Weaver1

Joseph Weaver

Mrs. Herr

English 1302 DC006

20 3 2021

Strawberry Paranoia

“Strawberry Spring” by Stephen King shows the audience that events and hearsay are

the cause of emotional distress. This is shown throughout the work as students spread

distorted truths, such as the first that the victim’s boyfriend did it due to his arrest. The second

killing caused extreme fear after a sense of safety. Then the third killing and its ominous

message that followed.

The theme is shown right after the first murder when the main suspect is blamed with

no proof after his arrest by other characters. “'I don't know. Some guy. Her boyfriend did it. His

name is Carl Amalara.' I settled back, relieved and disappointed. With a name like that it had to

be true. A lethal and sordid little crime of passion.” (Stephen King) The characters blamed the

boyfriend with little to no evidence other than “ … police had found a seven-inch hunting knife

from L. L. Bean's and a picture of the girl that had apparently been cut up with a pair of shears.”

(Stephen King).

After the arrest, the feeling of grief for the loss of someone the narrator knew left, until

another killing occurred “The next morning the clamour in the hall woke me. I blundered out to

see who had been drafted, combing my hair with both hands and running the fuzzy caterpillar

that had craftily replaced my tongue across the dry roof of my mouth. 'He got another one,'

someone said to me, his face pallid with excitement. 'They had to let him go.’ “ ( Stephen King).
 Weaver2

The next morning the clamour in the hall woke me. I blundered out to see who had been

drafted, combing my hair with both hands and running the fuzzy caterpillar that had craftily

replaced my tongue across the dry roof of my mouth. 'He got another one,' someone said to

me, his face pallid with excitement. 'They had to let him go.' “ ( Stephen King). This instilled fear

and paranoia into the class body and the narrator. The theme is showed heavily in the excerpt

by the clamour in the halls and by how the character, who spoke to the narrator, face went

pallid.

The final showing of this scene is when the third body was found “ But Springheel Jack

killed her just the same, going unerringly for one of our own. The false spring, the lying spring,

aided and abetted him - he killed her and left her propped behind the wheel of her 1964 Dodge

to be found the next morning and they found part of her in the back seat and part of her in the

trunk. And written in blood on the windshield - this time fact instead of rumour - were two words:

HA! HA!” (Stephen King)