The Many Faces of Evil

Many of the stories in The Bazaar of Bad Dreams describe the variety of faces that evil can take. In the story “Bad Little Kid,” evil takes the form of a child. Wesley hunts down a drunk woman who will cause a fatal bus crash expecting to encounter evil in the story “Ur.” The story “That Bus is Another World,” illustrates the fact that sometimes, evil lies within.

In the story “Bad Little Kid,” King uses a child as the face of evil because the idea of a child being completely evil is incompatible. At his execution, Hallas warns Bradley: “I’d watch out, if I were you. Remember, it comes as a child” (133). Hallas claims that his life was ruined by the antics of a bad kid wearing a beanie cap. Hallas is being executed as a murderer for shooting this...