...John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums” By Patricai.Mozee1 Unit 5IP Literature “The Chrysanthemums” I have chosen to explain why I think that Elisa’s situation is not over and that a “storm” could be brewing later. Elisa Allen at the age of thirty five working in her flowers garden was married to her husband Henry. “The Chrysanthemums” Elisa had strength and probable frustrate with her life. It was hard to describe what she really look like in her garden costume with a black hat (The Chrysanthemums, pp. 227). She is cutting the Chrysanthemum stalks with a pair of short scissors (The Chrysanthemums, 2012, pp. 228). The story states that her work with the scissors was over powerful (The Chrysanthemums, 2012, pp. 228). With all that energy, Elisa would be able to handle any job given to her. Elisa is a very confidence and strong minded person. This story is about a strong minded women and her garden. In this garden Elisa grow a flower that was called “The Chrysanthemum”. Her husband admire her work raising “The Chrysanthemums and mentioned how he wish she could work in the orchard and raise some apples ten inches big (The Chrysanthemum, 2012, pp. 228). This story is also about Elisa feelings and actions. Elisa was also a dynamic character in this story. She was strong and lonely but yet married to henry. Elisa was a friendly person and became friends with this man. I guess she was interested and decided to dresses up looking...
Words: 783 - Pages: 4
...dictionary |Object name |Screen number |Variables affected |Script? | |Label labelFloralDesigns |1 |none |none | |Label labelflowersbytype |1 |none |none | |RadioButton radioButtonRoses |1 |tripPrice |none | |RadioButton radioButtonDaisies |1 |tripPrice |none | |RadioButton radioButton Chrysanthemums |1 |tripPrice |none | |RadioButton radioButtonIrises |1 |tripPrice |none | |Label labelBasePricesbyarrangements |1 |none |none | |RadioButton radioFloralArrangement |1 |basePrice...
Words: 306 - Pages: 2
...Lindsay Nguyen Stephanie Denny English1102 November 1, 2015 Portrayals of women in The Chrysanthemums Throughout history, women have been considered lower class than men. Women have been treated unequally in society. Women’s intelligence and potential have often been undervalued and ignored. Due to this social misconception of female ability, women sometimes struggle to achieve their dream. In “ The Chrysanthemums”, John Steinbeck describes the female role through his character Elisa Allen whose life is limited, isolated and suppressed by the patriarchal society she lives in. “Elisa is an incipient feminist who dresses and acts like a man and is dissatisfied with a woman's conventional role” (Evans 244). Often times, women have social barriers and limitations that stop them from being able to go out and achieve their dreams. For instance, when a woman is married it is normal for society to see her as a motherly figure/homemaker. If a woman would go out and pursue her own dreams, she would be looked at in a negative way especially in the 1930’s. In the story, Elisa Allen is a strong farm wife who stays at home and takes care of her garden while her husband goes to work every day on the ranch. Elisa is very good at gardening, but she could never work at the ranch like her husband. Her life is limited, and she cannot do anything besides put all her strength into growing the chrysanthemums in her garden. While her flowers are big and beautiful, her husband does not share the same...
Words: 1220 - Pages: 5
..."weaker sex." The social assumptions that women have had held over them has only made women fight harder to shake the stereotypes they have been given and show they are just as independet as men are and are equal to them too. "The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck is a perfect example of the aggravation felt by a woman who is only being seen for her sex. The main charater, Elisa, lives with her husband, Henry. Elisa doesn't have any children or a job. Her main focus is her garden and her prize possession, her chrysanthmums. She takes care of these flowers with astounding care, keeping them save from anything that could harm them. The way a mother cares for her child is the way Elisa cares for her chrysanthemums. These flowers show Elisas hard work and dedication. Elisa's garden is a reflection of who she is as a person. She is smart, attractive, ambitious, and has many other great qualities, but just like her chrysanthemums, she has a fence or a boundary that she lives in. Since Elisa has these boundaries, it stops her from being herself, from seeing the world around her and causes her to isolate herself. Elisa gives her chrysanthemums the love and affection that her husband fails to give her. Henry could care less for her garden or her chrysanthemums and most importantly, his wife. By showing no interest in her flowers and down-talking his wife, it soon comes to Elisa's attention that she is slowly, but surely, detaching herself from the world outside of her garden. Henry...
Words: 586 - Pages: 3
...Summary Elisa was cutting down last year's chrysanthemums, in the Salinas Valley. Henry (Elisa’s husband) asks Elisa if she would like to go out a restaurant and a picture movie to celebrate his sale. Henry leaves, and Elisa continue to garden, but while she is gardening a man drives up in a wagon. The man asks to do any job like sharpening scissors and fixing pots and pans. Elisa tries to send him away, but the man asks about the chrysanthemums, so Elisa gives him a couple of pots to fix and some money for fixing them and a chrysanthemum to give to the lady he had mentioned. When Henry drives Elisa to dinner, Elisa sees that the man had thrown the plant on the road and she began to cry. Significance of Point of View The story Chrysanthemums is told from a third-person point of view. In the story, the narrator refers to the characters as “he” or “she” rather than “I” and “you”. As well, the story is third-person because we read what the characters think and feel, like a camera recording. For example, this sentence from the story Chrysanthemums, “she heard her husband calling Scotty down by the barn. And a little later she saw the two men ride up the pale yellow hillside in search of the steers.” this sentence is referring to the characters and “she” and “her husband”. When reading the story, you see it through Elisa’s eyes. The affects how she really feels and what she desires. You begin to see that she doesn’t have what she wants. When I look at the world through the eyes...
