by Jordie Kamuene
Hon. English Period 4
Romanticism unit assessment
A
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
To keep ourselves safe from the attacks
of the devil we embrace all things holy that contrasts what the devil stands
for. However, in The Man in the Black Suit by Stephen King, a young boy
meets the devil alone not with his entire congregation behind him, alone with
only his faith to comfort him. Even with his faith to help him, the young boy,
Gary, still falls prey to the tricks of the devil. The fact that we can easily
succumb and hold the same ideas and motives as the devil is what frightens us
and draws us to believe in his words. His words are not simply lies. In fact
his words are the manifestation of our deepest thoughts that we wish to keep to
ourselves.
The devil embodies all that is evil. He
is portrayed as a human being, our fellow man, to seem more approachable and
believable, yet we are able to sense that he is more than what we perceive. The
way in which the devil is portrayed is familiar and common, almost as if it
could be our neighbor from next door. “His
face was very long and pale. His black hair was combed tight against his skull
and parted with rigorous care on the left side of his narrow head. He was very
tall. He was wearing a black three-piece suit […]” (53)
The
devil is portrayed not in a beastly form but a form that is our own. His human
form creates a link between our own human image to suggest that evil is not
something that we are unfamiliar with. It is so much a part of us that if it
was to take form it would take the image of man, who is believed to be evil to
the core. His attire takes away for a moment that we are two different beings.
However, even though the devil was able to come across as a human being, he
could not completely hide the aspects that made him a supernatural being. “And all I could think was that maybe he
would let me go if I pretended not to see what he was” (53). Like Gary when we
are confronted with images whether it is about ourselves or others that is not
pleasing, we think that by pretending to not notice it will go away. However,
this does not go away. It simply makes the images more likely to remain with
the individual. The fact that the devil had fiery eyes and his hands were
claw-like didn't completely change his overall appearance; it however just
intensified those aspects that made him scarier and less likely to be
forgotten. Those aspects forced the
individual to see him for who he truly was and to be remembered even when we
try not to, because his foul scent and image are burnt in our soul. The things
that we will never be able to forget.
It’s in our nature to imagine
horrific outcomes to certain situations. The devil is able to take what we know
as the truth, and turn it into something horrible that satisfies our inner
fears by making it into our own crafted “reality”. The way the devil goes about
deceiving Gary is in the most blatant kind of way. “He spoke in a tone of bogus
comfort that was horrible, maddening, without remorse or pity” (56). Gary knew
he was lying because he did not show any true emotions. Even when the devil was
telling Gary what had happened he was not sincere about it and he seemed very
pleased with himself. He sounded as if he had won and Gary had lost, and that
there was nothing Gary could do about it. When he was told that his mom had
died by a bee sting, somewhere in the back his mind Gary had contemplated about
the same situation happening, and so the devil played upon what Gary knew. “I
stared at him, now incapable of speech. Tears streamed down my cheeks. I didn’t
want to believe him, and knew from my church schooling that the devil is the
father of lies, but I did believe him, just the same.” (57). Why do we believe
in him even though we know he is telling lies. Half of what the devil is
telling us is the truth. The truth just changed and twisted to be made into
something horrible. We easily believe it because we had once thought about
those bad things and wished that they would not happen. Because of this we fall
victim to his tricks. The devil offers us the reality that we wish not to
happen, what we wish to have never thought of. We are the creators of our own
nightmare and the devil simply provides the means to make it possible.
Death is inescapable and what lies
beyond our conscious minds is incomprehensible, yet the fear that the devil
awaits us at our doom is what stands regardless. In death we are stripped of
all that we knew and who we were. Beyond that we don’t know, but what we do
know is that the devil might await us, to torment us for the wrongs that we've done, even if we had lived what we thought was a good life. “The worst of it
might come later. After I was dead”
(55). Gary, like most of us, is worried
about what is to come after our deaths. If we will be able to face what lies
beyond that and if there is any hope of winning. Our minds are the worst place to have such
thoughts because our imagination gets the better of us. “In the dark, however, these thoughts have no
power to ease or comfort” (69). Unlike out in the open, there are places to
hide. In the minds we have nowhere to run, and we are forced to face those
thoughts, because there is no other way. We are trapped in our minds and we are
plagued by the fear and solitude that surrounds our minds. We have nowhere to
run. Surrounded by the darkness of our own minds we are forced to overcome, if
possible, the more menacing darkness that is approaching. These thoughts we
wish to keep to ourselves, to not acknowledge for as long as we can, because we
are afraid of the realization that our thoughts are quickly turning into
reality, and we are running out of time.
We all will have our moment when we
will face what we fear the most, whether it is in this lifetime or the next. The
devil might be the most frightening creature out there, but we too are just as
frightening. The devil is able to take from us and fabricate terrible things;
however we are the ones that come up with these horrible things. Only time will
tell when it will be our chance to face the devil, and what frightens us the
most is the face that will be staring back at us will be none other than our
own. When the time comes there will be nowhere to run, nowhere to turn to, so I
sincerely hope that if it is to happen, that we will not become mad from the
realization. For now all we can do is be cautious of the wolf in sheep’s
clothing.
