FREE ESSAY ON SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN

SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN

Suffer the Little Children, by Stephen King, is an interesting story that lives up to
the expectations of all his other legendary works. His plot is twisted and contains many
ironic happenings. The characters are divided into good and evil, but one is confused if
the evil is real or imaginary. The setting sounds as if it is based on an actual place.
The
story, as a whole, keeps the reader anticipated and on the edge of his seat.
The setting is placed at an elementary school, where the kids attend class from
eight to three, in a single room, with the same teacher all day. The teacher, Miss
Sidley,
is a small women that has been teaching a long time. She wears a brace due to the pains
in her back, and thick glasses to view all of her pupils. Even though Miss Sidley is
really
petite and frail looking, she has her students scared of her, and they do not dare to try
and
pull anything over on her. The kids know not to chew gum, whisper, pass notes, or read,
because even though Miss Sidley has her back turned, she catches them everytime. They
feel as if she is God, because she knows everything at once.
The story begins in a regular classroom, with Miss Sidley writing spelling words
on the blackboard. She calls on certain kids to use the new word in a sentence. She is
very polite about it, but the kids still tremble. Then, she comes to Robert, a boy in
the
front row. She asks him to use the word tomorrow in a sentence. 
Robert answered, "Tomorrow a bad thing will happen." Then he wrinkled his
nose and smiled slyly. Miss Sidley did not say anything, but this bothered her greatly. 
She could hardly sleep that night and knew something was wrong with Robert. Robert
and a few of the other kids kept making strange smirks and looking at Miss Sidley weird.

The reader can now tell something is wrong with the picture and the plot starts to
thicken. He is anticipating what is exactly going on. The story is now inclining towards
its major climax.
Miss Sidley starts seeing more and more strange things, but tries to hide the
matter. This is the last thing she wants, because she has been a strict teacher for years
and
she doesn't want the rest of the faculty to think she is getting to old and loosing her
mind. 
She decides to keep Robert after school, so she can find out what the deal is. Robert
just
maintained an evil smirk after class and said that there were eleven of them in the
school. 
Miss Sidley kept warning him with different consequences, but his smile kept getting
bigger and bigger. 
Robert then says, "Do you want to see me change, Miss Sidley?" and continues
with, "It will be just like Show and Tell, won't it , Miss Sidley? Robert-the other
Robert-he liked Show and Tell. He's still hiding way down in my head."
The climax has almost peaked now. The reader now knows that somebody took
control of Robert's body; but what is it?
Robert, what seems like finally to the reader, changes his face into an evil demon
and starts to chuckle loudly. Of course this frightens Miss Sidley, sending her straight
out
of the room. Miss Sidley did not return for about a month, saying she did not feel
herself
lately.
Robert changing his face is the climax of the story, because this is when the reader
finds out what he has been questioning throughout the whole story. After this major
climax the story starts declining again, but then reaches another high point.
When Miss Sidley returned to her class a month later, she tried to ignore the
matter, until she couldn't take it anymore. One afternoon she brought a handgun to
school and told the class they were to have a test, one by one, in the mimeograph room. 
This room was soundproof and at the end of the hall. Robert was assigned first and she
took him to the room. He started to change his face again and she shot him. Then, one
by one she shot each kid, until Mrs. Crossen came to get paper and saw the pile of
bodies. 
Miss Sidley was begging the child to change their face, but the child just cried. 
Miss Sidley bringing a handgun to school and shooting each kid is the next high
point of the story. After this occurrence, the story declines, until the very end. 
Miss Sidley is sent to a Juniper Hall, where she is analyzed, given the most recent
drugs, and does daily therapy. Buddy Jenkins, her psychiatrist, watched Miss Sidley
behind a one-way glass, as she watched a bunch of innocent, retarded children. No
problems occurred for awhile, and then one day the children started doing some of the
same things as her previous students. Miss Sidley left the kids immediately and went to
her room. As she walked away, Buddy noticed the children do strange things and began
to wonder himself. That night Miss Sidley killed herself, and in the end Buddy could
hardly take his eyes off the children.
The story ends at a high point, because the reader is now on the edge of their seat
again, and there is not a resolution to the story. A number of ending could occur, but
one
does not know which one to choose. It could end with Buddy seeing the same as Miss
Sidley, or finding out it was bogus the whole time, or finding out how to get rid of the
demons in the children. Stephen King left the reader hanging, perhaps to let it end the
way one imagines it, or how one wants the story to end.
Miss Sidley, is the main character of this story. The story is based around her and
begins with her writing on the chalkboard, and ends with her killing herself. One could
perceive her as the hero or the antihero, depending on how he perceived the story. One
can not tell if Miss Sidley is conflicted with the children or possibly having an
internal
struggle. There are few places which leaves the reader to question the concept. For
instance, even though Robert uses the word tomorrow evil in his sentence, he says them
"perfectly innocuous", meaning he had no intentions of sounding evil. King also makes
her appear to have some loose nuts in her head. When Miss Sidley heard the little girls
say her name she thought,
"They knew she was there. Yes. Yes they did. The little bitches knew. She
would shake them. Shake them until their teeth rattled and their giggles turned to
wails,
she would thump their heads against the tile walls and she would make them admit that
they knew." This is not what a normal person would think if he heard someone say his
name to a friend. She also is being portrayed as skittish, because she keeps repeating
herself. Another place one is not sure rather the happenings are real or in her mind is
right after she shoots Robert in the room. After he falls to the ground she says,
"No! It was all in your mind, Emily. All in your mind. No! No, no, no!" Miss
Sidley is now even doubting herself. At the end, after Miss Sidley leaves the room, it
does seem as if the story is true, because Buddy starts to see for himself, but this
could
merely be because he has been talking about the happening so much with Miss Sidley, he
is starting to imagine them himself. Just as if a person sees a bizarre movie and starts
to
witness more and more occurrences that make the movie seem true; even though it is
impossible. 
Going more technical into the story there are many synedoches which are written. 
For example, when the story says that Miss Sidley's eyes could turn the toughest knees
to
water, it does not mean literally. This also occurs when the narrator states that Miss
Sidley's tongue is a school-yard legend.
The narrator brought more aspects to life by using similes and onomatopoeias. He
uses an example of a simile when describing Robert's eyes. He says, "His eyes were a
very dark brown, like the mud at the bottom of a slow-running stream." Another good
example would be when the narrator described the look that wouldn't leave Miss Sidley's
mind. It was put as, "It was stuck there, like a tiny string of roast beef between two
molars." Some examples of Stephen King using onomatopoeia are when describing how
the electric clock buzzed and when describing the little girl crying
"waah..waahh..waahh."
This story is based upon a realistic setting and unrealistic characters if the
happenings are true. Miss Sidley is the main character, and with her actions, one can
make two different interpretations depending on how one evaluates the story. The plot is
intertwined with abnormal circumstances, which keeps the reader on the edge of their
seat. There is one major climax, a high point, and a third high point, ending the story.

The ending allows for several different possibilities, giving the choice to the reader. 
Stephen King's, Suffer the Little Children, is another example of his brilliant writing
and
twisted mind.