The Chrysanthemums (Symbol)

Katie Lopes-Raftery
Ms. Clapp
AP Literature and Composition
23 October 2008

Living in a Man’s World

In John Steinbeck’s short story, The Chrysanthemums, Elisa Allen tries to define the boundaries of her role as a woman in such a closed society. Steinbeck depicts the trials of a woman attempting to gain power in a man's world. Elisa learns but does not readily accept, that she possesses a feminine power unsuited for the time, not the masculine one she had tried so hard to achieve through its imitation. Steinbeck demonstrates that it is hard/ near impossible for women to achieve the level of power than men have in that society. The act of gardening symbolizes her female power in this man’s world.

Steinbeck creates a parallel between Elisa and the chrysanthemums/the garden to heighten the meaning at the end. Elisa’s face is described as “lean and strong” (240). She had the appearance of a strong woman. Henry commented that the crop coming in looked “strong” (240). Already, the readers can see the comparison that is made between Elisa and the flowers. In the garden, Elisa “looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man’s black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clod-hopper shoes” (240). We see that Elisa is all covered up, but underneath is a “figured print dress” (240). Underneath all of the gardener’s outfit is a pretty print dress. Similarly, the beautiful flowers are covered in dirt. Elisa also has “a gift with things” (241). She cultivated the flowers to be how she wanted them. She made them grow and shaped their outcome by her care. This shows the connection and parallel between Elisa and her hobby of cultivating these flowers.

Steinbeck describes Elisa as a masculine person while gardening to show that side of her personality. As she does her gardening, her face was “eager and mature and handsome" (240). Her use of the scissors is described as "over-eager, over-powerful" (240). These characteristics are usually associated with masculine things. But in this case they describe a woman attempting to live as a part of such a man's world. But Elisa’s power is derived from a feminine source, nature. She enjoys coming into contact with the earth as she digs and pushes the dirt around her chrysanthemums. While she wants to seem strong, it seems to violate her role of being the pretty wife. When her husband suddenly comes up behind her, she immediately pulls on her gloves again. This could be to cover her dirty hands, but it does cover them, hiding her femininity. When Henry even suggests she could use her talents in the apple orchard "her eyes sharpened" (241). Elisa shows off her power saying, "I've a gift with things, all right" (241). As he kids her about going to the prize fights later that day, she responds in a breathless tone that she would not like them, uncomprehending the joking nature of his comment. She goes back to her work, back to her orderly world of the earth and the chrysanthemums.

Elisa's source of power is also her point of weakness. When the strange man fails for fourth time to interest Elisa in fixing her pots, only succeeding in irritating her, he asks about her flowers. Suddenly her face undergoes a noticeable change: "the irritation and resistance melted from Elisa's face" (243). She is able to talk to a man about something, show that she knows more about that subject than he does. Elisa's innocence does not allow her to understand the tricks men play to get what they want. To the reader it seems obvious that the stranger has only asked about these flowers to get on Elisa's good side, but she is oblivious to the fact. The man has taken the tactic of trying to connect with Elisa on a personal level so she will have emotions for him, ultimately buying his service. An example comes when he quickly recants his statement that the chrysanthemums smell "nasty" at first, to agreeing that they have a "good bitter smell" as Elisa replied.

Both Elisa and the man head into the man's world through the gate where she watches the man work with his anvil and hammer, men's tools. As she watches the man work on the saucepans she ponders aloud doing the same type of work and travel he does saying "You might be surprised to have a rival sometime...I could show you what a woman might do" (245). This reveals how Elisa feels about her life and the lives of woman of the time period. Although they want to break free of the fences around them, it would be socially unacceptable to do so. As the man left she whispered, "That's a bright direction. There's a glowing there" (245). She is imaging this man's freedom, having mobility in society, something that she as a married woman, does not have.

After seeing the chrysanthemums thrown onto the side of the road, Elisa fully understood that she didn’t want to gain power from a man's sphere in the world. She condemns herself to attempting to gain power through normal female attempts in a static society. Elisa cries at the end, making her look "like an old woman" (247) with the realization of this fact, that indeed, she will continue to age into the role of an old woman still enclosed by society.