The Man In The Black Suit

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Based on your knowledge of the works of Stephen King, what do you expect from a coming-of-age tale written by him? As a reader, what are your expectations for how you will feel at the beginning of your read versus after you complete the story?

Teaching Suggestion: Before students discuss the questions, you might ask them to define “coming-of-age tale” and think of other examples of this genre. Consider asking guiding questions such as these: What are the criteria for a coming-of-age story? What happens to the protagonist in such a story? What is the reader’s relationship with a protagonist who comes of age?

• This article from MasterClass defines the coming-of-age genre.
• Stephen King’s website lists his works.

2. At what age do you consider someone to be “grown up”? Is this something that can be defined by age, or can the quality be achieved through life experience? Defend your reasoning.

Teaching Suggestion: To extend the discussion, you might ask students to compare their experiences of growing up with those of previous generations.

• Share the legal definition of adulthood in the US. If the conversation allows, it may be pertinent to invoke statistics about state-by-state driving ages, drinking ages, military conscription, and child marriage.
• Ask students to consider how their milestones and expectations are different from those of their parents and grandparents. For instance, many students will find that previous generations married and had children at ages that now seem very young.
• This article from The Atlantic describes how the process and expectations of growing up have evolved across generations. (Subscription may be required to view.)

Short Activity

The narrator of “The Man in the Black Suit” states that he was born in 1905 and is now in his 90s. This means he was 9 years old when World War I began, 34 years old when World War II began, 42 years old when the Cold War began, 45 years old when the Korean War began, 50 years old when the Vietnam War began, and 85 years old when the Gulf War began.

Think, pair, share! Contemplate the following questions on your own for a few minutes. You will then have five minutes to discuss your answers with a partner. After five minutes, volunteers will be asked to share what they and their partner discussed.

Consider how living through most of the 20th century would inform one’s sense of self. How might the tumultuous events of the 20th century have shaped the narrator’s life? How might witnessing such violence inform his opinions about death and human nature?

Teaching Suggestion: After students share their thoughts from their paired discussions, consider asking them to discuss how current events inform their own growing-up experience. You might encourage them to consider what it would be like to witness so many wars and so much destruction during one’s lifetime. Can people separate themselves from current events, or are they inevitably shaped by them?

• This research project from the State Library of Ohio gives examples of how American children were affected by WWI.

Differentiation Suggestion: If your class includes students who have experienced war or other violent events and would not feel comfortable participating in this discussion activity, consider asking them to write a private journal entry about how such events can affect the lives of people who experience them.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the story.

In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Karl Marx wrote, “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” To what extent do you agree with Marx’s claim? Are children also subject to “the tradition of all dead generations,” or do they become aware of these traditions only when they are adults?

Teaching Suggestion: The story is ambiguous about whether Gary actually encountered the Devil or whether the experience was an expression of his anxiety in the context of impending war and the tragic death of his brother. The Marx quotation invites students to consider the impact of past events on a person’s perception of the present and on how they live their lives. You might encourage students to brainstorm before writing. They can create two columns, one that lists points that agree with Marx and one that lists points that disagree. After they have brainstormed at least three points per column, they can start writing their response.

Consider encouraging students to use counterarguments to defend their claims. A counterargument can be incorporated even through syntax; you might suggest that they include something like “While Marx suggests that everyone is subject to the knowledge of past traditions, I believe that children do not have to engage with these traditions until they are more intellectually developed” or “While Marx suggests that people have little control over their circumstances, I believe that children remain a symbol of hope that we can change these circumstances.”