John Steinbeck's The Chrysanthemums
The Chrysanthemums is a story that takes place in the Salinas Valley of California. The story's main character is Elisa Allen. Elisa is thirty-five years old. She is a character that goes through development and many changes in the story.
Throughout the story Elisa Allen goes through both physical and mental changes." In the beginning of the story Elisa is strong and eager"). She is working in her garden. Her husband Henry comes over to see her and asks her if she would like to go to town for dinner and a movie. Elisa becomes all happy when Henry asks her to do this. Elisa tells Henry that she would like to go to town. "She said she would like to go to town with him like she really didn't get to spend much time with him".
Elisa's mental attitude changes once again when the man tells her that he wants to give the chrysanthemum seeds to a lady that he sees during his trip. When Elisa heard what the man wanted to do " she ran excitedly along the geranium bordered path to the back of the house" . She was running to get a flower pot to put the chrysanthemum seeds in. The man left with the flower pot and Elisa was very happy.
Elisa was really happy when she left with her husband to go to town. This didn't last very long. Her whole attitude changed when she saw what the man had done with the chrysanthemum seeds. They had all been thrown on the side of the road. The man just left with the flower pot. Elisa had felt really hurt when s...
From the very beginning, Anna's first impression on Caro was a positive one. Caro had been through so much in the past several months that she appreciated every little thing Anna did for her such as dusting and cleaning her room, changing her sheets and bringing her a linen cloth with her meal. Unlike Harriet and Rose, Anna went out of her way to get to know Caro on a...
Statistics show 16- to 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger, which is due to distracted driving. Taking your eyes off the road for 2 (two) seconds, at 60 mph, means you have driven blindly for half the length of a football field. The risk of fatality is 3.6 times higher, when they are driving with passengers than when alone. For many years, the correlation between driving behavior and age has interested highway safety researchers and administrators. It is general knowledge that the greatest risk of motor vehicle crash...
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.
The two short stories have different characters, plot and setting and yet they have a common ground in which human beings are deeply involved. In short, the setting of each work powerfully suggests a rather calm, dull and peaceful mood at a superficial level; however, the main characters are struggling from the uncontrollable passions and exploding desire at heart. First of all, in "The Chrysanthemums" the Salinas Valley is depicted as somewhat dull, like "a closed pot." In addition, its geographical setting represents an isolated atmosphere, and, furthermore, Elisa's actions of handling chrysanthemums can be translated into a static, inactive one. However, when it comes to her concealed passion, the whole picture in this piece can be interpreted in a different way. In fact, Elisa is portrayed as "over-eager, over-powerful" in a sharp contrast to the unanimated space in which she lives. On top of that, Elisa expresses her volition to explore uncharted worlds like the peddler who happens to visit her farm house. Also, it must be noted that, even though Elisa does not reveal her desire openly largely due to the authoritative patriarchal system, Elisa's interior motive is directed toward the violent, bloody prizefights. In other words, the imbalance between the relatively restricted setting and Elisa's vaulting desire to wander into the unknown territory is chiefly designed to strengthen the overall imagery of Elisa, whose drive to experience the violent outer world. At the same time, it can be inferred that appearance (setting) and reality (Elisa's human nature) are hard to understand.
Hannibal managed to defeat a larger Roman force of 50,000 with only 40,000 troops. He did this by setting up his army in a crescent moon formation against the eager Roman consul, Varro. As the Roman army moved in, the light infantry places at the front of the formation began falling back and drawing them in. As the Romans continued to push the Carthaginian army encircled them and completely surrounded the Roman army. With the odds stacked against him Hannibal managed a great victory against the Romans, killing 44,000 and only losing 6,000 of his own men. This show of astonishing military prowess led to many city states defecting to Hannibal, which led Philip the V of Macedon following suit and initiating the First Macedonian War with
The Romans would gain momentum on Hannibal by destroying some of its his ally towns and also his only hope for support: his brother Hasdrubal.
