John Steinbeck's short story "The Chrysanthemums" is about woman named Elisa Allen who feels discouraged with her current life. Her frustrations come from not having any children and from her husband's failure to see her in a romantic, passionate way. The only way she releases the frustration is by tending to her flower garden where she grows stunning chrysanthemums. Steinbeck uses chrysanthemums as symbols of Elisa’s children and her sexuality.
The chrysanthemums symbolize Elisa's children. She tends to her garden and handles the chrysanthemums with affection and care, just as a mother would take care of her children. Elisa is very protective of her flowers and places a wire fence around them. Insert quote. These pests are a threat to her …show more content…
She feels that her husband Henry does not recognize or appreciate her feminine side, and this feeling leave her feeling unwanted or overlooked. QUOTE. There is a feeling of resentment towards her husband. She believes that they are not treated as equals and has lacked the opportunities that he has been had since he is a man. There is a lack of harmony between the couple, which causes Elisa to become dissatisfied with Henry. On observing her precious flowers, all Henry can say is, "I wish you'd work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big" (240). Henry is unable to understand Elisa's emotional and physical needs leaving her exposed in her encounter with the tinker. The encounter with the tinker renews Elisa's feelings of sexuality as a woman. Her resistance to his question of having any jobs for him to do disappears after the tinker passionately describes her flowers as a "quick puff of colored smoke"(243). By showing interest in her flowers, he symbolically admires her. The chrysanthemums symbolize her sexuality, and she "[tears] off the battered hat and [shakes] out her dark pretty hair"(243). The tinker sees her in the feminine way she wants to be viewed as and sheds her previous masculine image. She gives him the red flowerpot with some of her treasured chrysanthemums; she is in a way giving part of herself to him. She begins to feel a new sense of hope for herself and her
The chrysanthemums symbolize Elisa's children. She tends to her garden and handles the chrysanthemums with affection and care, just as a mother would take care of her children. Elisa is very protective of her flowers and places a wire fence around them. Insert quote. These pests are a threat to her …show more content…
She feels that her husband Henry does not recognize or appreciate her feminine side, and this feeling leave her feeling unwanted or overlooked. QUOTE. There is a feeling of resentment towards her husband. She believes that they are not treated as equals and has lacked the opportunities that he has been had since he is a man. There is a lack of harmony between the couple, which causes Elisa to become dissatisfied with Henry. On observing her precious flowers, all Henry can say is, "I wish you'd work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big" (240). Henry is unable to understand Elisa's emotional and physical needs leaving her exposed in her encounter with the tinker. The encounter with the tinker renews Elisa's feelings of sexuality as a woman. Her resistance to his question of having any jobs for him to do disappears after the tinker passionately describes her flowers as a "quick puff of colored smoke"(243). By showing interest in her flowers, he symbolically admires her. The chrysanthemums symbolize her sexuality, and she "[tears] off the battered hat and [shakes] out her dark pretty hair"(243). The tinker sees her in the feminine way she wants to be viewed as and sheds her previous masculine image. She gives him the red flowerpot with some of her treasured chrysanthemums; she is in a way giving part of herself to him. She begins to feel a new sense of hope for herself and her