One morning an energetic housewife named Elisa Henry is working busily in her garden, watching in secret interest as her husband sells cattle to another man. When a peddler drives up to her gate, she is intrigued by the peddler's lifestyle. She talks to him and he mentions chrysanthemums, and she eagerly gives him a few chrysanthemums in a bright new pot. She gives him some pots to fix and they talk about his life. When he goes on his way, she feels decidedly more powerful. She cleans and dresses herself for a date with her husband. When they are driving on the road she sees a spot that she knows must be her discarded chrysanthemum gift. She then resigns to being her old self and weeps like an old woman.…
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939) is a fascinating piece of cinema, due to it's length (running just over 2 hour) and few amount of shots, 140. This film is considered Myzoguchi's masterpiece and encompasses most of his cinematic techniques and qualities in one film.…
Norma Jean is very independent, lifts weights and tries to educate herself. Both Elisa's husband and her mom do not agree with her choices about the new things she's trying. On page 575 it says, “Something is happening. Norma Jean is going to night school... She spends her evenings out-lining paragraphs” (Mason 575). She starts a English Comp class and it symbolizes her not only trying to educate herself but also re-writing her life. Both characters become more independent while their husband’s are at work. Norma Jean starts feeling trapped, and feels a loss of freedom with her husband home, and mom pushing into her personal life. The more they try to change Norma’s life, the more she gets uneasy with them. At the end of The Chrysanthemums, Elisa notices her flowers that she gave on the side of the…
In the short story, “The Chrysanthemums” John Steinbeck tells the story of Elisa Allen living on a ranch in the Salinas Valley with her husband Henry. Elisa is a thirty-five year-old house wife that takes pride in growing chrysanthemums. One day while cutting down last year’s chrysanthemums her husband tells her that he has just sold thirty cattle and is going to take her out to dinner and a movie. After that, a traveling tinker stops by her house and offers to fix any pots or sharpen any knives. After a conversation with the tinker, Elisa figures out for herself that she doesn’t get to express herself very much. Elisa eventually finds something for the tinker to fix and even gives him a chrysanthemum plant for one of his other customers. She later sees that the tinker threw the plant out and that she is unsatisfied with her marriage. “The Chrysanthemums” is told in the third person point of view, but the narration is presented almost entirely from Elisa’s point of view forcing us to try and understand Elisa just as the other characters in the story do.…
In John Steinbeck’s story “The Chrysanthemums” the main character Elisa is in the garden wearing men’s clothing; her appearance made her seem strong. "Her face was lean and strong and her eyes were as clear as water"(Steinbeck 226). Elisa has a strong self-confident attitude in the beginning of the story before meeting the pot fixer, and by the end of the story she lacks confidence and feels like she is losing control.…
John Steinbeck's short story "The Chrysanthemums" is centered on the protagonist named Elisa Allen. The vivid portrayal of her character in different parts of the story makes the reader wonder who she really is. Steinbeck started by portraying her as a strong and knowledgeable gardener, with a sense of masculinity, following which she is portrayed as someone who yearns for sexual attention in her sensual encounter with the tinker, and concluded with her being described as a beautiful, feminine lady, and then back to her masculine self all within a span of a few hours. The evolution in the expressions, emotions, and the portrayal of Elisa Allen is an important element of Steinbeck’s “The Chyrsanthemums.”…
Obviously, the short stories—William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily and The Chrysanthemums written by John Steinbeck have something in common; but also there are some different between them.…
After searching for a window into her soul, he spotted the chrysanthemums. ”What’s them plants, ma’am?” Elisa was as vulnerable as her chrysanthemums and the exasperation from the man’s annoyance quickly melted away from her handsome face. He had unlocked the door to her soul and it gave up her secrets. She was proud of her chrysanthemums and knew that she grew the largest and prettiest chrysanthemums for miles around, last year they had ten-inch…
The Chrysanthemums is shaped by the common gender roles that is present in society. When the main character, Elisa, is first introduced, she isn’t sexualized. She is depicted as “blocked and heavy,” wearing a “man’s black hat pulled low down over her eyes”. While dressing manly and having masculine traits, Elisa gardens, which itself is an extremely feminine trait yet she’s described in a masculine way. It is mentioned in the story that Elisa’s mother was also a gardener which could possible show…
