Children of the Corn

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to graphic violence, death, horror themes, religious fanaticism, and domestic violence.

“We’re saving our marriage, he told himself. Yes. We’re doing it the same way us grunts went about saving villages in the war.”

Comparing the fight for his marriage to his experience fighting in the Vietnam War is a vital initial insight into Burt’s character. The fact that he sees himself as someone who consistently fights to save others says that he considers himself to be a good person. His phrasing also hints that he finds his marriage as difficult as fighting in a war.

“Don’t you want to come see? So you can tell all your poker buddies what you bagged in Nebraska? Don’t you—?”

Vicky lobs this barb at Burt moments after he accidentally hits a young boy with his car. Although she is also trying to encourage Burt to leave the vehicle and inspect the child’s body, Vicky implies that Burt might treat the manslaughter of a child in the same manner as a hunting trophy. Vicky’s choice of words and her sarcastic, malicious tone exemplifies the conflict in their marriage.

“The Lord has said there’s many mansions in His house. But there’s no room for the fornicator. No room for the coveter. No room for the defiler of the corn. No room for the hommasexshul.”

This diatribe from a Christian pastor on the radio sets the groundwork for Burt and Vicky’s discussion of religious trauma and the implication that, for children, Christianity in all forms is a toxic instrument of emotional manipulation and coercive control. This is also the moment in which Burt hears a line that is incongruent with the rest of the sermon—“No room for the defiler of the corn”—and King introduces the suspicion that Burt is an unreliable narrator who may be experiencing hallucinations due to his guilt at hitting the child with his car.