After reading The Word Processor of the Gods, answer the following questions, using examples and quotes from the text. Write around 2 paragraphs for each.
Language, Form and Style Question
How does the use of flashback scenes assist in the reader’s understanding of the protagonist’s motives?
Synthesis Question
Propose an alternative ending to the story, focusing on event variations.
After reading The Man Who Loved Flowers by Stephen King, answer the following questions in around 2 paragraphs each. Remember to use examples and quotes from the text.
Language, Form and Style Question
Discuss how the author uses character description to help create the mood of the story.
Synthesis Question:
Compose a poem titled ‘The Man Who Loved Flowers’, using the imagery, emotions, character descriptions and events seen in King’s short story.
Word Processor of the Gods is another short story written by Stephen King, published in his 1985 collection Skeleton Crew. It follows a man who dislikes his family and is given a magical word processor that allows him to write things into existence, and also delete.
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The Man Who Loved Flowers is a short story by Stephen King. It centres around an unnamed man, who searches tirelessly for a past lover, Norma. It was published in King’s 1978 collection Night Shift.
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Stephen King was born on September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine in the United States. He is an internationally famous author, known for writing novels and short stories, usually of horror, science fiction, and dark fantasy genres. King is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
King’s parents separated a few years after his birth, leaving his mother to support the children, often with financial difficulty. From a young age, King had a passion for writing, publishing weekly columns in his school newsletter. In 1971, he met his future wife, Tabitha. They lived together, living off his earnings as a labourer, and small pay checks from occasional short stories King wrote for magazines. In the following years, he continued to write short stories while teaching English at a high school. In 1973, King published Carrie, one of his most famous works. Another novel, Salem’s Lot, was published a while after. The Shining, The Stand, and The Dead Zone were written in the years after. In 1978, King started teaching creative writing at the University of Maine at Orono.
In his memoir, On Writing, King describes how he was first inspired to write when he watched his uncle attempt and succeeding to dowse (locate underground water or gems using divination) with an apple branch. This was his first fascination with the mythological world of fantasy, and the creatures and beliefs within it. Although it is unconfirmed as to whether it had an impact on his life, King witnessed a friend being run over and killed by a train at a young age. It is possible that this event inspired some of King’s works.
King also describes The Lurker at the Threshold by H.P Lovecraft as an inspiration. First seeing the cover of the novel, depicting a yellowish-green demon hiding deep within a cave underneath a tombstone, was a symbolic moment for King. The short stories within the book were memorable and influential to him.
Stephen King has stated Richard Matheson, an author of fantasy, horror and science fiction, to have been an important influence. H.P Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, and Shirley Jackson were also influential. Ray Bradbury was another author who was inspiration to King, he says, stating “without Ray Bradbury, there is no Stephen King.”
When asked in an interview why he writes, King replied: “The answer to that is fairly simple-there was nothing else I was made to do. I was made to write stories and I love to write stories.That’s why I do it. I really can imagine doing anything else and I can’t imagine not doing what I do.”
the short stories of stephen king 