After around 3 hours at battle around 15,000 Roman soldiers laid dead and an equal number were taken as prisoners, their leader Flaminius was also killed. Hannibal’s losses were only 2,500. Hannibal released many of the Italian prisoners telling them that war wasn’t with them but the true enemy was Rome. He did this because he wanted to gain there trust and get them to fight with him against Rome.
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.
With as common as fatal car crashes are, it is no wonder that new drivers are not confident while driving. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, “A total of 2,524 teenagers ages 13-19 died in motor vehicle crashes in 2013,” (“Teenagers”). Allowing teenagers to start driving at
“Car accidents are the No. 1 cause of death of teens” says Cricket Fuller, he also says that “a quarter of all teen-driving crashes are attributed to distract driving”. Even though the death rate of teen drivers is going down, an average of seven deaths a day still occur (Kowalski). Debacco-Ernie had said that “any time a teen driver is out on the road after 10 p.m., the probability of them being involved in a crash increases dramatically” (Carr).
I admired. As I gazed up, I could see the peaks of the mountains that surrounded the city, as well as the waters that surrounded it. Small, bushy trees stood beside the paths, marking the boundary of where I had to go. I had met Koica when I was a little child; my parents choosing him to be my advisor. I visit him couple times a week, each time bringing a gift but this time, I was empty- handed. As I looked to my side, I noticed a bright dahlia, standing out from the rest. This particular one was bright red with pink on the tips of the narrow petals. The rest were almost peach colored with yellow tips. There were other red dahlias as well, but they were more dull and dusty. Separating it delicately from the rest, I jogged the rest of the short way to the priest, who had been troubled since last
John Steinbeck uses symbolism to give alternate meanings to his short story “Chrysanthemums.'; A symbol is a device used to suggest more than its literary meaning. He uses these symbols to look further into the characters and their situations. The character Elisa has a garden, which is more than just a garden, and the chrysanthemums that she tends are more than just flowers. There are actions that she performs in the story, which also have other meanings.
The "Chrysanthemums" was written by John Steinbeck and introduced in 1937. In this story it is evident that Elisa has suppressed sexual desires that are awakened. At the ripe age of thirty-five, Elisa is at her sexual peak, but because of being betrayed by men, she is unable to fulfill those desires.
As expected, most if not all teens will disagree with that. But there are some safe teen drivers that are thrown into the bad teen driving category just because they are a teenager that drives. If there are some good teen drivers, then do all teens really need more drivers education? Samantha Williams is a senior at Winchester Community High School that has an answer to this question. “I do consider myself to be a safe driver. I’m always aware of my surroundings when I’m driving, and I always stay away from any distractions” (Question 1). She is intentionally aware of her surroundings and stays focused while driving. The government should not make more regulations and rules for all teen drivers when there are many teen drivers like Samantha on the roads. There are even some adults that believe not all teen drivers are bad drivers. Gregory explains, “ The teen driving issues are not about age and maturity as they are about making good choices and demonstrating exceptional behavior, whether they start that driving experience at 16, 17, or 18” (1). Many teens and parents seem to think the government has not made the best decisions recently when it comes to
Personally, I absolutely love Taylor Swift. As a fellow singer/songwriter, I am envious of her ability to be so poetically honest because that is what I struggle with most when songwriting. I am always afraid that something I write will end up sounding silly or stupid, which ultimately prevents me from creating something amazing. But fear has surely never stopped Taylor Swift, and I think that’s what makes an artist like her so special. She openly writes about what she’s going through, and she doesn’t care about what other people might think about her. Whenever I listen to one of Swift’s songs, I can’t help but feel like it could have been written specifically for me. It’s almost as if she takes my thoughts and puts them into words, which is quite a valuable talent if you ask me. In fact, for every big milestone in my teenage life, there has been a Taylor Swift song that I could rel...