The Man Who Loved Flowers
Critical Essay
• 26/10/2012
• In this lesson pupils will work together to
improve their essay writing skills.
• You will read and listen to the story again
• You will write a perfect introduction.
1. Listen to the story and read along.
• Now, each group will be given an essay
question.
• You will have 10 minutes to work together
work together to write the best introduction
for that question.
• 1. Write about a short story in which setting is
an important feature. Explain how the writer
creates the setting and then go on to show how
this feature contributes to your understanding
of the text as a whole.
• An Introduction must:
• 1. Rephrase the question into an opening
statement, stating the title of the short story and
who it is by.
• 2. Give a brief outline of the story itself making
reference to the task
• Now swap your introduction with another
group and see how they compare.
• Which introduction is the best?
• Does their introduction 1. Rephrase the
question into an opening statement, stating
the title of the short story and who it is by.
• 2. Give a brief outline of the story itself
making reference to the task
• 2. Write about a short story which has a turning point
or moment of realisation for at least one of the
characters. Briefly describe what has led up to the
turning point of moment. Go on to show what impact
this has on the character(s) and how it effects the
outcome of the short story.
• An Introduction must:
• 1. Rephrase the question into an opening statement,
stating the title of the short story and who it is by.
• 2. Give a brief outline of the story itself making
reference to the task
• Now swap your introduction with another
group and see how they compare.
• Which introduction is the best?
• Does their introduction 1. Rephrase the
question into an opening statement, stating
the title of the short story and who it is by.
• 2. Give a brief outline of the story itself
making reference to the task
• 3. Write about a short story in which the writer
uses a memorable style/voice/narrative
technique. Explain in detail how features of the
style/voice/narrative technique contribute to
the effectiveness of the text.
• An Introduction must:
• 1. Rephrase the question into an opening
statement, stating the title of the short story and
who it is by.
• 2. Give a brief outline of the story itself making
reference to the task
Finally…
• Take a look at your own introduction, how
does it compare?
• Can you improve it?
• The “Man Who Loved Flowers” by Stephen King is a short
story in which setting is an important feature. The story is
set in New York City on a beautiful evening in Spring. We
see a young man, apparently in love walking through the
city. His demeanour attracts the attention of everyone he
passes who all think he is in love and on the way to meet
his sweetheart. He stops at a flower vendor to buy a
bouquet of tea roses and continues on his way. As the
evening gets darker the man turns into a side street and
approaches a woman he believes is his beloved Norma. The
woman is in fact a stranger and the young man a crazed
hammer murderer. He insists the woman is Norma despite
the narrator confessing to us that she “has been dead for
10 years”. The young man brutally murders the woman and
continues on into the night. Setting is vital in the short story
because it is a key part of King’s misdirection. It confuses
us into thinking this is not a horror story, which makes the
climax more shocking.