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Women's role in the 1930s
Roles of women in the 1930s essay
Women's role in the 1930s
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Women's role in the 1930s
Roles of women in the 1930s essay
Women's role in the 1930s
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Steinbeck’s book represents what women often represent in literature; the weak object of desire. However, women
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”.
She is almost the same way with the man who comes to ask for work. At first with the gentleman she is curt and she does not want him to work on any pots or sharpen any knives and scissors. But when he starts to take an interest in the flowers and saying that he knows a lady who wants some seeds to start growing some chrysanthemums, Elisa starts to open up a bit to the man.
Steinbeck illustrates the hopefulness found in a harsh reality and
At the beginning of the story, Elisa Allen was progressively working in the garden with her flowers. Steinbeck described her by stating that “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 printed dress almost completely covered by a big
The Chrysanthemums takes place in a society that has no place for intelligent women. Elisa Allen is smart and has other attributes that go to waste since she is a women. The two men in this story Henry and the tinker are less talented than Elisa but have am more fulfilling and busy life. Henry is shown to be less intelligent but he runs the ranch, supports himself and wife, and makes business deals. All Elisa does is watch from afar while getting vague and condescending answers from her husband who doesn't see her as an equal.
I wonder if John Steinbeck
Still, he is an adequate businessman who runs his ranch successfully and provides a comfortable life for his wife. Then there’s A tall, bearded man knows as the tinker who makes his living repairing pots, pans, and other kitchen utensils. The tinker taps into Elisa emotions to try and make a sale and comes across as a witty man who flirts and banters with Elisa. He is also clever and canny enough to convince the skeptical Elisa to give him work, begging at first and finally resorting to flattery. He makes Elisa feel like she’s useful and makes her feel important.
As they drive along, Elisa recognizes the blooms she had given the tinker adjacent to the street. The blossoms next to the street flag Elisa 's last withdraw to womanliness. Her fantasies of female correspondence are broken to the point that she can never backpedal to being what she used to be; therefore "she should persevere through her normal social part" (Sweet 213). Her exclusive objective is to wind up "an old lady" (Steinbeck 336). Since she has backpedaled to her ladylike part, as indicated by Renner, "she remains a pitiable casualty of male control and female hindrance"
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.
Elisa wishes she can lead a life like the tinker; doing something that is meaningful to her without any boundaries. Which is harmless, it’s the American Dream to be able to follow a passion regardless gender, and succeed in it; however this is America in the 30’s and not everyone could live this kind of free life. This is shown by the tinker’s response to Elia’s comment, “It ain’t the right kind of life for a women” (455). Finally, this shows the inequality women have in American in the 1930’s. The tinker shuts down Elisa’s thoughts of living a life like his saying women shouldn’t live like that.
The Chrysanthemums by John Steinback is a short story about the demanding and hurtful culture about being yourself. Throughout the story, we see Elisa try to represent herself through the pots of flowers and the garden she grows, While people try to show her what she needs to like and act like to succeed in the culture that they live in. This short story shows that when people are ridiculed for not liking things that they should stereotypically enjoy in one's culture, they become disheartened with themselves. One instance of this is the conversation between the wagon driver and Elise. The conversation between the wagon driver and Elise shows that people believe women and other groups of people should not live the ‘’non-household’’ life.
The tinker quickly reinforced the patriarchal judgement that life on the road was no place for a woman. The tinker embodies how society views a woman’s life to be not the life desired. After the encounter with the tinker, Elisa’s sense of femininity and sexuality as a woman is rejuvenated and restores hope for her marriage. Elisa begins getting ready for her date with Henry and gets all dressed up and puts on “the dress which was the symbol of her prettiness” (Steinbeck 6). Her hopes of restoring her marriage are quickly removed by Henry’s unflattering compliment “You look strong enough to break a calf over your knee, happy enough to eat it like a watermelon” (Steinbeck 7).
Elisa Allen, the protagonist of The Chrysanthemums was miserable, a 35 year old women, and dressed manly when tending to her flowers. ‘Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man's black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clod- hopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big