Strawberry Spring

“Strawberry Spring” is a classic horror story that ends with a plot twist. King’s unassuming narrator lulls readers into believing in his innocence. He is just as scared and confused as everyone else on campus when the murders occur. As the story is told from the narrator’s point of view, readers only have as much information as he presents. Few details are provided about the murders; no clues or evidence are found. No one has reported suspicious activity. The melting snow, muddy ground, and wet weather have eliminated traces such as footprints or fingerprints at the crime scenes.

That the victims are all women suggests a sexual motive; the narrator alludes to Jack the Ripper, who disemboweled, dismembered, and sexually assaulted his victims. Rape is not mentioned as part of the murders, and aside from the second victim’s missing head, the specific missing body parts of the other victims are not named, leaving it unclear as to whether the victims were sexually violated. The narrator betrays no guilt or nervousness and seems as horrified as everyone else when he learns of the decapitation and dismemberment. He describes the decapitated victim Ann Bray as “dead… worse than dead” (186).

The narrator imagines the killer as male and the fog as female and refers to the romance and mystery of the murders as if the campus had been “squeezed in some crazy lovers’ embrace, part of a marriage that had been consummated in blood” (188). Such descriptions create an erotic undercurrent that runs through the story.

By the end of the story, the reader may conclude that the narrator has committed the murders in a dissociative state, his only apparent motive being a mysterious attraction to the fog of the strawberry spring. King delays the conclusion by providing only the slightest details that may cast suspicion on the narrator during his time on campus and misdirecting the reader with rumors and other details.

One of the few hints of the narrator’s guilt is his description of his bleary state, “fuzzy caterpillar” tongue, and dry mouth the morning after the second murder. He seems confused as he listens to a fellow student’s story about the new murder and Carl Amalara’s release. Another possible clue is his roommate’s comment after the second murder that he sometimes suspects the narrator. King notes that the roommate’s smile “fade[s] a little” as he says this (189), but he immediately asks the narrator to go play pool, which suggests that he is joking. King characteristically leaves the ending ambiguous. Even though the narrator realizes that he could be Springheel Jack, questions remain about how he committed the murders and if he is even a reliable narrator.