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The chrysanthemums by john steinbeck. gender role
Treatment of women in literature
Analysis of John Steinbeck
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When John Steinbeck mocks feminism he is trying to show how woman in the story are dominated by a male or by a male society in general. The work is introduced by finding the fault against all women. In the times when John Steinbeck wrote the story, The Chrysanthemums, women were seen as inferior. Many times men and women would perform a equal task, but the women would be oppressed just because of their gender The women were not seen in the same respect in any aspect that men were. The portrayal of women greatly influenced the way John Steinbeck wrote this story.
In The Chrysanthemums, John Steinbeck intends to suggest that all women are not equal to men in society. Elisa understands this when she is not able to take part in the same male oriented activities that her husband takes part in. Elisa is seen as a lesser of a person just because of her gender. That demoralism of women leads me to believe that Steinbeck thought all women were insignificant.
John Steinbeck’s development of Elisa in the story is easy to understand. In the beginning Elisa is viewed as a hard working housewife, and nothing more than that. When she meets the peddler she was overcome with confidence, and she seemed to have more control over her world. Only when she sees that her chrysanthemums have been discarded, she is reduced down to nothing but a sobbing and helpless woman.
Anyone who is oppressed over a long period of time will have a tendency to rebel and fight for some kind of right. John Steinbeck chose to make the main character Elisa a women for a reason. Steinbeck ridicules all women through the eyes of Elisa. Women were seen as lifeless and are willing to accept their life as it is given to them. She seems to be unwilling and makes no real attempt to overcome the tedious duties of being a housewife.
Elisa Allen reveals two very different sides of herself in The Chrysanthemums- the person she forces herself to be outwardly and the person she inwardly craves to be. As the story opens, Elisa is very quiet with her husband, giving him brief responses that lack enthusiam. After exchanging a few words with her husband, consisting much of the word “good,” “she said: 'I'll have plenty of time to transplant some of these sets, I guess” (American Short Stories 315). Here, Elisa's responses are neither affirmitive nor a reflection of how she truly feels. Progressively, though, Steinback unveils an eager, overly-expressive Elisa as she encounters a stranger that come to visit her. With the pot fixer, Elisa shares her passion for growing chrysanthemums and expresses a personality trait that is in direct opposition with her otherwise passive attitude. “'It must be very nice,' she said. 'It must be very nice. I wish...
Steinbeck's strong and somewhat manly description of Elisa while working in the garden, gives the distinct impression that she is not as weak as a stereotypical housewife would be. He writes that "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 low down over her eyes, clodhopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big pockets to hold the snips, the trowel and scratcher, the seeds and the knife she worked with." As evidenced by this excerpt you can see that she has covered up her hair with a "man's hat" and has thrown an apron over her dress in attempts to cover up her femininity. This apron also takes on a similar role as a man's tool belt as he works the land. This initial description lends to the notion that Elisa wants to be stronger as a woman, to stand beyond the stereotype of a housewife. Other phrases used by Steinbeck further the above points. The author mentions that her face was "handsome," her work with the scissors was "over-powerful," and her fingers "destroyed such pests." This description shows an inner strength that Elisa possesses; yet she is unable to bring this out. She also hints to the reader that she would like to take on more masculine responsibilities after her husband Henry comments on the size and beauty of her chrysanthemums. He says that he wishes she'd work out in the orchard and "raise some apples that big." She reacts to this by saying "Maybe I could do it too. I've got a gift with things, all right. My mother had it. She could stick anything in the ground and make it grow.” All of these de...
Elisa Allen is a thirty-five-year-old woman who lives on a ranch in the Salinas Valley with her husband Henry. She is "lean and strong," and wears shapeless, functional clothes (Steinbeck 203). The couple has no children, no pets, no near neighbors, and Henry is busy doing chores on the ranch throughout the day. Elisa fills her hours by vigorously cleaning the ''hard-swept looking little house, with hard-polished windows,'' and by tending her flower garden (204). She has ''a gift'' for growing things, especially her chrysanthemums, and she is proud of it (204).
Living a distant life can have dire effects on a person which Elisa consistently displays in the story which acts as the first reason on why Elisa does not come of age. When Henry, Elissa’s husband, approaches Elissa, she nervously asks,“ Henry, who were those men you were talking to?” ( Steinback 2). Just by hearing the phrase, rReaders can tell something is not sitting right with her as if she were riddled with anxiety or fear. These characteristics in her voice are signs she is disconnected from the people around her. Elisa most likely does not receive much attention in her life from other people, and Henry appears to be Elisa’s only person to talk with. Without Henry, Elisa would truly be alone which would cause her to feel even more distress than she already does. Elissa may have abandonment issues which is why she tensed up when she saw Henry speak to the people from the meat company. Elisa’s self-alienation stops her from coming of
For readers who observe literature through a feminist lens, they will notice the depiction of female characters, and this makes a large statement on the author’s perception of feminism. Through portraying these women as specific female archetypes, the author creates sense of what roles women play in both their families and in society. In books such as The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the roles that the main female characters play are, in different instances, both comparable and dissimilar.
Many readers who analyze Steinbeck's short story, "The Chrysanthemums", feel Elisa's flowers represent her repressed sexuality, and her anger and resentment towards men. Some even push the symbolism of the flowers, and Elisa's masculine actions, to suggest she is unable to establish a true relationship between herself and another. Her masculine traits and her chrysanthemums are enough to fulfill her entirely. This essay will discuss an opposing viewpoint. Instead, it will argue that Elisa's chrysanthemums, and her masculine qualities are natural manifestations of a male dominated world. Pertinent examples from "The Chrysanthemums" will be given in an attempt to illustrate that Elisa's character qualities, and gardening skills, are the survival traits she's adopted in order to survive, and keep her femininity and vulnerability in a man's world.