While on the way to dinner with her husband Elisa finally realizes that she had been taken advantage of. She sees that the handy man has discarded her beloved chrysanthemums in the ditch on the side of the road. She realizes that the man used flattery of her and her flowers to get work. This realization makes her break down and cry. She then understands that she is doomed to her current role in society, a passive woman, and she hates it.…
Elisa Allen is a lonesome woman who gets pleasure from growing her chrysanthemums. Since her husband, Henry, is constantly working with the cattle in their farm, Elisa never receives enough attention or any kind of affection. This neglect from her husband causes her to turn to her chrysanthemums, which she is very proud of. Early in the story, Steinbeck uses little symbolic phrases to let the reader know that the chrysanthemums are an extension of Elisa. As the chrysanthemums express Elisa’s feminine side when her husband inhibits her, she needs to care for them as if they were her. The existence of the flowers mirrors her own existence. When Steinbeck writes about how Elisa cares for the chrysanthemums, he says "she turned the soil over and over, and smoothed it and patted it firm". It is assumed by the reader that Elisa is childless, however it is not by her choice. The way she cares for her flowers, is the way she would take care of her children, since they replace her non-existent kids. She sees the chrysanthemums as a replacement for not only children, but also for her womanhood. Elisa’s desire to grow and nurture the flowers is both inspiring and disturbing, as her unstable nature has much to do with her husband’s lack of understanding his wife. Her husband’s remark, “I wish you’d work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big”, shows how little of an interest he has for her chrysanthemums or herself. This demonstrates how Elisa does not feel appreciated by her husband and therefore she takes care of her…
In the book The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton shows the struggles of a man to choose between the safety that following social rules provides, and the adventurous dangers of choosing what is regarded as "morally incorrect."…
In the story the Chrysanthemums people are mean to each other because they just use each other for their own benefit. In the beginning Elisa didn't want to give the stranger a job until he persuades her into giving him one. This is a quote from the story that supports my thesis. "Elisa brought him a fifty-cent piece from the house and droop it in his hand." (Pg8).The Stanger had trick Elisa into giving him a job by telling her good things about her chrysanthemums plant and by telling her a story about a lady that wanted some chrysanthemums. This quote is showing how the man use Elisa for money because that night she found out what he did to the chrysanthemums then she realized what had happen.…
John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums”, is a story about a woman struggling with strong inner feelings of loneliness and isolation. Elisa Allen is initially portrayed as a woman who overcompensates and whose tasks are far exceeded by her abilities. She appears content with her life and adores tending to her garden. However, a tinker briefly enters her life and through his power of persuasion and manipulation provides Elisa with hopes of change and excitement. He gives her the much needed attention she is so desperately looking for. As the story continues we learn that these hopes are crushed as we unravel the betrayal the tinker has bestowed upon Elisa. He exploits her and takes advantage of her hunger for company, aspirations, and vulnerabilities. We are left with sympathy for a woman who longs for another life, but will never possess it. Elisa’s inner feelings of loneliness are most apparent with the vivid descriptions of Elisa’s appearance, the portrayal of her working in her garden, the conversation she has with the tinker, and her dinner date with her husband.…
Elisa is thirty-five and strong, she has a passion for her gardening and tends to the Chrysanthemums on the farm. She is usually left out of business deals and her husband doesn’t necessarily allow her to help out with the orchard. One day a man advertising his services as a tinker who repairs pots and pans rolls along down the road. He stops and asks Elisa if he can be any service to her but she is confident in her abilities and replies with a no, although she is interested in his adventurous journey and his way of business. The tinker quickly says, “It ain’t the right kind of a life for a woman” when Elisa shows an interest in his way of life. She finds this very demeaning but is quickly distracted when the tinker asks about her Chrysanthemums. Unfortunately, he only does this to trick her into giving him work to do. After Elisa pays him and gives him a pot full of dirt and Chrysanthemums to give to another customer of his, he heads out. Elisa and her husband have plans set later to go out to dinner, although Elisa has other ideas in mind. She curiously asks her husband if women go to the fights but again she is let down when he responds, “Oh, sure, some. What’s the matter, Elisa? Do you want to go? I don’t think you’d like it, but I’ll take you if you really want to go” (Steinbeck 5). From what I can tell the author sends the…