The Man in the Black Suit – Presence of Evil
Stephen King’s “The Man in the Black Suit” is a short story that makes us think. Who are we in this world? Is our destiny in our hands or is it already written? Can we avoid being in contact with evil? “The Man in the Black Suit” proves that evil is omnipresent in our world and that there is no way to avoid it. It does not matter who you are, where you are and when you are there, if evil wants to meet you, it will wind a way to do so. We would not be shocked so much if an adult has met the Devil because we all know that adults are more likely to commit sins. But what when a child meets the Devil?
What would a child do wrong to be punished by the Devil? It is difficult to say. “.. This is something that happened to me when I was very young, only nine years old. “(page 821) Our main character Gary was a young child when he saw the Devil for a reason he has never understood “Until that Saturday in 1914, I had thought that bears were the worst thing the forest could hold. “(page 831) Kids think that bears are the most terrific creatures in the forest. We can see their huge innocence. Why does evil attack innocent children? Because evil can attack anybody.
Our nine-year-old character Gary meets the Devil in the town of Motton as he defines like this: “The town of Motton was a different world in those days – more different then I could ever tell you. That was a world without airplanes droning overhead, a world almost without cars. ” (page 821) As he talks about Motton, we learn that it is a little rural town in western Maine. There was no phone, no doctors, no paved roads and not more than a dozen of houses. All those little things make Motton a completely innocent place. Why would the Devil attack a little innocent farmer town?
It does not seem so attractive… But evil does not have any criteria, it is omnipresent. In “The Man in the Black Suit”, Gary’s meeting with evil happens during the summer of 1914. “… one afternoon in the summer of 1914. ” (page 821). As we all know, the begging of the 20th century is a very religious period of time in the United States. Also, religion has a lot of power especially in small rural communities like in the town of Motton. People back then believed in God, and that God will protect them from the Devil if they were good believers. Also, the part of pagans was really slim in society.
We could call that period of time an innocent period of time that should have not met the Devil in any case. If the 1910s have not been “saved” from evil, how could our generation be? We can see that any period of time can be in contact with evil. In conclusion, we can see that in “The Man in the Black Suit”, evil attacks an innocent child, in an innocent place during an innocent period of time. What can we find more innocent than that to avoid evil?. With those three things combined, we can conclude that there is not a way to avoid evil in our world, it is absolutely omnipresent.
