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Oppression In John Steinbeck's 'The Chrysanthemums'

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“Woman is shut up in a kitchen or in a boudoir, and astonishment is expressed that her horizon is limited. Her wings are clipped, and it is found deplorable that she cannot fly. Let but the future be opened to her, and she will no longer be compelled to linger in the present.” by Simone De Beauvoir. Throughout history, women have lived under the decree of men. Such oppression has given women the drive to achieve the freedoms that men possess in patriarchal society. In John Steinbeck’s short story “The Chrysanthemums,” Steinbeck demonstrates how women are misunderstood and seldom ever encouraged to live life beyond what they are expected to. Through themes of manipulation and deception, and heavy steinbeck's use of characterization and symbolism …show more content…

Tinker is the Antagonist that help make a dramatic change in Elisa life. Tinker lifestyle was more like someone who lived on the roads. He had to work hard and earn what he made. Tinker did this in order to stay alive and also travel. Elisa was so intrigued by his lifestyle that she opened up to him. In Steinbeck's views “ While the man came through the picket gate Elisa ran excitedly along the geranium- bothered path to the back of the house. And she returned carrying a big red flower pot. The gloves were forgotten”(1227). The gives the reader a glimpse of who Elisa. She is strong and intelligent women that she wants to be. The gloves that were forgotten was the rules and regulation that society had enforced for women that elisa left behind. Tinker coming into elisa life in this moment also symbolises something new. Steinbeck usage of tinker was to prove an important point. Even Though Tinker may represent new life, he also reminds elisa where she stand in society as a women. As claimed by steinbeck, “She kneeled on the ground by the starting bed and dug up the sandy soil with her fingers and scooped it into the bright new flower pot”(1227). Elisa has become so vulnerable that tinker fooled into thinking that he cares about her flowers. As a traveling man all he cares about is fixing pots and making money. A women is mainly any ordinary thing to him in his eyes. Tinker really knew how to play the game and he got what he wanted which was the pot and not the flower. Steinbeck is conveying a message that Women are known to be submissive and respective of men. This is demonstrated when elisa kneeled down which gives all authority back to men

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John Steinbeck’s short story, “Chrysanthemums”, was written in 1938. The story tells of a woman’s struggle to find self respect and worth from her male counterpart within a very patriarchal society. Throughout the story symbols are constantly used and Steinbeck specifically chooses symbolism in order to express the inequality of women during that time. The use of chrysanthemums in Steinbeck’s story is to symbolize Elisa and her self worth.

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This is evident by John Calvin when he states that women should not be in rule over her husband or have such thoughts, they had to subject to and love their husbands (D6). This is evident in the ‘Epistle of Saint Paul’ when Calvin asserts that a woman's role is to stay at home and to subject to their husbands. Calvin was a Protestant theologian and political leader in Geneva, he was a man who wanted to promote his religion which made him biased. Another religious leader was John Knox who stated that men should take control of the situation and women, therefore the men would be the ones in control of the situation (D7). This is evident in ‘The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women’ where he asserts that women should not rule and putting himself in a higher position than women.

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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”.

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961 Words | 4 Pages

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

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John Steinbeck is able to incorporate quizzical diction and repetition to characterize Elisa and to define happiness, to convey the message that it is more important to be happy than to try and please everybody else. The author, John Steinbeck,

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Elisa Allen is rarely acknowledged by others, including her husband. The tinker notices Mrs. Allen’s craving to be acknowledged after making a brief remark about the Chrysanthemums,

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796 Words | 4 Pages

Elisa’s ability to attend to her chrysanthemum garden as if they were her children symbolizes Elisa’s femininity. However, Elisa’s husband, Henry Allen, fails to acknowledge Elisa’s femininity, which strains their relationship. Upon seeing Elisa’s chrysanthemum garden, Henry states, “I wish you’d work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big” (Steinbeck, 750). Instead of praising Elisa’s beautiful chrysanthemums, Henry believes Elisa’s talents would be better suited for fieldwork. Although the chrysanthemums symbolize Elisa’s femininity, Henry blatantly disregards Elisa’s beauty and talents and therefore her

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This means that males must accept their position of power over women, while the women must live to serve the men. In the novel “The Kite Runner”, by Khaled Hosseini, the protagonist Amir is troubled by the frequent and sometimes extreme mistreatment of women that his culture allows. He also struggles to live his life according

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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.

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When Eliza shows interest in the tinker’s profession he states, "It ain't the right kind of a life for a woman." implying that women shouldn’t or couldn’t do labor intensive jobs. Any person, of any gender could do a job like the tinker if they had Eliza’s determination and intellegence. The tinker, like many other men in the story, believes that women should fill traditional roles and stay away from “manly” jobs often because they believe women are too weak or emotional.

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This quote indicates that, despite the fact Elisa shows her masculine qualities at times, she reminds the readers that she is still a woman and the feminine side of her isn’t completely gone. The narrator conveys the theme, loneliness can lead to dissatisfaction with life by transitioning between her two sides. When Elisa was talking to the tinkerer, her body language changes. The narrator says “Her eyes shone. She tore off the battered hat and shook out her dark pretty hair.”

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601 Words | 3 Pages

This passage explains love and emotional significance in the war . Although the small role of women in The things they carried ,it is an importance threw out the book. Females character’s Martha ,Mary Anne and Kathleen have all effects on the men. Different women in the book have different effects on the men and affect them in different ways .For an example “Jimmy cross carried letters from a girl who named , Martha who 's an English major at Mount Sebastian College.

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The chrysanthemums symbolize Eliza’s feminism but unlike the chrysanthemums, Henry does not appreciate or acknowledge her femininity. Their lack of connection as husband and wife leaves Elisa feeling vulnerable. During which time, the tinker shows up admiring Elisa’s chrysanthemums, making her ecstatic for the acknowledgement of her beautiful flowers. The tinker dotingly described her chrysanthemums as “a quick puff of colored smoke” (Steinbeck 4). While enjoying the tinker’s company, Elisa inquired about his life as a traveler.

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170 Words | 1 Pages

This essay highlights the importance of queen Elizabeth I’s speech to the soldiers that were about to go to war, so this essay will analyze how she uses the resources of language such as diction, imagery and sentence structure. In the essay there was a metaphor and an example of that is, “I have the heart of a king, and of a king in England” and the meaning of that is that she is comparing her self to the power a king would have and that she is a strong women and capable of motivating the soldiers by saying that. And also another metaphor example is “and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my god and what is meant by this is that she is claiming to be weak but she isn’t. There was also first person narration

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884 Words | 4 Pages

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

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