Strawberry Spring

An unnamed man, about 30 years old, narrates “Strawberry Spring.” King provides few details about him; he is from Maine, where the story takes place, and for most of the story he is a senior at New Sharon Teachers’ College. He is (presumably) white, middle-class, and heterosexual. He is studious, slightly sarcastic, and lives in a dorm with a roommate. While he refers to both left-wing and right-wing student groups on campus, he does not profess a political affiliation. Like everyone else, he finds the murders disturbing. As an adult, the narrator lives a quiet life with his wife and child.

The only unusual detail about the narrator is his obsession with strawberry spring. He describes himself as “enchanted by that dark and mist-blown strawberry spring and by the shadow of violent death that walked through it” (182). The fog holds a mystical power for him and makes the world seem magical. He likens the atmosphere to The Lord of the Rings, where one might see “a Druid-circle or a sparkling fairy ring” (183). The descriptions transform the campus into a fantasy realm where events do not follow the logic of the everyday world.