Analysis of the Short Story "The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck
In John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums,” he introduces symbolism and uses it to imitate the characteristics of the protagonist, Elisa Allen. Elisa is a married woman who is restricted from uncovering her true identity. Her life revolves around the notion of being a doting housewife and the only support she receives exists in her Chrysanthemum garden. Steinbeck portrays her to be a young woman whose self-imposed walls restricst her from understanding the real meaning of being human. Elisa represents the idea that it is only through revealing our own personal thoughts to another that will make us feel, and later on, grow.
Towards the beginning of the story Elisa is seen to be
Elisa shares her pleasures in viewing the stars; she describes them as “hot and sharp – lovely.” She wishes to desperately feel her life, and desires to be able to grow. Her life and environment has prevented her from venturing further out into the world, but that was until the tinker entered her life. It is not the tinker who has invoked emotions to suddenly pour out of Elisa, but is Elisa herself, who took the opportunity to allow someone to enter her closed off life. As the story reaches its end, Elisa may seem to be broken, but in actuality she has truly developed. On her way to dinner with her husband, Elisa sees the Chrysanthemums she had given the tinker lying on the side of the road. Elisa is deeply saddened by this, and feels as if she has been demoralized. She had opened herself up to someone, and literally gave them a piece of her to only be discarded as if it were trash. However, Elisa now realizes that to experience life one must also go through pain.
Steinbeck gives a unique perspective to the meaning of life. He raises awareness through the protagonist, that to feel is important within the human understanding of life. Steinbeck argues that the only way a person can grow and develop is through the emotions, and the only way to feel is by letting another person enter your life. Although Elisa was hurt by the actions of the tinker, she did however let a person enter her world and revealed herself to him. Due to the fact that she let the tinker enter her life she was able to feel something, even if it was a betrayal and sadness at the
While Boyle describes Mrs. Ames as elegant, gentle, and quiet, Steinbeck gives to Elisa more strength. Her face was “lean and strong”, and her figure looked “blocked and heavy in her gardening costume”. Both women find their own ways to cover lack of happiness in their everyday lives. The astronomer’s wife is managing the house finding the silliest things to keep her busy: “…from the removal of the spot left there from dinner on the astronomer’s vest to the severe trashing of the mayonnaise for lunch”. Elisa spends her days in garden raising chrysanthemums “bigger than anybody around here.” The fact that these two women did not have any children can mislead us to the conclusion that they were both trying to satisfy the instincts they were probably having at the age of thirty-five. While this is the case with Elisa, the astronomer’s wife had different problem: the lack of communication with her husband and incapability to understand the world he was in.
...hich was the symbol of her prettiness” (Steinbeck 94). Although when Elisa and Henry are on their way to go to the town, Elisa sees the chrysanthemums that the tinkerer had thrown out. At this moment, Elisa suddenly realizes that she will never be anything more than what she was before, a woman that is worthless to society.
Within Steinbeck's story, "Chrysanthemums," the main character, Elisa Allen, is confronted with many instances of conflict. Steinbeck uses chrysanthemums to symbolize this conflict and Elisa's self-worth. By examining these points of conflict and the symbolism presented by the chrysanthemums, the meaning of the story can be better determined.
Yet, their characterization indicates different reasoning being behind it. In “ The Story of an Hour” , Louise is first given a glimpse of her freedom from the fact that her husband is dead and spending time alone in her room looking outside a window which leads her to know that she is able to experience a new start of freedom. “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully as she gazed outside the window she sees the outside world and things that she has never noticed before and wonders into those thoughts (Chopin 175). The open window portrays the new experience Louise is about to begin and the bright future she has ahead of her which is not run by someone else since her husband is dead. Somewhat similarly, Elisa is given that freedom in “The Chrysanthemums” when she gives the tinker her chrysanthemums and he heads back out on the road. “Then she whispers, that is a bright direction. There’s a glowing there” (Steinbeck 589). This quote indicates that Elisa has felt some gloomy change of freedom after knowing that her pride and happiness “The Chrysanthemums” are being shared with the world and her hard work is leaving the “ great valley [of] a closed pot”(Steinbeck 581). However, in contrast to “The Story of an Hour” she expresses her freedom through her own hard work and not herself whereas; Louise finds her freedom inside of herself as she realizes she is
Elisa is a trapped woman. She is trapped in her “closed off” (Steinbeck 459) location of the Salinas Valley; trapped in her “blocked and heavy” “gardening costume” (Steinbeck 460); trapped behind her “wire fence” (Steinbeck 460). Elisa is trapped woman, however all of the things that keep her trapped are ultimately hers: “her wire fence” or her constricting clothing (Steinbeck 460). Elisa's inability to step beyond her boundaries ultimately leads to her continued unhappiness and feeling of entrapment in her feminine role.
In John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums, the reader is introduced to the seemingly timid and shy Elisa Allen. Elisa is routinely planting her yearly sets of Chrysanthemums, which appear to be the sole receptor of her caring and gentle touch, but all the while it is evident that “the chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy.” Her hidden eagerness seems not only out of place, but out of touch with her dry and wilted surroundings, of which her husband, Henry, abruptly interrupts her steady pace. Inquiring of dinner plans, he is quickly shuttered out, so that Elisa can continue her work in the fenced in flower bed. This seems to be the only place on the ranch that belongs to her, and thus devoting the entirety of her time, and consideration, towards this lonely sandy square.
