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Masculinity vs femininity
Masculinity and femininity
Masculinity and femininity
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Throughout history, women have often been portrayed as inferior to men or considered the "weaker sex." As a result of these social assumptions, women have been fighting to dissociate themselves from this stereotype and gain their independence. John Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums" is a classic illustration of the frustration felt by a woman before she was observed as being more than just her sex. Elisa Allen, the main character, lives on a ranch in the Salinas Valley in California with her husband, Henry. Elisa's main focus is on her garden, especially on her beloved chrysanthemums. She tends to her chrysanthemums with great care, protecting them from bugs and disease and making sure they are started just right. They are her pride and joy, a symbol of her hard work and dedication. Elisa's garden and chrysanthemums hold a lot more symbolism then just the time and effort she puts into them. The garden is representative of the boundaries she lives within, her isolation from the outside world, and her ability to express herself freely. The chrysanthemums represent her inner strength, the one way she can express herself in the world she lives in. The relationship that Elisa has with her husband is described through dialog. He teases her about taking her to a fight, an event that is supposed to only appeal to men. He comments on her looks and she questions his meaning, instantly he is back peddling to try to avoid an emotional breakdown. The reader recognizes Elisa's need to be viewed as an equal by her husband, instead of him sheltering her like a stereotypical "emotional" woman. The reader is presented with Elisa's other frustrations when she interacts with a traveling salesman. From the start Elisa acts very hard towards the man, through her facial expressions, actions, and dialog. Over and over again the man tries to persuade Elisa to give him some work, she only accepts his gesture after he shows interest in her chrysanthemums. The man cons her into paying him to do repairs she is capable of doing herself by telling her a story of another woman who would be overjoyed to have chrysanthemums of her own. Elisa picks a bunch of her flower starts and plants them in a brand new pot for the traveling repairman to give to his other client. After the man leaves, Elisa seems to be satisfied with her treatment of him.
...hich was the symbol of her prettiness” (Steinbeck 94). Although when Elisa and Henry are on their way to go to the town, Elisa sees the chrysanthemums that the tinkerer had thrown out. At this moment, Elisa suddenly realizes that she will never be anything more than what she was before, a woman that is worthless to society.
The two short stories have different characters, plot and setting and yet they have a common ground in which human beings are deeply involved. In short, the setting of each work powerfully suggests a rather calm, dull and peaceful mood at a superficial level; however, the main characters are struggling from the uncontrollable passions and exploding desire at heart. First of all, in "The Chrysanthemums" the Salinas Valley is depicted as somewhat dull, like "a closed pot." In addition, its geographical setting represents an isolated atmosphere, and, furthermore, Elisa's actions of handling chrysanthemums can be translated into a static, inactive one. However, when it comes to her concealed passion, the whole picture in this piece can be interpreted in a different way. In fact, Elisa is portrayed as "over-eager, over-powerful" in a sharp contrast to the unanimated space in which she lives. On top of that, Elisa expresses her volition to explore uncharted worlds like the peddler who happens to visit her farm house. Also, it must be noted that, even though Elisa does not reveal her desire openly largely due to the authoritative patriarchal system, Elisa's interior motive is directed toward the violent, bloody prizefights. In other words, the imbalance between the relatively restricted setting and Elisa's vaulting desire to wander into the unknown territory is chiefly designed to strengthen the overall imagery of Elisa, whose drive to experience the violent outer world. At the same time, it can be inferred that appearance (setting) and reality (Elisa's human nature) are hard to understand.
Steinbeck introduces Elisa, the main character, as a masculine young woman with a “face lean and strong” (Steinbeck 209) and “her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man’s black hat...clod-hopper shoes.” (Steinbeck 209) He lets the chrysanthemums symbolize Elisa’s true beauty. She feels that her husband does not see her as beautiful woman. All he can see is a house wife and a gardener. He shows little interest in the chrysanthemums. When Henry says, “You’ve got gift with things. I wish you’d work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big” (Steinbeck 210) it is almost like he is making a joke. He knows that he would never let her work outside of the garden. And because of Henry’s neglect she turns to her chrysanthemums. She nourishes them as a mother would her children. Elisa makes sure that “no sowb...
One day, when her husband Henry goes to work a traveling salesman stops by the house looking for some new work. There is a sense of slight flirtation at first, but that's just because Elisa is so excited to have conversation with someone else other than her husband. However, once he tries to reveal his sales pitch Elisa becomes irritated and short with the man. It wasn't until the salesman made mention of her chrysanthemum's that, " the irritation and resistance melted from Elisa...
Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against, oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structures. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society.
Feminism, a movement that promotes equal rights for women, was one of the most influential political ideas of the 19th century. Primarily in the 1860’s, women began to fight for rights. Due to this, some states soon began to grant rights to woman such as voting in local elections. In 1920, women finally gained advantages including owning property and attending college. John Steinbeck’s short story, “The Chrysanthemums” portrays the authors view on feminism through the realistic portrayal of the main character between being a strong woman and a traditional woman while revealing the notions of patriarchy, gender stereotyping, and inequality.
Both Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants and John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums portray oppressed female characters in the early 1900s. In Hemingway’s short, Jig is oppressed by her lover known only as “The American,” whereas, the main character in The Chrysanthemums, Elisa Allen, feels the weight of oppression from society (male dominated) as a whole. Although the driving force of the two women’s subjugation varies slightly, their emotional responses to such are what differentiate the two.
In this short the Chrysanthemums, written by John stein beck. The author tells a character who is in need of love. Stein back reflects the charazteratiom of Elisa in the story because he shows us how Elisa character changes threw out the story. The traits of Elisa’s show us that Elisa is strong and want affection and resorts to the chrysanthemums as a way to show herself.
All of this insight and analysis of the meaning behind Elisa's chrysanthemums is what opens up the undisclosed doors of this story. If one did not look further into the story, it would seem as if the author was providing a bunch of unnecessary pieces of information about a specific day in the life of Elisa Allen. The chrysanthemums, being the key to the story, give a more in-depth understanding of this woman's life and her struggles that would otherwise not be acknowledged.
Within The Chrysanthemums, Elisa is frustrated with her life on the ranch and secretly fantasizes about running away with the stranger and living on the road instead. The Chrysanthemums themselves are used as a symbols of Elisa's life, Elisa cannot accept this disappointment, and therefore fails at changing. In The Chrysanthemums, "Elisa took off her gloves and stuffed them in the apron pocket with the scissors. She touched the under edge of her man's hat, searching for fugitive hairs. 'That sounds like a nice kind of way to live,' she said," so in this quote Elisa comments on the way the stranger lives his life. This could then hint to that she is unhappy with her life. Another quote to show Elisa’s unhappy, is when "Elisa's voice grew husky.
The author, John Steinbeck, uses many sources in his story, ¨The chrysanthemums¨ to develop the character. He specifically uses the setting as his main source for development.In the story ¨The chrysanthemums¨ the setting adds to the development to the main character Elisa by helping them get more understanding of the character based on the way the character acts in her surroundings. Elisa's connection to the ranch or garden is that the sunshine is lighting it up but in reality it doesn't because it is winter. How this connects to Elisas is that since she is a girl she is not expected to be such a strong women but when really she is and is not afraid to show it. As for the garden,Elisas connection with her garden is she keeps growing them
“She tried not to look as they passed it, but her eyes would not obey.” Here is when she realizes that she was taken advantage of, the man had gotten rid of the chrysanthemums. “He might have thrown them of the road.That wouldn’t have been much trouble, not very much. But he kept the pot, He had to keep the pot. That’s why he couldn’t get them off the road.” Also “She said loudly, to be heard over the motor.’It will be good, tonight, a good dinner.’”(pg 1253) This gives the reader the realization that the man needed the pot to sell it and that in fact their inference about Elisa getting taken advantage of was correct. When Elisa comes to the realization she becomes emotional. “She turned up her coat collar so he could not see that she was crying weakly like an old woman.”(pg1253) She was emotional because now she knew that her life will always be what it is now. There will be nothing more to her life but her chrysanthemums, just like the chrysanthemums had nothing else but Elisa. She is stuck. In this story the chrysanthemums symbolize the life of Elisa and many other
In the story, “The Chrysanthemums” John Steinbeck allows the readers to be put in Elisas shoes to demonstrate her frustrations and feelings in her life. From the very beginning Elisa is shown to be a character whose life is filled with confusion and lifelessness. She’s not only trapped in Salinas valley but also in her own marriage and life with the only thing to nurture is her chrysanthemums. Just when she thinks she may have a chance of her needs being fulfilled when a stranger comes by her hope is then crushed. John Steinbeck creates this short story to show woman's need for sexual fulfillment is astonishingly powerful. Steinbeck demonstrates that if their needs aren’t met then the result of it can lead people to act
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 the opening of the story Elisa is emasculated by the description of her clothing. She wears "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…" (paragraph 5). When Elisa’s husband Henry comes over and compliments her garden and ability to grow things Elisa is smug with him and very proud of her skill with the flowers. Her "green thumb" makes her an equal in her own eyes. When Elisa’s husband asks her if she would like to go to dinner her feminine side comes out. She is excited to go eat at a restaurant and states that she would much rather go to the movies than go see the fights, she "wouldn’t like the fight’s" at all (paragraph 21). Elisa is taken aback with her own submissiveness and quickly becomes preoccupied with her flowers as soon as her husband leaves. When the drifter comes and asks Elisa for work to do she is stern with him and refuses him a job. She acts as a man would to another strange man and becomes irritated. When he persists in asking her she reply’s "I tell you I have nothing like that for you to do" (paragraph 46). The drifter mentions Elisa’s chrysanthemums and she immediately loosens up as "the irritation and resistance melt(ed) from her face" (paragraph 51). The drifter feigns great interest in Elisa’s chrysanthemums and asks her many questions about them. He tells her he knows a lady who said to him "if you ever come across some nice chrysanthemums I wish you’d try to get me a few seeds" (paragraph 56). Elisa is overjoyed by any interest in her flowers and gives the man chrysanthemum sprouts to take to his friend.