Salinas, California

oppression by her environment. Steinbeck conveys the feeling of isolation that the main character, Elisa Allen, struggles with while describing the setting. This is shown when the narrator stated, “The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world” (Steinbeck 846) and continued by stating the, “valley (was) a closed pot” (Steinbeck 846). Just as Elisa is depicted as living in an isolated area she also feels a separation from others.…

Steinbeck attended Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., intermittently between 1920 and 1926 but did not take a degree. Before his books attained success, he spent considerable time supporting himself as a manual laborer while writing, and his experiences lent authenticity to his depictions of the lives of the workers in his stories. He spent much of his life in Monterey county, Calif., which later was the setting of some of his fiction. Steinbeck’s reputation rests mostly on the naturalistic…

When John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums” was published in the 1930’s, it was a time of change for society. Women, who had always been seen as fragile and weak, were struggling for equality in a male dominated society. This story was Steinbeck bringing attention to women’s struggle for equality. Focusing on the story and the roles of female members of society, one will find that Elisa is quite masculine in the story and His story is centered on Elisa Allen. She is not happy and is frustrated…

short stories and novels, started off his career by attending Stanford University. When he realized that he could not continue his studies, he attempted free-lance writing, but he was not successful, so he returned to the area where he has been-California. Steinbeck’s novel often focused on social “economic problems of rural labors” (John Steinbeck Biographical, par.1). He was inspired to write Of Mice and Men because of his childhood observations of the poor migrant workers. Of Mice and Men…

John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas California. Steinbeck wrote over 30 books along with many short stories, plays, screenplays, and omnibus volumes (John (Ernst) Steinbeck Almanac). Steinbeck is the son of Olive Hamilton, a school teacher and John Ernst Steinbeck, a treasurer for Monterey Country. From the time that Steinbeck was fourteen years old, he had know that he wanted to pursue a writing career (Selected par 6). Throughout John Steinbeck’s career as a writer, he has…

Steinbeck Jr. grew up in the abundant Salinas Valley of California. He loved the Salinas Valley, writing to one of his friends, “I think I would like to write the story of this whole valley, of all the little towns and all the farms and the ranches in the wilder hills. I can see how I would like to do it so that it would be the valley of the world.” He achieved his goal of making it the valley of the world through Of Mice and Men. The novel takes place in the Salinas Valley amidst the Great…

because of Lennie’s childlike antics. Furthermore, it is almost always George’s responsibility to resolve any bad situations that may happen because of Lennie's actions . George does this by getting out of town and looking for work near the Salinas River in California, at the same time he watches over both himself and Lennie because Lennie is mentally disabled. Jobs are a rarity because of the economic depression, but they manage to get a job on the Tyler ranch thanks to George's communication…

“The Chrysanthemums”, a short story by John Steinbeck depicts the typical life of people living in the late 1920s or early 1930s. Steinbeck focuses on Henry Allen and his wife Elisa Allen, who live on a small ranch in The Salinas Valley, California. It starts with Elisa doing what she loves to do, work on her flower garden, although she wishes Henry would care more about her talent of gardening. Even though Henry did end up complimenting her flowers she was not satisfied because she knew it was…

There are several underlying themes throughout The Chrysanthemums, but the ultimate theme is gender inequality and the oppression of women in society. This short story by John Steinbeck is about a thirty-five-year-old woman named Elisa who has an intense love for gardening. Although she is a great and extremely capable gardener, she is forced by her husband to apply her skills only on the tasks that are dictated to her role as a woman in society. As a result of this, she is forbidden from…

John Steinbeck’s East of Eden draws comparisons to the Bible throughout the whole book. The allusions to the Bible help to reinforce the fight between good and evil that is at the base of East of Eden. John Steinbeck specifically uses the choices Cal makes in contrast to Cain in the Bible to demonstrate that human kind is born evil and the choices, which are based out of a lack of self-satisfaction, people make are what make them good or evil. Cal from East of Eden is written to mirror the…