Elisa’s inner feelings are most apparent with the portrayal of her working in the garden, the conversation she has with the “Fixer-Guy”, and finally, when she and her husband are going out to dinner. Steinbeck offers an array of different details concerning the character of Elisa Allen. The main detail being that she is a strong woman on the inside although she seems to struggle in showing it throughout the story. Because of the "Pot Fixer," she is able to act, although for a short time, like that strong woman. Steinbeck unfortunately brings Elisa full-circle, back to where she started. She notices on the way to dinner her chrysanthemum sprouts at the roadside. This, along with her husband’s hesitation to allow her curiosity, puts her back where she started, canceling her emergence. One must ask after reading this short story if Elisa will continue this discontented lifestyle. Or will she be able to blossom beautifully for good, as do her chrysanthemums?
Elisa Allen is a thirty-five-year-old woman who lives on a ranch in the Salinas Valley with her husband Henry. She is "lean and strong," and wears shapeless, functional clothes (Steinbeck 203). The couple has no children, no pets, no near neighbors, and Henry is busy doing chores on the ranch throughout the day. Elisa fills her hours by vigorously cleaning the ''hard-swept looking little house, with hard-polished windows,'' and by tending her flower garden (204). She has ''a gift'' for growing things, especially her chrysanthemums, and she is proud of it (204).
In the short story “The Chrysanthemums” John Steinbeck uses symbolism to reflect the characteristics of his main character Elisa Allen. Elisa, a married woman uncovers her deeply smothered femininity in an inconspicuous sense. Her life in the valley had become limited to housewife duties and the only sustenance that seemed to exist could merely be found in her chrysanthemum garden. Not until she becomes encountered with a remote tinker-man out and about seeking for work, does she begin to reach many of the internal emotions that had long inhibited her femininity. The tinker subtlety engages an interest in Elisa’s chrysanthemum garden that encourages Elisa to react radically. When Elisa realizes that there are other ways to live she attempts to lift the lid off of the Salinas Valley, but unfortunately the tinker’s insincere actions resort Elisa back to her old self and leaves Elisa without any optimism for her hollow breakthrough. Steinbeck’s somber details of the setting, strong description of the chrysanthemums and meaningful illustration of the red flower-pot reveal the distant, natural, ambitions Elisa Allen desired to attain.
Many readers who analyze Steinbeck's short story, "The Chrysanthemums", feel Elisa's flowers represent her repressed sexuality, and her anger and resentment towards men. Some even push the symbolism of the flowers, and Elisa's masculine actions, to suggest she is unable to establish a true relationship between herself and another. Her masculine traits and her chrysanthemums are enough to fulfill her entirely. This essay will discuss an opposing viewpoint. Instead, it will argue that Elisa's chrysanthemums, and her masculine qualities are natural manifestations of a male dominated world. Pertinent examples from "The Chrysanthemums" will be given in an attempt to illustrate that Elisa's character qualities, and gardening skills, are the survival traits she's adopted in order to survive, and keep her femininity and vulnerability in a man's world.
This frustration is evident when Elisa is first introduced. Her figure is described as "blocked and heavy" because she is wearing heavy gloves, heavy shoes, a "man's black hat," and a big apron that hides her printed dress (Steinbeck 330). Her home has the masculine qualities of being "hard-swept" and hard-polished" (Steinbeck 330). Elisa is bored with her husband and with her life (McMahan 455). Obviously, Elisa is unhappy with the traditional female role and is attempti...
In this short the Chrysanthemums, written by John stein beck. The author tells a character who is in need of love. Stein back reflects the charazteratiom of Elisa in the story because he shows us how Elisa character changes threw out the story. The traits of Elisa’s show us that Elisa is strong and want affection and resorts to the chrysanthemums as a way to show herself.
A more clear example of how Elisa feels can be better explained by Steinbeck's description of the where Elisa and Henry live. "The high gray-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world. On e...
Elisa Allen embodies the image of a simple woman eager to escape the confines of a gender defined role in society. Readers are introduced to Elisa as a 35 year old, strong woman living with her husband, Henry, on a ranch in Salinas Valley (Steinbeck 460). Elisa’s masculinity is highlighted from the attire she is wearing to the strength in her hands. Henry affirms that Elisa is capable in her endeavors when he states, “you’ve got a gift with things,” in regards to her garden (Steinbeck 460). Even though Elisa is delighted at Henry’s suggestion that she work in the orchard, the idea does not seem to get a second thought (Steinbeck 460). The idea of a woman working in the orchard is dismissed on the premise that the orchard is not a woman’s place. In Elisa’s account with the man in the wagon, her sexuality exudes in her graphic explanation of picking off the flower buds and being under the stars, to the point that she almost physically touches the man (Steinbeck 463). Her desire would go unsatisfied, as it would not be appropriate for her to act on her impulse. Elisa is searching for fulfillment in life but finds her role to be trivial. Intrigued by the idea of traveling, as the gentleman in the wagon does, she states, “It must be very nice. I wish women could do such things.” She is shot down as the man replies, “It ain’t the right kind of a life for a woman” (Steinbeck 464). This conversation clearly depicts the prevalent inequality of the sexes. Furthermore, once the man leaves in the caravan Elisa cements her urge for something more, looking out at the horizon whispering, “That’s a bright direction. There’s a glowing there” (Steinbeck 464-465).
Elisa is at her strongest and most proud in the garden and becomes weak when placed in feminine positions such as going out to dinner with her husband. Steinbeck carefully narrates this woman’s frequent shifts between femininity and masculinity over a short period of time. In the opening of the story, Elisa is emasculated by the description of her clothing. She wears "a man’s black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clodhopper shoes, a figure print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron." (paragraph 5).