The Chrysanthemums Summary

In the short story The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck, the main character is a housewife named Elisa Allen. In the beginning of the story, Elisa is working in her flowerbed cutting Chrysanthemums. Her husband Henry is off to the side making a deal with some businessmen and when he finishes he walks over to talk to Elisa. He talks to her about her flowers and the sale he just made. He then tells her they are going to go into town to celebrate later. Henry leaves, and then an unnamed tinkerer seeking to repair pots, pans, scissors or other household utensils drives a wagon onto the farm and converses with Elisa. While they are talking the tinkerer shows interest in Elisa’s flowers and Elisa almost touches the man, but recoils in shame. She gives the tinkerer some flowers in a pot, and after the tinkerer leaves having repaired some pans, Elisa goes …show more content…
From the beginning she is described as strong and as wearing very manly clothes with her hair tucked in a man’s black hat. In sentences 16 and 17 Steinbeck says, “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 down low over her eyes…” Then when the tinkerer shows interest in Elisa’s flowers she takes off her hat to let her hair down, revealing a little bit of her feminine side. At several points in the story Elisa’s voice takes on a “husky” tone, and she shows interest in doing men’s work, be it ranching, tinkering or traveling. She probably wants to do men’s work because it will give her a sense of accomplishment since her potential as a woman is being ignored. Before Henry and Elisa go out to dinner she is literally wearing men’s clothes, suppressing her sexual potential. Then, after she gets out of the bath she looks at herself naked in the mirror for a while, as if telling herself that she is a woman with sexual