Setting

Stephen King’s short story “The Man Who Loved Flowers” takes place in 1963, in New York, during a spring evening. We get these details in the very first sentences of the story:

On an early evening in May of 1963, a young man with his hand in his pocket walked briskly up New York’s Third Avenue. The air was soft and beautiful, the sky was darkening by slow degrees from blue to the calm and lovely violet of dusk. (p. 175, ll. 1-4)

As the quote shows, the evening setting is initially described in positive terms. Later, we also learn that “in spring anyone can be beautiful” (p. 175, l. 16) and that “the air was soft and sweet” (p. 176, ll. 13-14). 

The description of the setting is not just focused on the lovely weather. We also get a description of the inhabitants of the city doing ordinary, peaceful...