"The Lonesome Place"

The Lonesome Place is a story about two young boys, Steve and Johnny. The story is centered aroung an old abandoned grain elevator, which the boys call The Lonesome Place. It is an old elevator surrounded by trees and old piles of lumber. Steve and Johnny are afraid of this place when it is dark out but not during the day. During the day it is simply an old grain elevator and piles of lumber that are never bothered but when it is dark out there is a creepiness to the place and the boys believe a creature lives inside the elevator. The boys always run past the place at night because they are scared. One night the boys are overcome by fear and while they are running they create an image of this creature. They imagine the creature to have scales, big claws, a long tail, and no face. When the boys are older they find out that a young man has been killed at the lonesome place. Steve and Johnny blame this on themseleves because they never told anyone of this monster that they had created.

I think the main thing this story is focusing on is fear of the dark. The boys are normal children living in a normal town, but they are overtaken by fear of a creature living in an old elevator. The creature obviously isn't real, as the boys can see during the day that nothing is there. I think the author is trying to show the reader that darkness can make people change their thought patterns. Something that is completely normal and peaceful during the day can be strange and scary in the dark. The author demonstrates that people automatically think differently when they can't see everything around them. Darkness provides an eery setting that easily creates thoughts of evil and monsters. This story shows that people are reassured when they can see what is in front of them, but in the dark, a person's imagination can run free because there is no visual proof that something is or is not present. The author also points out that fear of the dark is foolish by making Steve and Johnny feel guilty about the death of Bobby. The reader can understand that Bobby's death was not their fault and there was no creature that killed Bobby, but since Steve and Johnny are so afraid of the dark, they think it is their fault and they believe that the monster truly exists.