Suffer the little Children

A detailed Summary of Suffer the little Children

In the short story, Suffer the little Children, Stephan King tells the tale of an old school teacher who faces an unusual problem. The teacher, Miss Sidley, is forced to deal with a group of children unlike any she had faced in her life; these children were different, very different. The children in the story are not human. The discovery of this causes Miss Sidley to act in ways she never thought capable, eventually leading to murder. King conveys the theme: what you don't know and don't understand can be very harmful, in a suspenseful manor by using the literary tools tone, setting and characterization.

King utilizes tone in a suspenseful manner to convey the theme. Tone is used to help the reader understand the attitude of the story. Tone is first shown on page 440, "...she could turn her back on her pupils with confidence." This sentence demonstrates to the reader Miss Sidley's superiority over the children. Tone is again used shortly after to show a shift in power. "Miss Sidley was suddenly, unaccountably sure Robert knew about her little trick with the glasses" (440). Later in the story, on page 444, tone is used to put fear in the readers minds, "His face suddenly ran together like melting wax, the eyes flatt

Stephan King uses suspense, setting, and tone to convey the theme in "Suffer the Little Children." The story, which is constructed in a classic plot structure, shows that the unknown is very dangerous. Not knowing what she faced caused Miss Sidley to change, from a person who has total control, into a person without control. King ends the story in an interesting way, by leaving the reader guessing. While in the mental institute, for killing the children, Miss Sidley teaches mentally retarded children in an experimental program. One day in class, King writes, "Then she seemed to see something which disturbed her; a frown creased her brow and she looked away from the children...That night Miss Sidley cut her throat with a bit of broken mirror-glass, and after that Buddy Jenkins (the psychiatrist) began to watch the children more and more. In the end, he was hardly able to take his eyes off them" (447).

The suspense is added to on page 443, when Miss Sidley observes two girls shadows change in the bathroom. King writes,

...Robert's smile grew wider - wide enough to show his teeth. '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, way down in my head.' The smile curled at the corners of his mouth like charring paper. 'Sometimes he runs around... it itches. He wants me to let him out. (444)

Stephan King also makes use of setting to convey the theme. The setting of this story is very familiar to anyone who has had any form of schooling. It takes place in an elementary school building, mostly in Miss Sidley's classroom. Miss Sidley is the typical, old, eye in the back of he

Some common words found in the essay are:
Miss Sidley, Sidley Robert, Miss Sidley's, Stephan King, Tell He's, miss sidley, Sidley Halfway, Little Children, Buddy Jenkins, , sidley robert, miss sidley robert, convey theme, king writes, miss sidley's, Robert Robert, stephan king, smile grew wider, power miss, little children, suffer little, reader guessing, suffer little children, robert's smile grew, power miss sidley,

Approximate Word count = 1137
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous