Power In The Chrysanthemums, By John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck lived in a time period where women didn’t have any power. Ultimately, it was a society where men ruled by a long shot. Women were looked upon as objects, and not human beings. They could not have the same jobs that men had; they were usually home figures. Taking care of the home while their husbands were out working. It’s safe to say that many women weren’t happy in this time period, and you can tell through all of the rallying by women to gain more social and political power. John Steinbeck wrote The Chrysanthemums, but in the end it had nothing to do about a flower. It was about a women Elisa who felt trapped in another marriage, and how she was mistreated by her husband. The central idea of the text is how women could not
Elisa had a passion for planting chrysanthemums; her husband didn’t have this same passion. Elisa and her husband were conversing amongst themselves, “You’ve got a gift with things,” Henry observed. “Some of those yellow chrysanthemums you had this year were ten inches across. I wish you’d work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big.” Her reaction was then, “Her eyes sharped.” That portrays that she was unhappy with the way that conversation was going. Elisa could not even be acknowledged by her husband. He felt as if she should do more which shows just how women could not have their own individual ideas. Just a few moments they found themselves conversating about Henry’s accomplishments, “Why sure that’s what I came to tell you. They were from the Western Meat Company. I sold those thirty head of three-year-old steers. Got nearly my own price, too.” Elisa did not criticize her husband because married women did not have that position. She congratulated him; she did not say how he should pick work in another field. That’s the first glance of how Elisa was unsatisfied with her
The conversation went, “He said, “It’s nice, just like you say. Only when you don’t have no dinner, it ain’t.” She stood up then, very straight, and her face was ashamed.” Elisa feels ashamed because in the midst of interacting with the man she forgot what she was waiting on. She forgot how she was waiting on someone else; she was totally depending on her husband to control her evening. Elisa throws a hint that she isn’t happy in her marriage directly through a conversation with the man when she said, “I wish women could do such things.” Elisa was referring to being able to sleep in a wagon, and travel up and down the highway as she pleased. She wasn’t free to do this because she was trapped in her marriage. We found out later that the stranger threw out the chrysanthemum seeds on the side of the road. Elisa feels trapped because she now knows that no one understands her. That goes to show how men looked at