John Steinbeck's 'Chrysanthemums'
“In a Mans World”
#In John Steinbeck’s, Chrysanthemums, he generalizes the spirit of a woman and delivers to the audience her thoughts and underlying emotions of being a woman in a “man’s world.” The chrysanthemums reflects Elisa’s character and her dreams of being free to grow, make decisions, free to travel, make her own money and most of all the desire to be attractive. Elisa feels closed in and secluded from the rest of the world, just as Steinbeck describes the atmosphere at the introduction of the story, “The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world” (192).
Feeling weak and powerless, Elisa unconsciously demonstrates the characteristics of masculinity in order to assimilate into a world not of a woman. For instance, she dresses in clothes that are too big for her feminine features and wears her husband’s huge hat which covers her soft womanly features. Therefore, all of her tools and gardening were, to her, considered “powerful” and strong. In lines 27-29, Elisa is clearly mimicking the power displayed the men talking in the shed (her husband and two men) “She looked down toward the men by the tractor shed now and then. Her face was eager and mature and handsome; even her work with the …show more content…
The chrysanthemums become symbolic of her hopes, “I’ll put them in a flower pot, and you can take them right with you” (196). The pot that the chrysanthemums are placed in is described as “a bright new pot” symbolizing a new life. As the stranger was leaving with her chrysanthemums, she reiterated to him to keep the sand damp so the plants wouldn’t die, in other words, take care of her. As he left, she said good-bye to her life and assumed a brighter direction “that’s a bright direction, there’s a glowing there
#In John Steinbeck’s, Chrysanthemums, he generalizes the spirit of a woman and delivers to the audience her thoughts and underlying emotions of being a woman in a “man’s world.” The chrysanthemums reflects Elisa’s character and her dreams of being free to grow, make decisions, free to travel, make her own money and most of all the desire to be attractive. Elisa feels closed in and secluded from the rest of the world, just as Steinbeck describes the atmosphere at the introduction of the story, “The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world” (192).
Feeling weak and powerless, Elisa unconsciously demonstrates the characteristics of masculinity in order to assimilate into a world not of a woman. For instance, she dresses in clothes that are too big for her feminine features and wears her husband’s huge hat which covers her soft womanly features. Therefore, all of her tools and gardening were, to her, considered “powerful” and strong. In lines 27-29, Elisa is clearly mimicking the power displayed the men talking in the shed (her husband and two men) “She looked down toward the men by the tractor shed now and then. Her face was eager and mature and handsome; even her work with the …show more content…
The chrysanthemums become symbolic of her hopes, “I’ll put them in a flower pot, and you can take them right with you” (196). The pot that the chrysanthemums are placed in is described as “a bright new pot” symbolizing a new life. As the stranger was leaving with her chrysanthemums, she reiterated to him to keep the sand damp so the plants wouldn’t die, in other words, take care of her. As he left, she said good-bye to her life and assumed a brighter direction “that’s a bright direction, there’s a glowing there