Content Warning: This section of the guide includes descriptions of racism.

Death is the central motif in Uncanny Stories and plays a part in almost every narrative within the collection. Its omnipresence is used to add tension and intensify the mood with post-apocalyptic settings, and Matheson also uses the circumstances of certain characters’ deaths to explore the boundaries of human ethics. In “Button, Button,” for example, Norma unintentionally kills her husband, Arthur, because she is tempted by the thought of a better life and does not realize that he will be the one to suffer for her decision. She therefore becomes her own worst enemy. Greg also follows a similar pattern when his greed and abuse toward his wife Carrie ultimately lead her to take revenge on him by instilling the primal panic of existential dread. Finally, in stories like “’Tis the Season to Be Jelly” and “Pattern for Survival,” Matheson places his characters in surroundings ravaged by nuclear war, and these dystopian settings illustrate that the selfish whims of leaders can have lasting and immeasurable effects on humanity.