Summary:
The story takes place in New York City, during an early evening in May of 1963. We follow a young man who looks like he is in love; he is walking through 3rd Avenue. The people around him seem to respond to his outbound feelings. The young man is buying flowers for a girl named Norma, who he is going over to meet. A radio in the background is broadcasting bad news but no one seems to really care. He continues on up the street and meets a couple more people who also respond to his love stuck look. He walks down through an alley and sees a woman but this isn’t Norma, so he murders her like he has done five times already. Norma has been dead for ten years.
He says that his name is love and that he walked the dark streets because Norma was waiting for him.

Characterization of the young man:
The young man is dressed in a light grey suit with a narrow tie and a top collar where the button is undone, he is far from rich and his appearance is described as having dark, short cut hair, light blue eyes and a fair complexion and on this soft spring evening, he was beautiful. He is described very positively through most of the story. He is happy and in love, the feelings radiate out of him and emit an aura of happiness which is perceived by the bystanders on the street. When he hears the news on the radio we start to notice a change when he reaches into his pocket, he seems puzzled, lonely and haunted. He is never truly aware of the life around him; he is focused on something else. His true identity is the hammer murderer. The young man doesn’t have a name, even though he calls himself love, which gives us a feeling that he could be a person next to us. He is essentially a love obsessed psychopath looking for his long dead love, Norma, a brutal killer who claims to love but commits crimes of hate.

Symbols in the story:
The flowers carry several meanings, which all relates to the short-story. The colors we are presented with are: yellow, white and red. Flowers are given as a sign of love and passion, which the red color also represents, white also means purity. However flowers are also often used as offerings to the dead. The colors yellow and white symbolize falseness, jealousy, lies and death. The young man’s clothing do somewhat resemble attire worn at a funeral. His feelings are quite ambivalent, which is show when he listens to the news broadcast on the radio, where his expression shifts from being happy and love-struck to a more depressive look. We can compare the flowers to the young man’s feelings.
The story’s title is: The man who loved flowers. The words loved and flowers carry a deeper meaning. As loved is set in past tense, it’s not something that “The man” does anymore, it tells of a bad experience that might have occurred.
As with flowers, it would make sense for it to mean women. The title would then mean “The man who once loved women”.

Is evil innate or learned:
Evilness is like a seed, it needs nutrition to grow and sprout. The nutrition comes from bad experiences; it is always laying deep in our heart and soul. Becoming evil springs from a much deeper psychological aspect. There are many factors for what may invoke the act of diabolism; it may be from a bad upbringing, family disputes and struggles. Our daily social environment, may it be school or work where we daily meet the same people whom all have different opinions of us. Feeling isolated or lonely may make us seek other methods which will fill the black hole. Too much negativity taints into our very core, we may evolve into a being which we never hoped to see. People do incredible things for love, both good and bad. One of the scariest and toughest things to many people is losing a loved one.