Steinbeck's short story "The Chrysanthemums"

John Steinbeck's short story "The Chrysanthemums" is the story of a woman who is closed off emotionally, then changed by a stranger, and finally betrayed by that stranger. The story begins in a fog-shrouded valley, which is a symbol for the woman's emotional state: "There was no sunshine in the valley now in December" (1509).

Elisa Allen, 35, lives in a man's world. She works in her garden and watches her husband and two men discuss business: "The three of them stood by the tractor-shed, each man with one foot on the side of the little Fordson. They smoked cigarettes and studied the machine as they talked" (510). At the same time, Elisa hides her own femininity in her gardening outfit:

Her figure looked blocked and heavy . . . , a man's black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clod-hopped shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big pockets to hold the snips, the trowel and scratcher, the seeds and the knife [and] heavy leather gloves. . . . (1510).

There is a great deal of "energy" in her that makes her "over-powerful." She has hidden away her desires in her work in the garden, especially her work with the chrysanthemums. She runs a neat house and a pretty garden, but inside she is starving emotionally. All her care and love and attention go into the garden and the chrysanthemums. She is so involved with the flowers and making sure that bugs are not eating them that she doesn't hear when her husband approaches: "At it aga

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to talk about what an artist he is at sharpening scissors. She says no again. He asks about broken pots again, and once more she says "I haven't anything for you to do" (1513). He gives up on that idea, but he is not about to leave here with nothing. He looks at the flowers and asks her about them. She had been bothered by his questions about scissors and pans, but now "The irritation and resistance melted from Elisa's face" (1513). She proudly talks about her chrysanthemums, and his poetic description of them touches her. He makes a mistake by saying they smell nasty, but when he sees she is insulted, he quickly says he likes the smell. Again, are they speaking in sexual symbolism? In any case, however, he is after something from her. He says he has done some work for a woman down the road who has every kind of flower except for chrysanthemums, and has asked him to get her some seeds sometime. Elisa is suspicious, because chrysanthemums are normally raised from sprouts. But she is also excited about the idea of sharing her flowers with somebody else who also cares about them. She says she will put some sprouts in a pot for the man to take to the woman. Elisa comes alive for the first time, and shows her femininity for the firs

Category: Literature - S