Preview

The Chrysanthemums Point Of View Analysis

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
115 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Chrysanthemums Point Of View Analysis
In the story The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck, is about a housewife, Elisa who wants to be seen more than a housewife. She has a unique talent of gardening, especially growing Chrysanthemums. However, the husband does not see her hobby in a bright light as much as she’d like. She does not feel appreciate from her husband’s part yet she can’t find the courage to tell him. The story is presented to us through a 3rd person limit point of view. This point of view is necessary in the story because she feels unappreciated and this point of view forced us to take a closer look at her which no one has in the story.
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Literary Criticism of John Steinbeck's the Chysanthemums
    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Literary Criticism of John Steinbeck's the Chysanthemums

    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.…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Elisa's Point Of View In The Chrysanthemums By John Steinbeck
    • 682 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Elisa's Point Of View In The Chrysanthemums By John Steinbeck

    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.…

    • 682 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Comparing The Vigilante And The Chrysanthemums By John Steinbeck
    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Comparing The Vigilante And The Chrysanthemums By John Steinbeck

    Elisa Allen, of “The Chrysanthemums,” had an emptiness within herself that could never expose to the world; instead she kept it in until she no longer can. She ends up revealing her shadow to a stranger who gave her the desire she wanted. Elisa had a dream that she does not realize at first, but begins to realize it when the opportunity was in front of her. Her husband who does not share the same interest as her with her garden would only verbally supports her interest when it came that he can see and receive profit from it. Her dream is to have a husband that shows interests in her biggest hobby that is gardening.…

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Elisa Allen: a Mystified Identity
    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Elisa Allen: a Mystified Identity

    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.”…

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Oppression In The Chrysanthemums By John Steinbeck
    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Oppression In The Chrysanthemums By John Steinbeck

    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…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Summary Of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper
    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Summary Of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

    Throughout her confinement to the yellow nursery, the narrator began to realize how wrong her perception of her husband John was. She initially thought that John was helping her treat her depression. However, she now understood that her husband was neglecting her in the room, and only created the impression of helping her, while in reality, he is doing nothing. Gilman writes, “He asked me all sorts of questions, too, and pretended to be very loving and kind. As if I couldn’t see through him” (25). The narrator reveals her husband to be hypocritical, pretending to be a husband while actually leaving her alone. This makes him seem selfish and disrespectful towards his wife. As a husband, he should have made his wife feel as comfortable as possible during her supposed “treatment.” Instead, he treats her as a confused person with little worth. This action makes him look more like a prison guard instead of a caring husband. The narrator, however, was finally able to see through her husband’s deceptions. By saying that “As if I couldn’t see through him,” she understood that her husband is not treating her as she is supposed to. According to traditional gender expectations, a wife is supposed to follow everything her husband’s orders,…

    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Chrysanthemums Literary Analysis
    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Chrysanthemums Literary Analysis

    The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck has been labeled as a feminist story for its commentary on patriarchy and feminine self expression in the time of the story. This story highlights a strong woman’s attempt to break out of the shackles she has lived in for all of her life. The story comments on and symbolizes gender roles, female sexuality and character development.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    John Steinbeck's 'Chrysanthemums'
    • 1289 Words
    • 6 Pages

    John Steinbeck's 'Chrysanthemums'

    delivers to the audience her thoughts and underlying emotions of being a woman in a “man’s world.” The chrysanthemums reflects Elisa’s character and her dreams of being free to grow, make decisions, free to travel, make her own money and most of all the desire to be attractive. Elisa feels closed in and secluded from the rest of the world, just as Steinbeck describes the atmosphere at the introduction of the story, “The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world” (192).…

    • 1289 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Who Is John Steinbeck's The Chrysanthemums: Gender Criticism
    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Who Is John Steinbeck's The Chrysanthemums: Gender Criticism

    When John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums” was first published in the 1930’s, it was a time of great societal change. Women, who had always been seen as fragile and weak, were struggling for equality in a male dominated society. This story was Steinbeck’s attempt to draw attention to this subject, and bring these issues to light.…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Point of View in Cathedral by Carver
    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Point of View in Cathedral by Carver

