In this excerpt from “The Beet Queen”, by Louise Erdrich, Mary and Karl Adare give the impression as diverse characters. The passage explores their retorts to their surroundings in the environment and of their perspectives around them during the time of depression. Erdrich uses literary devices such as tone, imagery combined with juxtaposition, selection of detail, and point of view to convey the impact from the environment. Erdrich expresses, “And then, either to protect himself or to seize the blooms, Karl reached out and tore a branch from the tree.”
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”.
In a simile, she compares gardening to “boxing… The wins versus the losses” (Hudes 16). Through this comparison, Hudes conveys Ginny’s deep desire for a sense of control and success in her life. This desire is fed by the memory of her father, who was only bearable when he was gardening. Specifically, the assertion of this desire for control is evident as she recalls that her father “was a mean bastard…” but “became a saint if you put a flower in his hand” (Hudes 15). From those experiences of dealing with her father, a psychological analogy between nature and peace was instilled in Ginny’s mind at a young age, and is what she relies on as an adult to handle her emotional trauma.
Jordan Matthews is contrasted with the character of the flower seller who is free-spirited, ephemeral, and associated with the natural world. The flower seller’s sense of freedom brings an almost unrealistic aspect to her character. The
Similarly, in Chrysanthemums the emotion deprivation that Elisa feels stops her from seeing the truth that was progressively revealed to her throughout the story. When married some couples loose the spark they once had and others don’t express their love for each other as often can make a spouse forget the love them and their partner have. This is similar to Elisa and her husband because her husband does not show her the affection she needs which causes her to be fooled into thinking that a stranger is attractive and trustworthy. Whenever, Elisa offers to help her husband on the ranch she is laughed at which cause her to feel underappreciated and thwarted. As a result of her husband’s demeanor toward Elisa she puts all her energy into her house
In Yellow Wallpaper,The Chrysanthemums and Boys and Girls women/girls role in society is often limited. In yellow wallpaper John’s wife is suffering from postpartum depression. John does not let her do anything even write in her diary or read. In chrysanthemums Elisa is the best at what she does which is planting chrysanthemums. A guy came to Elisa in a wagon and told her i travel and fix pots for a living.
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.”
Hellen Keller once said that, “Although the worlds is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” In Hellen Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life, she wrote about her experiences with learning as a person who was both blind and deaf. In this passage taken from her book, she described her transformation from a child who fought fervently against learning, to an individual who yearned to understand and describe the world around her. Keller presented her shift in the passaged as one that altered her perspective of every aspect of her life, and awakened a sense of happiness and fulfillment within her. She portrayed this change through devices that allowed the reader to closely follow her experiences and understand the emotions that she carried with her
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.
In “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier the coming of age short story where a now grown up Lizabeth reminisce her childhood especially going into Ms.Lottie’s garden. Ms. Lottie, who did not like children but treated her precious marigolds gets them destroyed by Lizabeth. After destroying them, Lizabeth realizes her errors believing she became a women in that moment. This short story has several literary device that are used in it to help deepen the meaning. The use of imagery, symbolism and metaphors in “Marigolds” helps the reader that it is important to not lose
In the short story “The Flowers”, Alice Walker sufficiently prepares the reader for the texts surprise ending while also displaying the gradual loss of Myop’s innocence. The author uses literary devices like imagery, setting, and diction to convey her overall theme of coming of age because of the awareness of society's behavior. At the beguining of the story the author makes use of proper and necessary diction to create a euphoric and blissful aura. The character Myop “skipped lightly” while walker describes the harvests and how is causes “excited little tremors to run up her jaws.”. This is an introduction of the childlike innocence present in the main character.
Alice Walker uses imagery and diction throughout her short story to tell the reader the meaning of “The Flowers”. The meaning of innocence lost and people growing up being changed by the harshness of reality. The author is able to use the imagery to show the difference between innocence and the loss of it. The setting is also used to show this as well.
Everyone, at some point in their life, has encountered the injustices of stereotypes. Those suffocating labels that society places on individuals can dampen spirits and destroy dreams. John Steinbeck and Zora Neale Hurston explore the effects of such stereotypes in their poignant stories “The Chrysanthemums” and “The Yellow Mule,” respectively. Both main characters find themselves trapped in a box deemed appropriate for women. Steinbeck’s Elisa invests herself in her garden taking care of her beloved plants.
