59 pages • 1 hour read
Stephen KingThe Man In The Black Suit
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Coincidence, Accidents, and Fate
The plot of “The Man in the Black Suit” revolves around a series of unintended events that could be considered accidents, coincidences, or fate. An accident is an unintentional event that usually has negative consequences. A coincidence is a surprising confluence of events that have no apparent causal relationship. A coincidence can have positive or negative results. Fate is an action or result that is predestined, and over which humans have no control. Fate can have positive, negative, or ambiguous outcomes.
The first unintended event is that Gary’s older brother dies from a bee sting. Even though this event occurs before the story begins, it is the underlying incident that propels the plot.
The second unintended and unexplained event is the Devil’s appearance. Older Gary writes of the encounter: “He was real, he was the Devil, and that day I was either his errand or his luck” (69). King never reveals whether the Devil had any intention of meeting Gary, whether their meeting was fated, or whether it was all a dream. The multiple possibilities leave room for readers to suspect both earthly and otherworldly causes for the story’s events—or no cause at all.
The Inevitability of Death and the Loss of Faith
Older Gary states that he did not think about his meeting with the Devil for many years, but now, as he moves closer to death, the Devil has become like a Grim Reaper who haunts him when he is asleep and awake (67).
He decides to write the story of his meeting with the Devil in hopes that the writing will free him from his fear: “[…] I know that sometimes it works that way—what you write down sometimes leaves you forever, […] I pray for that sort of release” (45). His use of the word “pray” is significant. Gary has been a devout Christian throughout his life, but he does not believe that his faith saved him from the Devil then or that it will save him now. Gary seems to believe that storytelling can accomplish what prayer could not.
In Hawthorne’s story, after Goodman Brown’s meeting with the Devil, Brown loses his faith. After young Gary escaped from his encounter with the Devil, he does not lose his faith. In fact, later that summer he convinces his mother to return to church, and he remained a faithful Christian thereafter (68).
Writing about his encounter with the Devil is an act of desperation, and it does not seem to work. When older Gary resumes the narrative after he has completed his account, he is not relieved of his fear. In fact, he is more worried than before. His memories of the man in the black suit have grown stronger, and he wonders why the Devil continues to appear to him, even though he did not lead a sinful life. He cannot understand why the Devil appeared to his nine-year-old self either. In this sense, the Devil represents death, which comes for everyone, whether or not they have committed terrible acts.
World War I and the Loss of Innocence
Older Gary uses World War I as a reference point for his story: “It was 1914, the summer after my brother Dan died in the west field and three years before America got into World War I” (45). Before beginning his story, he mentions the war again: “In those days before the Great War, most of Motton was woods and bog, […], snakes and secrets” (47). These references connect his story with World War I, creating an ominous tone and setting an expectation of danger.
The references also draw a thematic connection. As much as “The Man in the Black Suit” is a horror story, it is also Gary’s coming-of-age story. On the day Gary meets the Devil, he confronts evil and death. The event results in a loss of innocence that stays with Gary his whole life.
World War I was a symbolic loss of innocence for the United States. Symbolic because America was not innocent as a country or society, having engaged in wars, slavery, and Native American genocide. World War I represents a loss of innocence because it ushered in modern forms of warfare, including trench warfare and mustard gas. Like Dan’s bee sting, mustard gas chokes the victim, who dies a horrible, suffocating death. World War I defined the beginning of America’s 20th century in much the same way that Gary’s meeting with the Devil defined his transition from boyhood to adulthood.
Related Titles
By Stephen King
