Analysis of the Man Who Loved Flowers, Stephen King

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There are many other symbols in the story and one of the most important is the hammer. The main character walks carefree down the street, but when he touches his hammer, his state of mind changes and he finds it difficult to focus. “He reached into his coat pocket and touched the something in there. For a moment his face seemed puzzled, lonely, almost haunted, and then, as his hand left the pocket, it regained its former expression of eager expectation.” (Page 176 line 18) It is described like Frodo’s ring, which is driving him insane and is the source of evil killing the girl, who he most likely has monitored for a while since he is aware of her walking down the street at quarter to eight. The serial killers usually do not know the victim personally but know a lot about their habits. Just before he kills the girl, some alley cats yowl. Animals are known for being able to know how humans feel and here they react to the state mind the narrator is in. He is insane and in grief and therefore the cats yowl. Cats also have an incredible sense of smell and when the narrator comes close, the cats are most likely able to smell his sweat and fear.

After he commits the murder, he walks away from the crime scene completely undetected and with no alerting signs of him being the murderer except for a small bloodstain on his shirt and hope in his mind. “And he would find her. Some day soon. He began to smile. A bounce came into his step as he walked on down Seventy-third Street.” (page 180, line 25) He ends in the same state of mind as when he started and it is not unlikely that he will commit another murder, which also is intensified by the married woman adoring him like the others previously did. It is an evil circle that can continue forever.

The themes in the text are love and insanity, which are typical for Stephen King, who’s stories usually deal with mental disorders such as in “The Silence of the Lambs” and all the mad prisoners in “The Green Mile”. The story wishes to explore the crazy mind and to challenge the reader’s perception of the daily life.