Similarities Between My Kids Dog And The Chrysanthemums

Each individual in the world has unique tendencies, passions, and emotions. All of which can be expressed or tied to a specific object. Whether the feelings are negative or positive, they can vary in intensity. The dog in “My Kids Dog” and the chrysanthemums in the story “The Chrysanthemums” both represent strong emotions expressed by the protagonists.
In the short story, “My Kids Dog” written by Ron Hansen, the protagonist, being the father, expresses his negative feelings for his his family’s dog in a variety of instances. Hansen opens up the short story with the father saying to himself,
“My kid’s dog died.
Sparky.
I hated that dog.
The feeling was mutual” (Hansen 367). It can be said that the father frequently feels a sense of frustration …show more content…
Living on a small farm, Elisa and her husband seem to always be working outside. In a particular moment as Elisa is working in her garden, her husband approaches her and after briefly examining the flowers says to her “ Some of those yellow chrysanthemums you had this year were ten inches across. I wish you’d work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big” (Steinbeck 375). Her passion for raising these flowers to such sizes are highlighted by this quote from her husband, which shows that he is almost envious of her ability to raise such beautiful flowers. Later on in the story, a traveling repair man is trying to convince Elisa in a rather dull conversation to pay him to fix something. The repairman notices her flowers in the background and mentions that one of his past clients would most likely to have some those flowers and asks her if they are nice flowers. The dullness in her expression had ceased to exist as she replied, “Beautiful. Oh, beautiful.” (Steinbeck 377). It was noted that her eyes began to shine with pride and her expression became attentive while describing the beauty of the flowers that she had