Structure

“The Boogeyman” by Stephen King is structured as a frame narrative, which means that it contains two layers of stories.

The first narrative is the story of Lester Billings who visits the psychiatrist’s office in the present day. The second narrative is Lester’s story to the psychiatrist about the deaths of his three children. Most of the short story is focused on Lester’s story, which means that a lot of the plot unfolds through these flashbacks.

The frame narrative with Lester and Dr Harper foreshadows many of the disturbing events in Lester’s story. We see this most directly when Lester immediately reveals that all of his children have died and that he feels responsible for their deaths (p. 1, ll. 5-6). We also see more indirect foreshadowing in the description of Lester’s fragile mental state, as well as in his unexplained fear...