Structure

The short story “Suffer the Little Children” by Stephen King follows a traditional plot structure and includes various narrative elements typical of horror stories such as suspense, tension points, and foreshadowing elements. Like most short stories, it has a few characters and a single-event plot: a teacher discovers (or believes that she discovers) that one of her pupils is actually a monster who has taken over the body of the real boy.

Title

The title of the short story— “Suffer the Little Children”— is intriguing and symbolic. It suggests the horror genre of the story as little children suffering is not something one would wish. It can also have two interpretations. Firstly, it could refer to Miss Sidley, who cannot stand the children because she finds them hypocritical and smug and who wants them to suffer after she discovers some of them are monstrous creatures. Secondly, it can be an allusion to the real children who suffer inside after their bodies have been taken over by some alien creatures.

Additionally, the title reproduces the beginning of a line attributed to Jesus Christ in the Bible: “But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

The line compares children with the kingdom of heaven and suggests that people should cherish small children and encourage them to be godly. This makes the title ironical for the short s...