The Characterization Of Women In The Chrysanthemums By John Steinbeck

In John Steinbeck’s 1937 short story “The Chrysanthemums”, a women sets in her garden, fenced off to protect it from animals, while her husband stood with two business men. The men smoked cigarettes while they studied the little Fordson. The woman’s name is Elisa, she is described as “blocked and heavy”, and wearing a man’s hat, clodhopper shoes, and a figure printed dress mostly covered by an apron. The apron holding snips, the trowel and scratcher, seeds and a knife she worked with. Being a lady she wore big leather gloves to protect her hands (350). Her husband Henry Allen owns the foothill ranch at which they live, where most of any kind of work to be done has been done. In the beginning of the story Elisa is depicted as the housewife who …show more content…
She goes to check the water tank to make sure it was warm enough for a shower. Once she decides to get ready she goes “In the bathroom she tore off her soiled clothes and flung them into the corner. And then she scrubbed herself with a little block of pumice, legs and thighs, loins and chest and arms, until her skin was scratched and red” (355). With her actions we can infer that she is trying to wash away not only the soil from the garden, but also the parts of her that felt ashamed by her earlier actions towards the tinker. She then gets out of her bath and “when she had dried herself she stood in front of the mirror in her bedroom and looked at her body. She tightened her stomach and threw out her chest. She turned and looked over her shoulder at her back” (355). Here we can tell that Elisa is now going through a more feminine mood, where she feels the need of having a smaller stomach and a bigger bust when she throws her chest out. Elisa then gets dresses in “her newest under-clothing and her newest stockings and the dress which was the symbol of her prettiness. She worked carefully on her hair, pencilled her eyebrows and rouged her lips” (355). Even though Elisa and her husband are just going to town, we can tell that she is really feeling the need to impress, as if she hasn’t ever done this before and would like to be noticed for more than her “blocked and heavy” (350) …show more content…
Henry comes out of the house and looks at her telling her “Why- why, Elisa. You look so nice!” (355) But by Elisa’s reaction we can tell that, that was not the response that she wanted. So in trying to make things better Elisa is once again noticed for her strong appearance, but not in the way she was expecting. He tells her “It’s a kind of play. You look strong enough to break a calf over your knee, happy enough to eat it like a watermelon.” (355) But it now seems clear to herself that yes, even though she is depicted to be a rancher’s housewife and nothing else, that she is strong. Once they left the house “Far ahead on the road Elisa saw a dark speck. She knew.” (355) And as they passed she tried all she could not to look at it but she couldn’t help herself, she whispered to herself sadly. “He might have thrown them off the road. That wouldn’t have been much trouble, not very much. But he kept the pot’, she explained. `He had to keep the pot. That’s why he couldn’t get them off the road.” (355). Right then is when her heart sinks, but she has to be strong just like she said she was. “His rejection of the flowers also mimics the way society has rejected women as nothing more than mothers and housekeepers. Just like her, the flowers are unobjectionable and also unimportant: both are merely decorative and add little value to the world.” (Spark