The man who loved flowers

When you meet a normal person at a normal event, you talk to them and everything they say seems normal. They laugh at your jokes, they comment on the weather, they complain about politicians and how they should lower the taxes, as I said a normal person. But after they have left the event is everything about them still normal? This is a story about a young guy from New York who to everyone seems normal guy who has found the love of his life, but actually is a grieving killer who kills woman when they tell him that they are not his soul mate Norma who died 10 years ago. This is Steven King’s “The man who loved flowers”.

The story takes place in New York of May 1963, and the setting is very happy. The opening sequence tells us how everybody seemed to be smiling, the air was soft and beautiful, and that this was one of those nights where people who love the city would love this night. To add to the setting the main character is also very happy and very much in love. Because of the happy setting, you feel safe when you read it and you think of the main character as the “good guy”. His happy outer has en effect on the setting for example he makes the old woman at l. 13-17 p. 1, where because of the positive vibes he expresses makes her think of dancing and how spring is beautiful and so on. She begins to have happy thoughts. Even on l. 6 – 13 p. 2, when the radio is talking about how a lot of awful things are happening in the world it doesn’t change the mood, because the focus changes quickly to the surroundings, where two guys are ripping of each other. The main character and the narrator don’t care about the bad things that happens in the world and that’s why we don’t care about the bad things also. Later in the story the setting changes at l. 25 p.5 when he turns in to an alley. It gets more dark and shadowy and you sense that something is coming up. First at l. 1 p. 6 the mood really changes where it goes from this happy universe to the more creepy and horrifying.

The story is a horror story. You can see by the way Norma is murdered that it is a horror story. When reading the from l. 12 to then end of the page you feel horrified and terrified when reading the lines. The way she is murdered without a scream and with such ruthlessness is scary. The man showed her no mercy. But after the murder you feel terrified because even though the murder has stopped and he has walked on you hear this middle-aged couple talk and the woman says how come his husband couldn’t look more like him and how beautiful springtime is and it was young love. She sees the main character as a normal human being and he is not, he has just committed a murder and is a serial killer. You feel uncomfortable because you get the sense that anyone that is normal could be a murderer and that sends chilies down your back.

The main character is a young man who dresses nicely in a grey suit. He has black short cut hair, light blue eyes and is described as a beautiful man. You can tell that he is a young, cool man by the way he wears his clothes. The tie is not pulled fully up and the top button is undone on his shirt. He looks very normal, but he is very troubled. He was very much in love with a woman named Norma. L. 22 – 26 on p. 2, you can see some of the things he used to do for her. He would buy her flowers, boxes of chocolate, a bracelet or even just a bag of oranges. She died 10 years ago and properly because of the grief from her death drove him to insanity making him think that nearly every woman is Norma. He kills the woman in the alley because she isn’t Norma and every time it isn’t Norma he kills the woman.

This story is horrifying and terrifying. Horrifying in the sense of how he kills the woman and terrifying that any normal person could be an insane serial killer. The story also tells you how strong young love can be. Because of this young love you see the main character from his best side, buying flowers, being friendly and sending out positive vibes to the people around him, but also from the bad side. Killing these innocent women ruthless and with no moral afterwards. We don’t know how Norma died but in however way she died, it changed this man forever and made him into a confused, insane serial killer.