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Symbolism In John Steinbeck's 'The Chrysanthemums'

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In John Steinbeck’s short story, ‘The Chrysanthemums’, Elisa Allen is a thirty-five year old farmer’s wife whose underappreciated sensuality appears in the blooming flowers of her chrysanthemum garden. Elisa gets little attention from her husband even as she expresses her traditional skills in housekeeping and gardening. When a persistent repairman commends her for her chrysanthemums, she is willing to open up and give a part of herself in the form of chrysanthemum sprouts. Once the repairman gains his daily bread, the sprouts are seen strewn across the road into town. Symbols of repressed growth, femininity, and manipulation signify that Elisa Allen’s womanly qualities are overlooked to the point where men can manipulate her feminine nature …show more content…

At first, Elisa shows no interest in giving the repairman any work until her heart is softens at the mention of her chrysanthemums. The repairman notes her interest in the flowers and proceeds to compliment them with better sale prospects in mind (Help and Chrysanthemums). Symbolically, the repairman is taking an interest in Elisa’s feminine qualities through the chrysanthemums, which allows her to open up in a way she hasn’t been able to before ("Symbolism In "The Chrysanthemums""). As she lets the repairman into her yard, she is letting him into a deep part of herself: a romanticized and womanly part of her soul. As the repairman delves deeper into Elisa’s personal life by inquiring of her chrysanthemums, Elisa in turn opens up her feminine side, setting up a parallel to how she opens up about her flowers. “Her eyes shone. She tore off the battered hat and shook out her dark pretty hair…”(Steinbeck 6). Stripping from her old, tattered gardening hat reveals a soft, graceful version of Elisa that is hidden behind the psychological fence she has built up to protect her heart. She allows herself to give a part of her deepest self to the repairman as “her breast swelled passionately”, her voice and demeanor becomes more sensual as she nearly touches his trousers (Steinbeck 7). However, she is taken as a fool. Even though she protects the gift of her deepest self (the chrysanthemums) in a red -- symbolically sensual -- pot, that gift is discarded to the side of the road once the tinker has gotten enough to sustain him for the day. Her foolishness is represented by the geraniums mentioned to be in front of her house,which are notorious for symbolizing folly and stupidity ("Meaning Of Geraniums | What Do Geranium Flowers

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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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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.

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For children, they tend to be pressured into the beliefs their society roots for. John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids shows how youths are effected from becoming so involved in their society’s beliefs. Through David’s eyes, it is revealed that with enough pressure, a public’s view can break a child’s family apart, form distrusts with one another, and even bring them to a bitter end in

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The story of Icarus is a well known Greek myth that depicts the dangers of untamed hubris. Within the myth, Icarus, foolishly ignores his father’s warnings on the usage of his wax wings. With reckless abandon, he flies too close to the sun, his wings melt, and the result is him tragically falling to his death. The story is a simple enough, but remains a timeless allegory remembered centuries later. Nathaniel Hawthorne, if nothing else, was a master of the art of allegory.

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To get started, the azaleas in the novel represent Maudie Atkinson because of her loving, strong minded, and compassionate character. Azaleas stand out because they are able to grow even in harsh and unbearable conditions. They still turn out to be in a perfect beautiful condition, unlike many flowers who need a good environment to grow. Maudie is a perfect representation of an azalea because she lives in the prejudiced, judgmental town

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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.

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A symbol is anything that represents a larger idea, especially a material object representing something compact. A symbol can also represent a theme or moral to the story. It gives the reader something deeper to think about, and find other possible connections to different characters or objects overall. The novella Of Mice and Men captures many deep connections and displays various themes for the reader to obtain. Steinbeck uses numerous symbols that grow into greater themes throughout the novella such as Curley’s wife, the bunkhouse, and Candy’s dog.

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Elisa’s encounter with the tinker is the primary external conflict. When the tinker arrives, Elisa is steadfast in rebutting his attempts to earn her business. When the tinker gains her attention by appealing to her femininity, commenting on her chrysanthemums, Elisa believes they are having a genuine conversation. After Elisa opens up to the tinker, she also combats her internal conflicts of loneliness and the independence that society frowns upon towards women. When Elisa mentions that she wishes women could live a life like the tinker’s, he disagrees with her stating, “It ain’t the right kind of a life for a woman” (1066).

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“Pearl took some eelgrass, and imitated, as best she could, on her own bosom, the decoration with which she was so familiar on her mother’s. A letter,—the letter A,—but freshly green, instead of scarlet!” (182). The eelgrass is green, the color green acts as a representation of positivity. She draws a scarlet letter upon herself because she connected with it.

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Throughout the book the narrator draws many comparisons between women and flowers. Often, flowers are considered as a symbol of fertility and beauty. In the book, flowers are highlighted as objects that can bloom and grow at a time when few women can. From a technical standpoint, flowers are also the part of a plant that holds the reproductive organs. They're constant reminders of the fertility that most women lack.

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Pearl’s relationship with her mother differs from a typical mother and daughter relationship. For example, as a young child, Pearl “amused herself with gathering handfuls of wild-flowers, and flinging them, one by one, at her mother’s bosom; dancing up and down like a little elf whenever she hit the scarlet letter” (55). Hawthorne describes Pearl throwing “handfuls of wild-flowers” to enhance the connection Pearl maintains with nature, and Pearl’s attempt to create a similar connection with her mother. In fact, Pearl identifies her mother by her scarlet letter unlike most children who identify with their mother’s face; therefore she throws the flowers at the scarlet letter instead of at her mother’s face.

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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.

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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.

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