The Chrysanthemums Analysis

Steinbeck is one of many author that uses imagery for their story, in “The Chrysanthemums” the theme of the story was uses through imagery and symbolism. His imagery reinforces his theme of loneliness and confinement in the story. In “The Chrysanthemums”, the valley was surrounded by mountains and fog, which describe as if she was living inside of the pot. The house that Elisa live in is surround with fence and the flower chrysanthemums is also surrounded with fence inside the fence. As if she was living inside the cage, but she feel happy and safe in those cage. The two characters Elisa and tinker play an important part of the story and show what chrysanthemum mean in the story. The surround area of valley in “The Chrysanthemums”, John Steinbeck use mountain and fog to give imagery and gives the reader an idea of where the story take place. John Steinbeck describes, “The high gray-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot” (Steinbeck 1). John Steinbeck use a great example of figurative language in the story

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. It bring the characters feeling of joy, happy, sad, and angry to the story and makes the reader thinking about