Symbolism In John Steinbeck's 'The Chrysanthemums'

In a simile, she compares gardening to “boxing… The wins versus the losses” (Hudes 16). Through this comparison, Hudes conveys Ginny’s deep desire for a sense of control and success in her life. This desire is fed by the memory of her father, who was only bearable when he was gardening. Specifically, the assertion of this desire for control is evident as she recalls that her father “was a mean bastard…” but “became a saint if you put a flower in his hand” (Hudes 15). From those experiences of dealing with her father, a psychological analogy between nature and peace was instilled in Ginny’s mind at a young age, and is what she relies on as an adult to handle her emotional trauma.

This shows us that Cadence is imagining Gat giving her these flowers. Cadence seeing these flowers symbolizes her love for Gat. This is why Cadence gets mad when she sees Gat sending dried roses to another girl. When Cadence sees these dried beach roses on the tire swing, we can see that she still loves Gat, even though he is dead.

Lottie’s flowers were also a symbol of beauty to all of the ugliness around her it helped her believe that there was hope and even though everything was ugly around them something could be beautiful. But at the time Elizabeth could not see that she didn't understand the meaning until it was too late and they had been destroyed. On page 223-24 lines 362-54 she was telling us the meaning of the flowers and how she now knew why Ms. Lottie kept them in her yard against all of the ugliness. In the story the author what the author said about the marigolds she destroyed and what they meant to Ms. Lottie. The author said,” Whatever verve was left in her, whatever was of love and beauty and joy that had not been squeezed out by life, had been there in the marigolds she had so tenderly cared for.”

Janie describes how she noticed Tea Cake not fighting her off as much as she expected. She could have gotten scared hat he was intrigued by Nunkie. The idiom that her fear was growing into tree shows that she was only a little nervous at first but once she watched closely, she realized that she should be worried about Tea Cakes loyalty. Tea Cake not fending Nunkie off as much as Janie expected could actually mean that Janie hoped Tea Cake would avoid contact with any other woman while she was dating him. There was a theme of fear in this chapter since Janie said she was fearful or implied it through her actions in multiple instances.

Connie has been described as having a flirtatious personality and a tendency to go off with boys, and is mostly concerned with her looks, as opposed to her sister June who has a job, a savings and helps around the house. This is seen as a fault of Connie, and her vanity in the story leads to her demise. When we first meet Friend, Connie has been fussing with her hair for hours brushing it to perfection and allowing it to air dry. This display of self-care is a source of pride and vanity for Connie. Martha E. Widmayer pointed out a quote from Christa Grossinger in “Death and the Maiden in Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going?

Madeline is portrayed as a beautiful lady with her hairstyle and her dressing style. This makes Scottie to fall in love with Madeline. Later on, when Scottie losses Madeline when she passes away, Scottie sees Judy wearing a green dress and this reminds him of Madeline, so the film goes on to dress up Judy trying her best to imitate Madeline in order for Scottie to love her more. We also see that Judy holds on to a dress with the color of purple, showing us that Purple color symbolizes the true Judy that Judy herself wants to be and also wants Scottie to love her for who she is and not using Judy to remember Madeline for himself. Midge is symbolized also using the color green by how she likes the color and we can also see that from her apartment being yellow and how she used to wear the color yellow.

In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, home to Janie is a place that has both positive and negative associations- the pear tree. Janie constantly goes to the pear tree for comfort; it is her place of happiness, peace and her love life. At the same time, Janie has the pear tree embedded in her mind. She constantly compares her partners to the pear tree and what their love should be like; so when the thought of an unwelcoming incident pops up in her head, he is tarnishing her pear tree. At sixteen, Janie’s grandmother caught her kissing Johnny Taylor; Janie spends most of her day under the pear tree in her backyard with her mind-boggling questions on virginity, love and marriage.

The houses that Elisa live in show her connection of her flower, chrysanthemum, and how she feels happy and joy living there. Without her chrysanthemum she feel loneliness and her confident disappear, when she no longer in that garden. The story “The Chrysanthemum” is great examples of today’s life, where people uses someone in order to get what they need. Sometime that someone uses other to get what he or she need without realizing the fact that, that someone was using someone. It show the character inner thoughts about someone and how they both feels the need to do what they doing.

They say that education and adventure is the secret to long and happy life in John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemum” is the story of a young, but old women named Elisa whose life main purpose is to tend the garden and nothing more. The main theme of the story is that women are constricted as what they define themselves as. The character of Elisa is characterized as simple women in ranch gardening chrysanthemum’s the last flower to bloom before winter which symbolically means that she only has a limited time to bloom and be herself in society before the chrysanthemum’s die or get tossed out ironically the color of the flowers in the story where white and yellow the white being here purity and the yellow her joy and energy as a women. Towards

Lizbeth in her distress at overhearing her parents conversation directs her anger and fear at Miss. Lottie’s marigolds . The marigolds a symbolize beauty that only Ms. Lottie, a scary old lady , possesses. “For some perverse reason, we children hated those marigolds. They interfered with the perfect ugliness of the place. ”(5).

Jack Canfield once said “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” Many people are too scared to go and get what they want. Elisa from The Chrysanthems is a good example she wants to be able to do whatever she wants but she is too scared to tell anyone or even go out and do it. Elisa wants to go watch the fights and she wants to do other things than just play in her garden. Elisa is struggling to find what she really wants to because she is so scared to break the chains of society and do what she wants.