    As the narrative progresses it becomes apparent that the husband is self-centered and jealous. One example of this is when the husband refers to his wife’s first husband as “…the childhood sweetheart…” who “first enjoyed her favors” and wonders peevishly “what more [the first husband wanted].” That the current husband has difficulty seeing anything beyond surface features reveals his own shallowness. He refers to his wife’s friend as just “the blind man” whose visit will be an inconvenience to him, never asking himself why his own wife values the friendship so highly nor considering how he himself might be able to alleviate the man’s suffering at the loss of his wife. The husband is blind; his vision is self-focused and does not penetrate the surface of anything or anyone. Another example of the husbands bleak connection and blindness to the world is revealed when he is asked to describe the Cathedral, and he finds himself unable to give more than a rudimentary description, saying “The truth is, cathedrals don’t mean anything special to me. Nothing” and apologizing for his inability to describe it beyond its size. Using the husband as narrator allows the author to subtly expose not…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Secret Life Of Bees Analysis
    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Secret Life Of Bees Analysis

    Lily’s father, T. Ray, only deepens this conviction, telling Lily that her mother only came back for her things, not for her daughter. This false belief that her mother died regretting her existence destroys Lily. She grows to have such a strong desire to feel loved that it begins to control her in a negative way, making her feel constantly unwanted. Meeting the Boatwright’s, she finally is surrounded by the kind of love and affection she so desperately needed. Staying at the honey house, she learns more than the honey business itself, she begins to realize that the same lessons they teach her about the bees can apply to her life. When explaining how to handle the bees, August says, “Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.” (92) To be loved is all Lily has ever wanted, and once she begins living in the honey house, she realizes how loved she truly is, and has been all of her life, even though she didn’t know it. The love that nearly all the people in Lily’s life have for her is as immense as Pip’s love for Estella, but for her, it took many years of darkness before she could finally see the light. Once Lily opens her heart, she realizes how extraordinary it can be to both love and be loved: “I myself, for instance. It seemed like I was now thinking of Zach forty minutes out of every hour, Zach, who was an…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Chrysanthemums Symbolism
    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Chrysanthemums Symbolism

    The Chrysanthemums that Elisa Allen grows represents how her and many other women were treated during this time. Currently, the Chrysanthemums are bare and dormant with no flowers. This is similar to Elisa's life because her life is bare dormant with no excitement. Furthermore, the Chrysanthemums also show the theme by how they are grown in the valley. The narrator proclaims “There was a little square sandy bed kept for rooting the Chrysanthemums(271)”. The chrysanthemums are grown in a limited space which does not allow them to grow to their fullest potential. This resembles how Elisa and many other women are being trapped by men. Women are limited to a small space and cannot perform at their…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Cathedral Essay
    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Cathedral Essay

    Sometimes we have to look beyond what we see on the outside to understand something more deeply. In the short story Cathedral By Raymond Carver, the narrator has an attitude of being selfish, and jealous through the story. The narrator’s wife invites a blind man, Robert, to come stay in their house for a short time while the man visits family members of his own wife who recently passed. The narrator is not enthusiastic because blind people make the narrator uncomfortable, mainly because the narrator has no real experience with the blind. In addition, to his uneasiness with the blind the narrator is uncomfortable with the relationship his wife and the blind man have. The wife and Robert, the blind man, have maintained a close relationship via tape recordings mailed back and forth. Despite the narrators feelings about the visit, Robert shows up, and the three of them dine together. By the end of the story the narrator begins to understand and accept Robert and his blindness. In the short story Cathedral, Carver uses binary oppositions of blindness versus the seeing to show the theme of ignorance through the first person’s narrator’s journey from insecurity to openness.…

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Pair Of Silk Stockings And The Chrysanthemums Analysis
    • 1602 Words
    • 7 Pages

    A Pair Of Silk Stockings And The Chrysanthemums Analysis

    Did you know that in 1900, only 19% of women in the U.S. held jobs? By 1998, this number had nearly tripled to 60%! During the early 1900’s women didn’t realize their full potential or their role in society as females. The theme I am going to analyze is the journey that the women in two stories experience as they search for their personal identities. Both “A Pair of Silk Stockings” by Kate Chopin and “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck deal with the journey to one’s identity, but they do so in different ways.…

    • 1602 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Chrysanthemum And The Sword Analysis
    • 1351 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Chrysanthemum And The Sword Analysis

    There is a quote that I think is fitting for the challenge that Benedict was given in writing The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, which is “There are two kinds of opportunities: one which we chance upon, the other which we create. In time of great difficulty, one must not fail to create his opportunity”, (Takamori Saigo, 1989: 28). When Benedict was given the opportunity to do an ethnography, she was made to do so during a time of great difficulty. She was unable to go on a field trip to Japan to observe in person the Japanese culture the way that most anthropologists normally would have due to World War II. She created her opportunity to make an impact on the way that Americans viewed and understood Japan and its people. Throughout her book,…

    • 1351 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics