Symbolism In The Flowers And Chrysan

Symbolism is a literary term used ought to often. Sometimes it is not even necessary in a wide variety of its uses. Yet in some stories, it is all the readers have to go off of and his extremely vital. In “The Flowers” and “Chrysanthemums” the authors so seamlessly insert one or two examples of symbolism into the text, so the instances were obvious enough to the readers but delicately placed therefore they were not obnoxious. The two short stories are slightly similar since both of their symbols are regarding flowers, yet they have completely different meanings. One a meaning of understandance and the other a meaning of strength. The symbols coincided directly with the characters and basically were the most prominent element in characterizing
Throughout the story the protagonist of the story, Myop, an innocence, young, and untouched girl, got a cruel introduction to the real world in a way that could never be unseen. At the end of the story, “Myop gazed around the spot with interest. Very near where she’d stepped into the head was a wild pink rose. As she picked it to add to her bundle she noticed a raised mound, a ring, around the rose’s root. It was the remains of a noose… Myop laid down her flowers. And the summer was over” (CIsneros 6). In the beginning of this very compact short story, Myop was nothing but cheerful and unknowing, yet within possibly a single minute she became all knowing. Imagine, going ten years of life thinking that the world was perfect, then one day, while enjoying the last days of summer, you find the truth about the world and about the world’s cold history. By Myop discovering that single rose by the lynched man’s head and laying down the flowers that she had collected while she still ‘had’ her innocence, shows symbolism at its very finest. The most prominent effect of this symbolism implanted by CIsneros is the characterization of Myop. As mentioned earlier, before she had stumbled into the man's skeleton, Myop was an innocent little girl, but after the incident she became uninnocent and was thrown into the hardships of the real world. Indeed Myop was a very static character, and indeed the way
Just like the title, the symbol of the story are chrysanthemums. The protagonist of the story, Elisa Allen, a strong and independent women, was compared to the chrysanthemums in which she cared so greatly for. For example, describing Elisa’s actions; “She was cutting down the old year’s chrysanthemum stalks with a pair of short and powerful scissors…. Her face was eager and mature and handsome; even her work with the scissors was over-eager , over-powerful. The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy” (Steinbeck 6). Even the chrysanthemums which are stocky, thick, and have many tiers, were no match for for Elisa who is stocky meaning strongly willed and just strong in general. She was so very unusual for a women in the time in which she lived and was definitely juxtaposed with the gender roles back in that era. The simple chrysanthemum characterized the static character of Elisa in numerous ways which were mentioned previously; she is strong, determined, untouched, and