Elisa is a thirty-five-year-old women who lives in the Salinas Valley Ranch far from society “closed off from the sky and from all the rest of the world” (Steinbeck). Elisa lacks contact with anybody and everything from the outside world, she has no excitement in her life. She lives alone on the ranch with her husband Henry, who doesn’t really understand her. Elisa’s femininity is repressed because she works all day giving her a blocked man figure, her husband Henry doesn’t acknowledge her, giving her thoughts of unfaithfulness and at the end whatever glimmer of hope Elisa had from meeting the stranger is crushed when she sees the only thing she was proud of on the ground on the side of the road.
Many people have different views on who is to blame for the Allens’ marital problems in John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums.” However, author Gregory J. Palmerino, author of the article “Steinbeck 's The Chrysanthemums,” writes that the blame for the failing marriage is shared by both the wife and husband. Main characters Elisa and Henry seem to have an ideal marriage, complete with a domestic wife and a husband who compliments his wife and takes care of their finances. However, a deeper look reveals that both parties are desperately denying their personal desires in order to avoid conflict. For example, “Both Elisa and Henry equally suffer from conflict avoidance and appear to habitually withdraw from each other spiritually, intellectually,
In John Steinbeck’s “the chrysanthemums”, Elisa hides her explosive feminine desires in gardening. Elisa comes across as a witty, independent and enterprising woman who can pretty much do what a man can do. She is however caught up in a defeating marriage to Henry Allen. This is so in the manner that Allen reduces her to a housewife despite her demonstrated desires to participate in running the ranch and other activities that society considers suited only for males. She is frustrated and thus resorts to releasing her pressure in gardening, an activity she is good at, but not talented in. Momentarily she succeeds in defeating her plight through her engagement with the Tinker. However even in this, her femininity is still her defeating point as the Tinker discards the chrysanthemum roots she gives him in; a show of despise.
Elisa's unhappiness in her role as the wife of a cattle farmer is clear in her gardening. Through the authors detailed diction it is clear that gardening is her way of freeing herself from her suffocating environment. “The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy” which is “over-eager” and “over-powerful” (Steinbeck 460). The intensity with which she gardens, “terrier fingers destroy[ing] such pests before they could get started” suggests more than simply a deep interest, but a form of escape completely submerging her self into the task (Steinbeck 460). It is possible that some...
The character Elisa in John Steinbeck’s short story “The Chrysanthemums” is a woman who is unsatisfied with her life as a farmer’s wife. She feels that she is capable of doing more with her life than planting flowers and being a typical housewife. When talking to the man in the wagon Elisa states, “It must be nice, she said. It must be very nice. I wish women could do such things” (586). The idea of being able to live on the road and travel wherever she wants causes her to ache for another life. Since she is a woman it is not socially acceptable for her to live life that way, in which she is saddened that men are given more possibilities. Before the man in the wagon leaves, Elisa says, “You might be surprised to have a rival some time. I can
In the short story “The Chrysanthemums” John Steinbeck uses symbolism to reflect the characteristics of his main character Elisa Allen. Elisa, a married woman uncovers her deeply smothered femininity in an inconspicuous sense. Her life in the valley had become limited to housewife duties and the only sustenance that seemed to exist could merely be found in her chrysanthemum garden. Not until she becomes encountered with a remote tinker-man out and about seeking for work, does she begin to reach many of the internal emotions that had long inhibited her femininity. The tinker subtlety engages an interest in Elisa’s chrysanthemum garden that encourages Elisa to react radically. When Elisa realizes that there are other ways to live she attempts to lift the lid off of the Salinas Valley, but unfortunately the tinker’s insincere actions resort Elisa back to her old self and leaves Elisa without any optimism for her hollow breakthrough. Steinbeck’s somber details of the setting, strong description of the chrysanthemums and meaningful illustration of the red flower-pot reveal the distant, natural, ambitions Elisa Allen desired to attain.
To go back to what was first stated, Elisa feels trapped. Why? Well we can only predict that is has to do with sexuality. Elisa feels like she should have more freedom but can’t necessarily have it because she's a woman. As the setting shifts, Steinbeck begins to reveal more about the main character Elisa. In the nest setting, the author describes it through Elia's point of view, where she states “I've never lived as you do, but I know what you mean. When the night is dark — why, the stars are sharp-pointed, and there's quiet. Why, you rise up and up! Every pointed star gets driven into your body. It's like that. Hot and sharp and — lovely." Elisa, here is describing what it would seem like if she lived on the wagon, traveling through the
Steinbeck displays an extraordinary ability to delve into the complexities of a woman’s consciousness. “The Chrysanthemums” is told in the third person, but the narration is presented almost entirely from Elisa’s point of view. After the first few paragraphs that set the scene, Steinbeck shrugs off omniscience and refuses to stray from Elisa’s head. This technique allows him to examine her psyche and show us the world through her eyes. We are put in her shoes and experience her frustrations and feelings. Because she doesn’t know what Henry is discussing with the men in suits who come to the ranch, we don’t know either. Because she sees the tinker as a handsome man, we do too. Because she watches his lips while he fixes her pots, we watch them
Elisa Allen tends to her chrysanthemums while her husband is talking to some businessmen. After striking a deal Mr. Allen wants to celebrate and have dinner in town. After Mr. Allen leaves a strange man approaches Elisa. She strikes up a conversation with this man. She gives him some chrysanthemums before he leaves. She finally gets ready and while going into town she sees her chrysanthemums by the road. She considers watching boxing with her husband but he dismisses her. She turns around then proceeds to
The story immediately highlights discrimination between the two genders by stating, “Elisa Allen, working in her flower garden, looked down across the yard and saw Henry, her husband, talking to two men is business suits…They smoked cigarettes and studied the [tractor] as they talked” (Steinbeck 1). Because Elisa is a woman and Henry is a man, Henry is entrusted to work the business, or intellectual, operations of the farm while Elisa is forced to do menial jobs such as working in her flower garden. Despite her circumstances, Elisa manages to fight sexist tendencies of society in her own ways. The story describes Elisa’s appearance by