The Chrysanthemums

Elisa Allen and the Chrysanthemums, One and the Same

In “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck, the titular flower, Salinas Valley, and Elisa Allen complement each other. The importance of each is therefore highlighted: the yellow chrysanthemums suggest Elisa’s personality traits and view of life; while the Salinas Valley indicates her protected lifestyle and leads the reader to realize her greatest desires in life. Throughout “The Chrysanthemums” Steinbeck is proving a point about married couples and women’s roles in society. Chrysanthemums and the Salinas Valley serve as pivotal symbols revealing Elisa Allen’s personality, traits, and outlook on life. The chrysanthemums are a large part of Elisa’s life and symbolize how she views herself.

It is a place found in both the beginning of the story and the end. It also points towards the overall theme of the literary work (Kennedy 271). Similarly to the way the Salinas Valley is surrounded by mountains, Elisa’s life is surrounded by boundaries. These boundaries include Elisa’s self-confidence struggle and progressive thinking throughout her life. Steinbeck refers to the Valley as a “closed pot” (Steinbeck 242) leading the reader to see Elisa’s life in a bubble or limited like a fenced in garden setting. Her life is mundane, lacking many of the struggles found in larger cities and limiting her world view. The sides of the “pot” or Valley could also serve as a metaphorical and literal protection from the dangers of the world, guarding Elisa from many of the struggles found in larger communities. As Elisa is protected by the mountains, in turn, she protects the chrysanthemums from harm and danger. Elisa protects the flowers as if they are truly a friend, “no aphids were there, no sow bugs or snails or cutworms. Her terrier fingers destroyed such pests before they could get started” (Steinbeck 243). The chrysanthemums serve as an emotional outlet for Elisa to release her anger about her circumstances, the quote about her killing the bugs could be an example of this. Elisa leads a small, humble life in a conservative area. Elisa therefore realizes she can do so

Her feelings towards gardening and the chrysanthemums are so strong she becomes the plant. When gardening, Elisa becomes part of the flowers, “Everything goes right down into your fingertips. You watch your fingers work. They do it themselves. You can feel how it is. … They never make a mistake. They’re with the plant” (Steinbeck 246). Elisa relates so closely with the chrysanthemums, and is so passionate about the flowers that when the tinkerer rejected the flowers he rejected Elisa as well. The flowers are more than a hobby for Elisa and when he tossed them aside, he tossed her trust aside with them. As Elisa was driving up to the abandoned flowers she knew what had occurred, “In a moment it was over. The thing was done. She did not look back.” (Steinbeck 248). It can be said at this moment Elisa realizes the cruel reality of life. For example, at the beginning of the play as she explains she would not like fights, however at the end she faces the facts and is unafraid of the reality of the fights. This shows that as the flowers have grown over the course of the year, Elisa has grown as well. Elisa is inspired by the chrysanthemums for they give her hope. She knows after the chrysanthemums get cut down in July, they grow back stronger. Elisa therefore understands in her own life, if she gets cut down by an event she will grow