EN 213 – Tales of the Dark Side
Brief Essay #3
The Three –Faced Monster There are many speculations that human beings possess different personas depending on certain situations. One may act a certain way around family whilst acting a different way around friends and strangers. These personas can often be regarded as different masks of the human psyche, a subject that is gently touched upon in concerns with the main characters in Stephen King’s short novella. “Chattering Teeth”. And in particular, one ‘Bryan Adams’ showed all three of his faces or masks’ to Hogan, the salesman, and each one of them was just a progression to an even worse persona. The first face Bryan Adams presented to Hogan, was his ‘look of innocence’, when Hogan wanted to address certain rules about him picking up hitchhikers. Despite Bryan’s ‘wide-eyes innocent look’, Hogan was still very skeptical of the new passenger since it was that same look that almost got him killed the last time. He picked up a female hitchhiker who, at a distance, resembled ‘one of those sad-eyes waifs in the UNICEF posters..’ Bryan Adams wide eyed look only reminded Hogan how first appearances could often be very deceiving. The second face of Bryan Adams, took shape almost instantly after Hogan set down the ground rules of their trip: ‘the mean, watchful look’. Although that face quickly disappeared and replaced itself with the wide-eyed innocence like a ‘harmless refugee from Wayne’s World’, Hogan could not help but feel a sense of familiarity or even deja vu. To Hogan, he felt as though he was getting a quick peek of what Bryan was really like behind that 1st innocent face. From then on during the drive, Hogan knew he had to be on his guard whilst driving with Bryan; all the while, the young man reminding him more and more of the woman he picked up not too long ago. The third face, Bryan’s ‘true’ face, was one that Hogan felt was all too similar to the female hitchhikers, a