Literature dates back all the way to 5th century AD overtime Literary works have been develop such as novel, poems, and short stories. Short Stories are described has miniature versions of books or novels, where an author takes a tale and crams it into a ten to twenty page story. John Steinbeck is not only a well-known novelist, but also writes short stories like “The Chrysanthemums” and “Flight”. In Steinbeck’s “The Chrysthemums” Elisa Allen is married to a negligent ranch owner. While her husband works on the ranch, Elisa tends to her chrysanthemum garden daily. One day while tending to her garden, a charming tinker man pulls up to her in his wagon and tries to make a business transaction with her. Seeing that she is not interested, the tinker strikes up a conversation with Elisa about her chrysanthemums. In the end, the tinker takes advantage of Elisa’s naïve nature and ends up crushing her spirits by throwing out her chrysanthemums she entrusted to him. In his other work “Flight” Pepé Torres is nineteen and the oldest in a family of four. With his father dead he feels that it is time for him to be a man but his mother is very protective over him and constantly belittles him with childish comments. One day Pepés’ moms request him to go into town to get salt and medicine, this is when he feels his beginning passage to manhood. When he travels into town to get the supplies he ends up killing a man that provoked him. In his culture, this is a right of passage to manhood. When he returns his mother hears of this and knows it is his time to take his journey out into the mountains. He goes through great trails in the mountains, testing his body’s limits, his character, and his survival skills. In the end the mountains over come Pepé and he dies a man. Steinbeck uses similar themes and elements in his short stories such as contemporary writing, descriptive setting, finding your identity, not going…
