Literray Analysis of John Steinbeck's The Chrysanthemums

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Literary Analysis The Chrysanthemums

In The Chrysanthemums, Steinbeck accurately portrays what it was like to be a female in the 10s. He shows how isolated someone, especially women, could be. Many things in the story are obvious to the reader, however many events have underlying symbolism and depth. These events have to be read into and understood by the reader in order to get the full effect of Steinbeck's symbolism and parallelism between Elisa and the 10s.

Elisa is a middle-aged married woman, who lives on her husband's, Henry, ranch. She is a very simple woman who takes great pleasure in caring for her flowers. Henry is often away at work and Elisa is left alone, which is why her flowers mean so much to her.

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Throughout several parts of the story, Steinbeck shows us the emotional and social effects on Elisa and her life. The first instance of symbolism is how Elisa tends to her garden. She nurtures her flowers and babies them, by doing this it shows that she is needed. If she did not care for her flowers in the way she does, they would not grow. This makes her feel important because her flowers are beautiful and grow to be strong. Elisa cares for them just like they were her own children. She is able to watch them change and grow and this is one thing she has control over (448).

A hobby that women often took part in and enjoyed during this time was gardening. Since women of this time period were thought of as being the passive sex and did not have a large role in society, Elisa tried to hide her feminism. She tries to hide these traits by wearing masculine looking clothing while she is in the garden. "Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man's black hat pulled low over her eyes, clodhopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big pockets to hold the snips, the towel and scratcher, the seeds and the knife she worked with. She wore heavy leather gloves to protect her hands while she worked" (448). In this scene, Steinbeck describes how Elisa tries to disguises the woman in her, by covering up her womanly body with a manly get-up and her soft hands by wearing gloves in the garden.

While Elisa was working in the garden, she saw a man go by. On the side of his wagon it read "Pots, Pans, Knives, Sisors, Lown mores. Fixed." As the wagon turned down the drive, Elisa was very apprehensive about talking to the man. He asked if she had anything he could fix and she declined. He noticed her flowers and began to comment on them. She thought he sounded interested in her chrysanthemums and she let her guard down. As they were talking the man brought up the topic of a lady down the way that had wanted chrysanthemums in her garden. Elisa decided to give him a pot with the stalks in it and he would deliver it to her. She went into great detail as to how to care for them. "Everything goes right down into your fingertips. You watch your fingers work. They do it themselves. You can feel how it is." She also prides herself on the fact that she has "gardners' hands" which was something her mother had. She decides to find some pots for him to fix so he could eat that night. He fixes her pots and then heads off down the road to deliver the flowers. After the man left, Elisa realized the man had conned her into thinking he really cared by talking about her flowers. She was disappointed for not sticking to her word and letting herself become so open to a stranger.

Elisa then goes inside to get ready for dinner in town. As she showers, she "scrubbed herself with a little stone of pumice, legs and thighs, loins and chest and arms, until her skin was scratched and red" (45). This description illustrates how Elisa was trying to wash away her feminine flaws of opening up and giving in. When her husband arrives, he comments on how beautiful she looks, only this was not what she wanted to hear. She had just scrubbed away her womanly beauty and she did not want to be thought of as beautiful (45).

On their way to dinner, Elisa notices a speck ahead on the side of the road. As they passed she realized it was her chrysanthemums that the man had thrown off the wagon. She then knew that the man did not care for her offering or the effort she put into it, but only the money he received (45).

At the end of the story, Elisa breaks down and begins to cry. "She turned up her collar so he could not see that she was crying weakly-like an old woman" (454). This leads us to believe that Elisa is afraid to show emotion to her husband because this might make him think less of her and she wants to be treated equal. By showing this emotion, it makes her feel like she will never escape the title that society has put on her, merely for being a woman.

By leading us through the events in Elisa's life, it gives the reader a chance to see what it was like to be a woman in this time and how many differences there were between men and women. Even though Elisa enjoys some womanly things, she also wants to be able to have the same opportunities as a man. Steinbeck shows us that Elisa no longer wants to be so emotional and passive, therefore stereotyping her as a weak woman. She wanted to be accepted for how she was. During The Chrysanthemums, Steinbeck explored how different events had emotional effects on Elisa, and how this affected the way she reacted socially.

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