Bug Bomb Symbolism

Through the usage of dogged diction, repetition, and symbolism, King establishes how in his fear of guilt, Jack fails to accept his fault in the resurgence of the wasps, causing him to be unsuccessful in achieving the time period’s cultural norm of being “a man.” King symbolizes Jack’s failure in protecting his family through the symbol of Danny’s multiple bee stings. King describes the injuries as “eleven separate stings. . .a dotting of small holes” (193). These stings represent the emotional damage Jack has inflicted on Danny. Not only are stings used to refer to physical pain, they can also be used to describe a person’s emotional hurt. Like the multiple stings on Danny’s hand, Jack has more than once stung Danny with harsh words, such

He insists,“‘I’ll tell you what. . .I followed the directions on that fucking bug bomb. We’re going to sue them. The damn thing was defective. Had to have been. How else can you explain this?” (195). Rather than accept that he should have been more careful, Jack places the blame entirely on the machine being defective. His use of cursing and insistence that it “had to have been” the machine’s fault further highlights his anger and persistence, and he stubbornly voices that the bomb is the problem, not anything else. Jack is unable to admit that he is in the wrong and thus, he is unsuccessful in being protecting and guarding his family, like a man was supposed to during this time. Furthermore, King emphasizes Jack’s diversion of his careless mistakes by repeatedly having Jack think to himself, “You lost your temper. You lost your temper. You lost your temper. . .” (196). Jack tries to convince himself that he did nothing wrong by consoling himself and placing the blame on his volatile anger. The fact that he repeats this to himself multiple times highlights that he cannot handle any type of guilt; therefore, he is always reassuring himself that some other force is at