Structure

The short story “Enoch” by Robert Bloch follows a single-event plot: a man’s head is inhabited by a tiny evil creature named Enoch who makes him kill people, leading to his arrest. The story is typical of fantastical horror stories, leaving readers wondering whether the man is insane or not.…

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Beginning

The short story begins in media res, hooking readers’ attention through the use of a first-person narrator who addresses them directly: “It always starts the same way. First, there's the feeling. Have you ever felt the tread of little feet walking across the top of your skull? Footsteps on your skull, back and forth, back and forth?” (p. 28, ll. 1-…

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Middle

The middle of the short story starts with a foreshadowing line, in which we find out that something went wrong during Seth’s last murder: “Enoch is never wrong about things, and he keeps me out of trouble. That is, he always did—until the last time.” (p. 29, ll. 12-16)

The rising action focuses on Seth’s last murder and the following events. First, the narrator describes how he came to kill the girl at Enoch’s request and how he threw her body and her car into the swamp.

Tension increases when the sheriff comes knocking at Seth’s door and Enoch is asleep, unable to help Seth: “When he looked at me, I wanted to hide, I felt so scared. He couldn't see Enoch, of course. Nobody can. But Enoch was there; I felt him resting very lightly...” (p. 30, ll. 1-5)

Seth is taken to jail, where the sheriff’s helper questions him without any result, because Seth does not want people to think he is crazy: …

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Ending

In the falling action, Enoch returns to Seth who gets a glimpse of the creature for the first time: “…a sort of a white streak that came flashing out of the big red hole he had eaten in the back of Mr. Cassidy's skull.” (p. 35, ll. 22-24)

The resolutio…