Nightmare Fuel

So I was reading through Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje looking something more interesting to talk about other than just rambling on about poo when I came across with something that really caught my attention. Buddy Bolden, the protagonist, has a wife called Nora Bass, ex-prostitute, and they have children, unimportant to the story. This all appears trivial to the story, which it probably is, and then they mention the sandman. Now, I don't really know that much about the story behind this but I know it has to do with scaring children into bed, STRANGER DANGER, and just being overall really creepy. So then I decided to find a picture for this post and...


Oh God!!! What the hell is that!!! STRANGER DANGER!!! ...it kind of looks like a hobo.

So this hobo is going to come into your house and rape you... And people wonder why kids now are so messed up. Don't worry. I'm getting somewhere with this. This relates to the book when Nora tell the children of the sandman while putting them in bed. Now, what really interested me is that Buddy was marveled by the fact that "she, for instance, believed in the sandman when putting the children to bed whereas even the children didn't." (15) Now this can be taken two ways. One, this shows Nora's lack of education and immaturity due to this. Her intelligence is sub par and thus the image of a slum in New Orleans is enhanced. Two, this represents how the kids have stopped wondering and the "magic" of stories has ended. However, this would be comparing it to society nowadays which is a far fetch since this book is set so long ago, but it is a fairly recent book so one never knows.