Words: 629 - Pages: 3
...Analysis Essay| Chrysanthemums| Feminism The story Chrysanthemum by John Steinbeck was written in 1937, when the United States was recovering from the Great Depression and women were still struggling to gain equality in a male dominated world. His story speaks of the life of Elisa Allen, a housewife in the Salinas Valley. Though she is characterized as a strong woman, whose talents lie in growing flowers and possibly crops, her gender denies the thought that she is capable of great things. The inequality of gender is one of the most prominent motifs in this story. Elisa is described as a masculine and strong woman. “She was thirty-five. Her face was lean and strong and her eyes were as clear as water. Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man’s black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clod hopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big pockets to hold the snips, the trowel and scratcher, the seeds and the knife she worked with. She wore heavy leather gloves to protect her hands while she worked” (Steinbeck, 321). Everything concerning Elisa is usually described as strong and is generally very manly. The possibility that a woman could be feminine and strong was a concept that was just not thought possible “Her home has the masculine qualities of being "hard-swept" and "hard-polished” (Steinbeck, 320). Elisa is an intelligent and talented person, as we can see by her gift of growing healthy and...
Words: 946 - Pages: 4
...The Chrysanthemums Summary How It All Goes Down At a ranch in the Salinas Valley, Elisa Allen tends to her chrysanthemums while watching her husband talk business with some men down by the tractor shed. She does her gardening work with ease and eagerness. She's a strong lady, and she has got planter's hands, whatever that means. Her husband returns from his successful business deal, and he wants to go into town to celebrate. They plan to finish their work for the day and head into Salinas for dinner. With Henry off working, Elisa returns to her chrysanthemums. Enter intrigue. She's interrupted by the arrival of a stranger – a man who fixes pots and pans. He drives up to the house on a ramshackle wagon and asks Elisa for directions and work. Elisa and the man have quite the conversation, and Elisa seems to develop a connection with the stranger (see what we mean about intrigue?). This connection culminates when she passionately tells the man about her chrysanthemums, and gives him some sprouts. Overcome with emotion, she almost reaches out to touch the man, who soon takes off, leaving Elisa all alone and flustered. When he leaves, she returns to the house and bathes and gets dolled up for date night with her hubby. He arrives home and gets ready, too. As they head for town, she sees the chrysanthemum sprouts she had given the man lying by the side of the road. Soon after, Elisa and Henry's car passes the wagon and the man. After discussing their evening out a bit more, Elisa...
Words: 1472 - Pages: 6
...NAME OF THE BOOK - Odour Of Chrysanthemums. NAME OF THE AUTHOR - David Herbert Lawrence (D H Lawrence). SOURCE - eBook. No. of Pages - 11. PUBLISHERS DETAILS - Published in "The English Review" Magazine, in June 1911 by editor "Ford Madox Hueffer". He was also an author of various books written under the name of "Ford Madox Ford". ABOUT THE AUTHOR - David Herbert Richards Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England. He was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter. His notable works include Novels (Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, Lady Chatterley's Lover), Short Stories (Odour of Chrysanthemums, Daughters of the Vicar, The Man who loved Islands), Play (The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd), etc. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health & vitality, spontaneity, and instinct. In his later years he continued to write despite his failing health. In his last months he wrote numerous poems, reviews and essays. He died at the Villa Robermond in Venice, France, in March 1930, from complications of tuberculosis, after being discharged from a TB sanatorium. DESCRIPTION OF THE STORY - "Odour of Chrysanthemums" focuses on a dramatic moment in the life of Mrs. Elizabeth Bates and the accidental death of her husband, Walter Bates. The story goes on telling...
Words: 444 - Pages: 2
...for women, having a professional career was not an option. Elisa you can tell has interests in the business side of the ranching, but goes largely unnoticed by her husband, and is brushed off politely. Elisa devotes her time and energy to maintaining her house and garden, and this may be a direct result of her wish to see the world, which just as easily shrugged off, as being an unfit desire for women to have. Although she brags to her husband about how well she can make things grow and her knowledge of plants, especially the chrysanthemums, may be a bit of an exaggeration, since gardening is the only thing she thinks about on a daily basis. When the tinker arrives she shows flashes of her brilliance when tinker asks her about her flowers, it shows how much she is thinking and her feelings, and how maybe she rarely gets to express herself. After the tinker leaves, and as they drive down the road and sees that the tinker had dumped out the chrysanthemum she had potted for him out on the road, Elisa is devastated that she tries to put this out of her mind by engaging in random conversation about wine for dinner and the fights that only men attend for the most part....
Words: 584 - Pages: 3
...John Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums" "The Chrysanthemums" is a short story by John Steinbeck which takes place in his birthplace of Salinas Valley, California. John Steinbeck weaves a tale about a woman's transformation. In this short story we follow the protagonist Elisa Allen, a thirty-five year old rancher's wife who holds a passion for growing chrysanthemums in her garden. Elisa is portrayed as a tough, strong person, and a masculine figure. "Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man's black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clod-hopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron." (45) Elisa possesses a great energy for working on the ranch with her husband Henry, but in a way she feels unappreciated by her husband and frustrated with her current life. The married couple seems to get along relatively well, however, their way of talking together is very formal. Elisa's frustration stems from not having a child, and her husband's failure to admire her romantically as a woman. Elisa's outlet for her frustration is her flower garden, which she is exceptional at growing. It is shown by her fine chrysanthemums, "Some of those yellow chrysanthemums you had this year were ten inches across" (46). Her husband however, doesn't really appreciate her gift for growing the flowers but would prefer that she used her gift to grow another crop. "I wish you'd work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big." (46)...
Words: 758 - Pages: 4
..."The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck is a short story that holds many symbols and morals that are still applicable today, one of these, a theme about crushed dreams and hopes, is prominent throughout. Elisa, the main character and narrator, goes through a change throughout the story. She meets a wandering tinker who excites and gives life to her stifled aspirations but eventually finds herself back to where she started, alone and down-hearted. In the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Elisa as hardworking woman who spends large amounts of time and energy tending to her flowers. Readers are told that "...her work with the scissors was over-eager, over-powerful. The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy." Due to society's limitations on women during that time period, the chrysanthemums fill Elisa's life; they are her passion and love. While Elisa's marriage is good, it lacks passion and the emotion that Elisa craves and pours into her chrysanthemums. The tinker's arrival and Elisa's reaction is much more natural a thing to have happened when readers consider he life that she had lived before for many years. Readers can find hints to support this in Elisa's interactions with the tinker, who is witty and charming, quite the opposite of her...
Words: 627 - Pages: 3
...There are four psychic structures that govern the cause of a person’s thoughts and actions. They are hysteria, obsessional neurosis, perversion, and psychosis. Many characters in literature exemplify these structures. Some are Norman Bates from Joseph Stefano’s Psycho, Lawrence Shannon in Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana, Eliza in John Steinbeck’s Chrysanthemums and Madame Arcati in Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit. Norman Bates shows symptoms of psychosis, Lawrence Shannon shows signs of hysteria and perversion, Elisa show signs of hysteria, and lastly, Madame Arcati shows signs of neurosis. All of these characters show symptoms of these mental structures through their different ways of thinking. Philip Hill defines a psychotic person...
Words: 1159 - Pages: 5
...The Chrysanthemums John Steinbeck wrote a story about a middle-aged woman, Elisa Allen, which is called “The Chrysanthemums”. While Elisa was working in her flower garden, two men stopped by her husband’s, Henry Allen, foothill ranch trying to make a business deal with him. Elisa is thirty-five years old that is described as a strong, beautiful, and hard working woman who loves her gardening job; she is full of emotions, eagerness, and have eyes clear as water. In addition, Elisa has a full knowledge of taking care of the garden’s flowers, specifically the chrysanthemums. That was mentioned in the story declaring, “(With her trowel she turned the soil over and over, and smoothed it and patted it firm. Then she dug ten parallel trenches to...
Words: 476 - Pages: 2
...Stronger Than Appears In John Steinbeck’s short story, ‘The Chrysanthemums’, Elisa Allen is one the main protagonists. The story follows Elisa Allen through a seemingly typical day, focusing on an encounter with a traveling peddler. The reader discovers more about her through her actions and dialogue as the story continues. Elisa Allen’s strong will, feministic viewpoints, and nurturing persona are showcased in Steinbeck’s ‘The Chrysanthemum’. Allens strong will is highlighted when she is tempted to I have an intimate affair with the peddler but after a short moment of temptation, she realizes what she's doing and quickly regained her composure. Steinbeck writes, “ Her hesitant fingers almost touched the cloth. Then her hand dropped to the ground” (Steinbeck, 7). It is shown the disappointment she has within herself after she...
Words: 514 - Pages: 3
...Short stories can be both fiction and non-fiction. Either way, the purpose of short stories is to convey a message, moral, or lesson. Setting often sets the mood and tone of the story. Characters in the story are usually affected tremendously by the setting. The setting is the time, place, day, or location in which the story takes place. The setting reveals clues to the readers as a sense of direction of what will happen next. The plot can be affected by the setting as because it affects what will happen throughout the story. The two short stories, “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck and “Hills like White Elephant” by Ernest Hemingway displays how setting can give hints to what can possibly happen, describe the characters trait, and effect the plot. “The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world. On every side, it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot” (Steinbeck 581). This quote is stating that the Allen’s foothill ranch was closed off to the outside world, they are living in a rural setting. The Allen’s lived in a neat white farm house with red geraniums...
Words: 1227 - Pages: 5
