Exploring Fear: Portrayal and Impact in 'Monster Under the Bed'

Hook

Do you remember the scary monsters who lived under your bed when you were a little child? And how scared you were to step out of your bed at night because it could grab your foot and do something evil to you? A "monster under the bed" is usually a fictitious creature that children make up when they are afraid of what they cannot see, and the fictitious creature especially appears at night. It is even necessary to believe in monsters, or can you be a normal child by not believing in monsters? It all expresses itself in the short story "monster under the bed" written by Lezanne Clannachan and published in 2011.

The setting

The short story takes place on a bench at Waterloo station, which is a train in London, and it span over one evening. The exact time setting is not mentioned, but we can assume that the story was meant to be contemporary to the time when it was published so in 2011.

Get quality help now

Prof. Finch

Verified writer

Proficient in: Free Essays

4.7 (346)

“ This writer never make an mistake for me always deliver long before due date. Am telling you man this writer is absolutely the best. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Through the hole, story is Eddie staying at the station where he meets different people, who is passing by. At first, he meets a sweet dog and its annoyed homeless owner. Later on, he meets the kind woman Angie.

A characterization of Eddie and Angie

Eddie is a 15-year-old schoolboy and the main character of the story. He used to have a girlfriend and a dog and used to go to football practice, but he had to give it all up because of his mother's sickness:

"First she stopped going out whit her mate Lilian.

Then she wouldn't visit the neighbours. For my eleventh birthday she promised to take me to the cinema. She stood for ages with the front door open. In the and she gave up and lay down on the sofa and I took Beanie for a walk. After that she couldn't even go into the garden."

Eddie needs to take care of her all by himself because his dad "got sick of looking after her" so he slipped his way and never came back.

Eddie has an ambivalent attitude to his mom. On the one hand is it obvious that he loves, cares and feels responsible for her. One example can be that he goes all the way to London to buy his mom's favorite pastries for her birthday and meanwhile is he worried about leaving her alone back home. On the other hand, is he angered by the whole situation: like why he must worry about her, to give up the things he loves, and to take care of everything for her? He is tired of being so responsible the whole time. He just wants to be a normal 15-year-old schoolboy.

Eddie is willing to make some terrible sacrifices to satisfy his mom, although these sacrifices hurt him, and which builds up this anger inside of him. She made him tire his lovely dog, Beanie, to a tree in Blackdown (a massive forest) and leave it alone. He could not get himself to leave his dog, so he said crouched behind a bush listening to his dog calling for him and hid. At the moment he is heading back home to his mom, he meets a homeless man and his dog. The dog reminds him of Beanie which he misses a lot and he truly regret that he left Beanie alone by the tree.

Angie, however, is a woman "older than Eddie's big sister (·) and younger than his mum" . She has two children and sells insurances for a living. Angie's physical portrait suggests that she is not a typical mother, she is concerned for not looking young, so she is wearing a lot of make-up trying to look younger than she is. Based on that Angie is the first person who interact with Eddie, shows that she is a sociable, friendly and considerate person. According to her conversation with Eddie, it shows that Angie is a curious person. She wants to find out more about Eddie and she does that by questioning him a lot of questions.

Point of view

The short story is written in third person point of view, which means, that the narrator knows what Eddie thinks, fells and how he reacts.

The author uses a technique, which can be described with the phrase "stream of consciousness". The technique describes the situation by every little thought of the person, which in this case gives us a more insightful knowledge about the boy and his feelings, "She's wearing a lot of make-up. Trying to look younger than she is. Like his mum, so careful with her make-up every morning. What's the point? he thinks when he's feeling mean." (2, 32-33)

"Monster under the Bed" by Lezanne Clannachan is a third-person narration. The narrator, who is outside the story, uses the point of view of the main character to convey the plot. We know how Eddie feels, what he thinks or remembers: "The space makes him dizzy. Feels like he's inside a giant hot-air balloon flying close to the sun." (ll. 2-3); "He makes himself remember the grateful look on his mum's face when he fetches her rug, brushes her hair, rubs her feet. What would I do without you, my boy? His anger shames him." (ll. 63-65)

Using Eddie's point of view helps the narrator make his character more relatable. Giving access to the boy's thoughts and feelings makes it easier for readers to empathize with Eddie. Furthermore, it helps the author...

The main theme

The main theme is about fear

The story is not about a child's fear, but about a mother's fear of going outside.

To make her son understand her fear, the mother uses the analogy of the monster under the bed that Eddie feared when he was a small boy: "Do you remember the monster under your bed? It's how his mum explained it to him once. You know it's not real, but that doesn't stop the fear." (ll. 84-85)

The theme of fear is explored in the short story through most of the characters and is summarised by Eddie towards the end of the text:

'Have you noticed how scared everyone is?' Eddie says. 'Some homeless man thinks I'm going to take his dog. You're worried I won't get on the train. My mum's terrified of her own life.' And he, himself, maybe most of all; scared of becoming scared. (ll. 167-170)

However, until this point, the theme of fear is explored gradually and by showing its different facets. Initially, the homeless man whom Eddie meets in the train station fears that Eddie might take his dog and reacts aggressively: " 'Get off my dog,' the man says. He won't meet Eddie's eye, but his face is all creased up with anger. 'You leave my dog alone.' " (ll. 16-17)

This is probably because the animal was everything the man owned and because of his mistrust in people. He illustrates the way fear can make people aggressive.