Structure

In its structure, “The Man Who Loved Flowers” by Stephen King is a crime story disguised as a love story. As readers, we are misled by the numerous references to romance until the dramatic ending when a woman is killed. 

The beginning of the short story sets the scene as seemingly romantic and idyllic. We are presented with a young man and a beautiful spring evening: 

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)

However, the mention of darkening air functions as a foreshadowing element, hinting that the man and the plot are going to have a ‘dark’ development as well. The same goes for the mention of his hand in his pocket. Later in the story, we learn that he is a hammer murderer carrying his murder weapon in h...