Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The Chrysanthemums summary
The Chrysanthemums summary
The Chrysanthemums summary
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In John Steinbacks “The Chrysanthemums,” the shift of the setting from the ranch to the road plays an important role in the development of the main character, Elisa. Therefore, in the first setting, Elisa is in her garden attending to her the chrysanthemums, which she loves and cares for. Immediately, we’re placed in a rural setting, where women happen to live in isolation and man is manly. Elisa sneaks quick glances towards the men by the tractor shed, who is talking to her husband, waiting for them to leave, so she can throw aside her gloves and work her fingers into the soil of the garden. However, Elisa shows her fearless side by quickly digging in the garden, with her eagerness to grow her chrysanthemums, right after the men leave.
At the Boatright house, the bees and their hives are both a way of life and a means of sustenance for the family. But the Boatrights also respect the bees and care for them because they realize all of nature is in harmony with mankind when treated this way. August uses the bees and their hives to illustrate to Lily how societies operate, explaining that they are a powerful symbol of women as leaders of the village. August explains to Lily that bees have secret lives, so much so that humans seldom realize how complicated a beehive is. Lily sees the parallel between the bees and her own secret life.
The daisy is a mixture of white peltes and a bright yellow inside and these two parts of the flower come together to create a symbolism of love. Daisy is most like the flower in this way as she has two sides, one where she wants true love with Gatsby and the other that is obsessed with money. This main character’s sides, unlike the daisy, do not come together to create a lovely person but rather a selfish lover. Eventually, Daisy declares her love in front of her husband when she tells Gatsby “I love you now—isn’t that enough? ().
August helps Lily develop this by teaching her how to take care of the bees, in which Lily finds a passion she describes as “a fullness in [her]” (Kidd 167). Beekeeping not only gives Lily a sense of purpose, but a feeling of confidence in herself and her talent. She learns to fight her father’s power from August as well. As she repeatedly hears August say, “‘If you need something from somebody, always give that person a way to hand it to you’” (Kidd 298).
Lily’s new found family gave her hope, helped her grow in strength and confidence, and discover truths that broke down her walls and impacted her positively. The day Lily ran away and busted Rosaleen out of jail they ended up in Tiburon where her life would change. In Tiburon, there was a pink house with three sisters named August May and June who raised bees and sold honey. They were the sweetest three women Lily had ever met.
The Chrysanthemums Literary Analysis One of the themes of “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck is gender inequality. In this short story, the main character Elisa Allen was a strong, smart woman who was stuck being a common housewife. Elisa wishes she could go out and be like the tinker, sleeping under the stars and adventuring every day of her life. Elisa’s husband owns a ranch of some sorts, and when he tells Elisa of the business deal he’d just made he gave her an unspecific explanation, or a dumbed down one so he doesn’t “confuse her”.
Lily’s mother is the cause of much of her grief, through her journey she imagines her mother in a way that does not accurately depict who her mother truly was. When she finds out what her mother actually was she, “I stood
While Rosaleen does a fine job as a stand-in for Deborah in the basic Motherly aspects Lily’s life lacked that kept her afloat, August seemed to do an even better job than Lily had imagined her mother to. She acts as more of a role model, and gives Lily the advice and patient love that she’s craved since the death of her mother. She refuses to resent Lily despite her being white and despite the wishes of ‘The Daughters of Mary,’ and invites her with open arms into this religious group, and teaches her about Mary in a familiar way that will appeal to her. She knew from the start that Lily wanted her mother more than anything, and applies Mary to her life by comparing her to a queen bee and the mother figure that she so desired. “Egg laying is the main thing, Lily.
Tired of lying to August, Lily decides to tell the truth to her, and find out about her mother, Deborah, hoping to hear exactly what she had pictured. As Lily unfolds the truth about her mother’s past, she becomes frustrated learning that she wasn’t up to her expectations. Lily wishes that her mother had “been smart enough, or loving enough, to realize everybody has burdens that crush them, only they don't give up their children” (278). Furious, she believes her mother is a blind and foolish person who doesn't know what love is. Hurt by the truth, Lily realizes that “once you know the truth, you can't ever go back and pick up your suitcase of lies.
She says, “a girl with such extravagant tastes and no money had better marry the first rich man she could get”(83). Trenor then comments on how “if she had married Gryce she would have been surrounded by flattery and approval”(83). After Mr. Gryce marries Evie, Lily believes that marrying Rosedale is “the only honorable solution of her difficulties”(243). Similarly, Mr. Rosedale also believes that marriage would solve his problems. He says that he has enough money to break into society; however, he does not have a wife.
Daisy realizes how women during her time were always led by men without a voice since their decisions, opinions, and thoughts were second to those of males and their everyday lives were determined men. Daisy is expressing how due to their marginalization women are better off being fooled and dumb because the voice of women did
In this essay, I will argue about how technology is our most important literacy sponsor for our development of literacy. As a young child, my mother always used to forced books on me. Every other day was reading day and I would have to read a book to my mother. I would always look at her and cry because I hated sitting down and opening up a book that was longer than my instruction manual for my video games.
The setting shapes the mood and tone of a story and has a great affect on what happens in a story. The setting influences the events that take place, how the characters interact and even how they behave. Settings show where and how the character lives, what they do, and what they value. Characters have a relationship with the setting just as much as they do with other characters in the story. This is seen in the effects the setting has on the development of the Character Elisa in the story “The Chrysanthemums.”
Masculine and Feminine Roles in Steinbeck’s “Chrysanthemums” In the story “The Chrysanthemums”, by John Steinbeck, Elisa Allen lives an unsatisfactory life as she desires more than what is bestowed upon her. The reader learns Elisa’s husband is culpable for not seeing the beauty of his wife, leaving an open door for the antagonist, a traveler, to prey upon Elisa’s. Steinbeck uses Masculine and Feminine roles of the early 20th century, Internal Conflict, and an antagonist, to show Elisa’s struggle for Identity. Steinbeck illustrates Masculine and feminine roles of the 20th century in the “Chrysanthemums” to show Elisa’s struggle with identity.
But as Charlie is getting smarter, people start to not be able to understand him, and again, they look at him differently than they would normally. One of the main conflicts in Flowers For Algernon is person vs society. The author uses this conflict to show how the people in the story react to those with lower intelligence.