Elisa's Behavior In The Chrysanthemums

Desperate Behaviors In the story, “The Chrysanthemums” John Steinbeck allows the readers to be put in Elisas shoes to demonstrate her frustrations and feelings in her life. From the very beginning Elisa is shown to be a character whose life is filled with confusion and lifelessness. She’s not only trapped in Salinas valley but also in her own marriage and life with the only thing to nurture is her chrysanthemums. Just when she thinks she may have a chance of her needs being fulfilled when a stranger comes by her hope is then crushed. John Steinbeck creates this short story to show woman's need for sexual fulfillment is astonishingly powerful. Steinbeck demonstrates that if their needs aren’t met then the result of it can lead people to act

He’s unimaginative and can’t provide enough compliments and romance with Elisa. He seems confused towards the end of the story when Elisa brings up questions about the fights which shows he’s unable to understand her and see what she’s truly feeling. Henry can provide Elisa with everything she wants except the most important thing she truly needs. Although Steinbeck characterizes him as an adequate husband he doesn’t understand Elisa’s true frustration. The final character Steinbeck characterizes is Tinker who is described as a large man who approaches their ranch in an old spring wagon. Tinker is shown as a man who makes a living by repairing old pots, pans or any kitchen utensils. “Pots, pans, knives, sisors, lawn mores, fixed” (Steinbeck 758). He seems to be a poor uneducated man because of the fact that the words on his wagon were misspelled. He seemed to be persistent on finding any repairs to be done with any of her old pots or pans. After the character analyzed what Elisa was passionately doing he finds a way to interest her in order to convince Elisa to give him work. “The irritation and resistance melted from Elisa’s face” (Steinbeck 760). This quote shows how quick her mood changed because the man recognized her plants. This tactic he uses shows

For example, The chrysanthemums symbolize Elisa. When she’s in the garden nurturing her flowers she then becomes the plants. “It’s a good bitter smell,” she retorted, “not nasty at all.” He changed his tone quickly, “I like the smell myself” (Steinbeck 760). When Elisa brings up the smell of the chrysanthemums at first tinker thought they had an odd smell but then quickly changed his mind and agreed with Elisa. When he notices her plants Elisa is surprised and felt as if he had noticed her instead. When Elisa welcomes him to her garden it’s as if she’s welcoming him to herself in a sexual way. Then soon she offers to put a chrysanthemum bud in a pot as if she’s offering herself to him. Steinbeck construct this to show how desperate she got once she felt noticed by tinker. Towards the end of the story when Elisa sees her buds thrown on the side of the road this is a symbolic way of showing that the little hope she had of her needs being met is gone. This also shows that once he got what he wanted he is careless and acts by throwing them out on the road. Another symbolic example is the Salinas Valley. The valley symbolizes Elisas life and emotions. She’s basically trapped in a closed pot. It serves as Elisas negative energy that can boil over or explode because of her unfulfilled needs. Steinbeck uses Elisa as a comparison to the stubble field that’s unable to grow just like Elisa who lacks independence