Analysis Of ' The Chrysanthemums ' By John Steinbeck Essay

America in the early 1920’s was a time of innovation. Better known as the Roaring twenties, this period of time witness the creation of big business, such as the growth of the automobile industry and the production of motion pictures. Change was the major theme, in which America began to reconstruct itself for the better. Never the less, the twenties were especially known for the significant lifestyle and culture changes amongst women.
The author, John Steinbeck, had stunning success with the publication of “The Chrysanthemums.” This short story brings the subordination of women in the early twenties to a reality. Steinbeck describes the main character, Elisa Allen as “thirty-five. [With a] lean and strong [face]... Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man 's black hat pulled low down over her eyes”(The Chrysanthemums). Oddly enough, the manly description of Elisa is quite common in the twenties. Steinbeck uses a series of masculine words to convey an androgynous picture of Elisa to the reader. As noted in the online encyclopedia of North Carolina, “the United States in the 1920s, only about 15 percent of white and 30 percent of black married women with wage-earning husbands held paying jobs. Most Americans believed that women should not work outside the home if their husbands held jobs”(Benner). Unfortunately, the typical job of a woman in the twenties was to be a housewife. The introductory scene, which depicted a vivid scene of Elisa slaving in…