'The Chrysanthemums': A Literary Analysis

Feminism is known to be the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men (dictionary.com). In order for there to be a demand for equality there must be depletion in equality. The rights of women were fought for many years ago, but is still a continuous fight today. This is why, although women obtained general rights some time ago, feminism is still very much alive today, because equality as a whole has not been obtained. What is this so called separation that we see still today? The separation of men and women has gone on for many years now. Back in the 1900’s Women were able to have some of the same rights as men, but after more than 100 years women and men still aren’t seen as equal, because
Elisa lives in a ranch with her husband; Henry who she has been married to for quite some time. Although they live well, and Elisa has found joy in creating her Chrysanthemums, it is not enough to make her forget that she is not truly happy. Elisa learns to live like this, and she has settled for this for many years, but after one day seeing the kind of life that is really made for her, she is left with deep sadness when she realizes the life she wants is not a life for her. Elisa has conformed to her Chrysanthemums, and to her husband even living a life more fulfilling then her. Although Henry is nice to Elisa, their relationship lacks a lot of passion, affection, attention, and love. Elisa lives comfortably, but it is not her ideal life that she is living. Elisa faces this reality when she meets The Tinker. The Tinker is a man who comes on down the road, who lives off of repairing pots, pans, and other utensils. The Tinker in Elisa’s eyes becomes so much more then what he simply is. She sees this man living an adventurous life that she has always wanted to live, but has never been able to. The Tinker fascinates her with his way of being, but as she tries to insinuate that she is capable of doing what he does even better he shuts her down and says, “It ain’t the right kind of life for a women”
That is a very hard question to answer, because although research is helpful it cannot really be said when or where it all started off. The inequality of genders can be traced back to the 1900’s, because it is a time where the inequality was made very evident, but it was also a time where things started to change. In the 1900’s the role of a women was to be a caregiver, and a housewife. Women were only known, and expected to marry, becomes mothers, raise their kids, and maintain the household together. The role of a man during these times was to provide monetarily to his family. The man got to work, and bring home money to sustain the household. These roles were very plain, and to the point. During this time about 90% of men and women lived this way. Women married very young, and were left to assume the role of a housewife, and a mother. Whereas men were left to continue working to sustain the family. Things did not start to change for women until the mid-1900. Women’s role started to change, due to World War II they were allowed to seek jobs in order to sustain the family, while the husband was away at war. Of course this came to a stop once men returned from war around the 1950’s. Men went back to working, and although some women remained working the vast majority, assumed their roles as the traditional women. After society implementing these differences between men and women, men demanded more of women. Men had a lot