Sometimes you need someone else to start the talking and then it pours...

About the man that came to the shrink, he himself is talking about his mother, that she ,like, was too stressed up when he was a child and that he didn't want to do so to his own children, but eventually he did even worse.

I thought all along that the man killed his own kids and doesn't know it all along. In his childish way (as he compares his life to his childhood most of the time) he seeks for explanation to his kids deaths and only finds it in the image of the Boogeyman.

I was surprised about the end, about the "real" Boogeyman that was the shrink all along.

but the other explanation can be, that the man is actually the killer and he came back to the shrinks office instinctively motivated by his subconscious (he forgot to ask him about the scheduled days) and then sees the Boogeyman.

SK doesn't say to us what happened then, but if you look on the statistics in his story: all three kids died when he imagined the presence of the Boogeyman. for him it was real!

And so, since he can see him now - he probably going to kill the shrink as well. (and blame the Boogeyman)

Of course, it might be really true that the Boogeyman does exist, removes the mask and kills the man. He kills him only now because like you suggested:

his state of mind being one of torment almost purpose and enjoyment because that's what it thrivs on and enjoys harming others, even toying with them as shown by him disguising himself as the shrink in an attempt to almost humour and secretly laugh at his victim.

In addition, this fear about abandoning everything and everyone else because he only thinks about himself, becomes more and more real to him until he actually sees the Boogeyman himself.

and like you suggested:

Yet theres the fact that the boogeyman haunts him and makes him self-absorbed and only thinking of himself as he becomes selfish abandoning his last child instead of protecting him. Fear that becomes so intense it causes him to forsake anything else. Also you got the sort of paranoia of closets and the guilt and need to tell someone in order to help himself.

Until then, he could only see or hear the trails, or maybe crumbs that the Boogeyman left for him, in order to build the fear inside of him, and then "when he's ready" - feed from his fear. like a goose or a pig that are being fed in order tobe slautered. By the way, this notion comes back in more of SK's stories, but in It (1986) he uses this exact idea and develops it into this genius book.

You helped me a lot and I thank you for that.

[EveBA]

Hi everyone,
Thanks for all the welcoming posts.
Nice to meet all of you.

[Seb Shaw]

very intense analysis people! ...
.... however im still a little confused as to who is the boogeyman? as i was under the illusion that it was someone other than the dad and the shrink.

[roblov89]

the boogeyman killed the shrink and took his place, or that's what i thought when reading it at the near end lol, all i know is after reading that story, i did not sleep in the dark for a while and i made sure that my closet door was closed hahaha! scary movies never get me but books have such grave detail that can spook some of the unspookables . the boogeyman followed the dad everywhere like he wanted to make his life miserable, however the man seemed to not like his children too well because he claimed to have just let one of them go to save himself.

[Seb Shaw]

Ya gotta love Mr. King, the way he makes you guess and guess untill your hair is gray and you have a sore head from all that thinking!
After all the help of the SKMB users, to try and unravell the mystery as to who is The Boogeyman, I'm still rather confused.
As far as I'm aware, it could be one of three:

The Boogeyman impesonating the Psychiatrist to almost mock his victm
The father, he could be him as he may have a duel persona, and not know, his otehr could be The Boogeyman himself
someone else, The Boogeyman could be someone else entierly, he may have took the oppertunity to cme out of the closet when Lester left to see the secratary, to get rid of the psychiatrist.

So what do the rest of you 'constant readers' think?

[mayday10]

I couldnt tell if the boogeyman killed the shrink and ripped his face off.... or if he was the shrink in disguise.

It would have to be an elaborate disguise though as the boogeyman supposedly had gnarly hands with huge claws.

[Evil Queen]

I really like this story too! I read it twice in a row & felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up while thinking about it! I thought the Boogeyman was a different being than the Dad & psychiatrist. But what made this story really awful was that it killed the 3 little children, that was heartbreaking for me! & for them to die in such a manner, being literally scared to death made me feel horrible! I felt the parents were just horrible for not protecting them!

[DeathStalker]

Yes, the parents were terrible people for not protecting their children, but as to who the Boogeyman was - didn't you know? The Boogeyman was...

You!