''The Mailman'' (

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

) is a work of

horror fiction Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J ...

by American author

Bentley Little Bentley Little (born 1960 in Mesa, Arizona) is an American author of horror fiction. Publishing an average of a novel a year since 1990, Little avoids publicity and rarely does promotional work or interviews for his writing. Early life Little i ...

, his second novel. Like most of his work it follows the development of unexplained events in a small

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

town, in this case revolving around a

demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...

ic mailman.

Synopsis

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

teacher Doug Albin, his wife Tritia and their son Billy live in the small town of Willis, Arizona, and are shocked to learn of the suicide of their friendly, beloved, and seemingly content long-term mail carrier. A replacement arrives by the name of John Smith, an evasive and vaguely threatening man with pale skin and flame-red hair. When disturbances in the delivery of letters begin to occur, Doug comes to suspect that the strange new mailman is up to something sinister, an idea bolstered as people in town start receiving increasingly disturbing hate mail.

Themes

Although the mailman is ultimately responsible for numerous violent acts that occur in the town of the story, he doesn't commit any of them himself, instead launching psychological assaults on the people he delivers mail to, so that their sanity breaks and they are driven to sickening acts of

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

, and even

mass murder Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more pe ...

. In this way he exposes the weak veneer of

civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). Ci ...

, being able to make savages of ordinary people just by the letters that appear in their mailbox, purporting to be from friends and family members, destroying their faith in the outside world. For instance, he makes one believe that his younger brother, who died in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, sent him letters revealing himself to be a jaded psychopath who raped and murdered native girls. The exact nature of the mailman and his motivations are never fully explained, though he is clearly a sadistic demonic entity that finds expression through the

US Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

. It's occasionally suggested that he has no motive at all, beyond maybe his own amusement.

References

1991 American novels American horror novels Novels set in Arizona {{1990s-horror-novel-stub