This frustration is evident when Elisa is first introduced. Her figure is described as "blocked and heavy" because she is wearing heavy gloves, heavy shoes, a "man's black hat," and a big apron that hides her printed dress (Steinbeck 330). Her home has the masculine qualities of being "hard-swept" and hard-polished" (Steinbeck 330). Elisa is bored with her husband and with her life (McMahan 455). Obviously, Elisa is unhappy with the traditional female role and is attempti...
A more clear example of how Elisa feels can be better explained by Steinbeck's description of the where Elisa and Henry live. "The high gray-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world. On e...
Women were perceived as either being a housewife, a nurturer, or a person for company. They did not have the right to vote till later on, work, and if they had an opinion that a male do not agree with, women are considered “wicked”; not savvy, not prudent but wicked to the core. It is unfair, unethical, atrocious, but through it all there was one female who dared to challenge the mind of men and the notion that women can be more than what men perceive them as being. Her name is Margaret Fuller. The goals of Margaret Fuller were precise. Men should realize that women are not an epitome of a statue but human beings, just as men, women can achieve full adulthood and citizenship, but most vitally Margaret aimed to change the assumptions about
How does one compare the life of women to men in late nineteenth century to mid-twentieth century America? In this time the rights of women were progressing in the United States and there were two important authors, Kate Chopin and John Steinbeck. These authors may have shown the readers a glimpse of the inner sentiments of women in that time. They both wrote a fictitious story about women’s restraints by a masculine driven society that may have some realism to what women’s inequities may have been. The trials of the protagonists in both narratives are distinctive in many ways, only similar when it totals the macho goaded culture of that time. Even so, In Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing we hold two unlike fictional characters in two very different short stories similar to Elisa Allen in the “Chrysanthemums” and Mrs. Louise Mallard in “The Story of an Hour”, that have unusual struggles that came from the same sort of antagonist.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Shelley characterizes the female characters as passive, disposable and serving an utilitarian function. Women such as Safie, Elizabeth, Justine, Margaret and Agatha provide nothing more but a channel of action for the male characters throughout the novel. Meaning, the events and actions acted by them or happen to them are usually for the sake of the male character gaining new knowledge or sparking an emotion. Each of Shelley’s women serves an important role by way of plot progression are otherwise marginal characters. Yet, this almost absence of women is exactly the reason why they are important. This use of the female character introduces a concept of feminism; here, female politics exists due to the vacancy of a “role model.” Women such as Justine, Agatha, Elizabeth and Margaret in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein play a key role, whether it’s for mere plot progression or by their absence.
...symbolism. Ibsen and Steinbeck both convey their disapproving opinions of feminism through these two works. Both authors wanted woman to be treated as equals with men, whereas the society they lived in was a patriarchy where “men are the center, [and] women are the margin” (Skredsvig). While both characters were faced with similar struggles as a result of the male dominated society, each character responded very differently. To their downfall, most women of the time probably would have responded as Elisa did and would have lived their lives in virtual servitude, while very few women would have responded as Nora did to stand up against their domineering husband. Thankfully, those few strong women, with the help from anti-feministic citizens like Ibsen and Steinbeck, did stand up for themselves and helped pioneer a more equal male-female society that endures today.
Elisa Allen embodies the image of a simple woman eager to escape the confines of a gender defined role in society. Readers are introduced to Elisa as a 35 year old, strong woman living with her husband, Henry, on a ranch in Salinas Valley (Steinbeck 460). Elisa’s masculinity is highlighted from the attire she is wearing to the strength in her hands. Henry affirms that Elisa is capable in her endeavors when he states, “you’ve got a gift with things,” in regards to her garden (Steinbeck 460). Even though Elisa is delighted at Henry’s suggestion that she work in the orchard, the idea does not seem to get a second thought (Steinbeck 460). The idea of a woman working in the orchard is dismissed on the premise that the orchard is not a woman’s place. In Elisa’s account with the man in the wagon, her sexuality exudes in her graphic explanation of picking off the flower buds and being under the stars, to the point that she almost physically touches the man (Steinbeck 463). Her desire would go unsatisfied, as it would not be appropriate for her to act on her impulse. Elisa is searching for fulfillment in life but finds her role to be trivial. Intrigued by the idea of traveling, as the gentleman in the wagon does, she states, “It must be very nice. I wish women could do such things.” She is shot down as the man replies, “It ain’t the right kind of a life for a woman” (Steinbeck 464). This conversation clearly depicts the prevalent inequality of the sexes. Furthermore, once the man leaves in the caravan Elisa cements her urge for something more, looking out at the horizon whispering, “That’s a bright direction. There’s a glowing there” (Steinbeck 464-465).
Feminism in John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums. At first glance, John Steinbeck’s "The Chrysanthemums" seems to be a story about a woman whose niche is in the garden. Upon deeper inspection, the story has strong notes of feminism in the central character, Elisa Allen. Elisa’s actions and feelings reflect her struggle as a woman trying and failing to emasculate herself in a male-dominated society.
In chapter two, the narrator goes to the British Museum in search of answers. During research, she uncovers that women are common topics of literature. However, none of the literature written about them is penned by women. When she reveals her findings for the definition of woman, she uses words such as weak, inferior, vane, and etc. that define woman. I think the narrator uses these words to emphasize the way men perceive women as being the weaker sex.