Symbolism In The Chrysanthemums By John Steinbeck

In John Steinbacks “The Chrysanthemums,” the shift of the setting from the ranch to the road plays an important role in the development of the main character, Elisa. Therefore, in the first setting, Elisa is in her garden attending to her the chrysanthemums, which she loves and cares for. Immediately, we’re placed in a rural setting, where women happen to live in isolation and man is manly. Elisa sneaks quick glances towards the men by the tractor shed, who is talking to her husband, waiting for them to leave, so she can throw aside her gloves and work her fingers into the soil of the garden. However, Elisa shows her fearless side by quickly digging in the garden, with her eagerness to grow her chrysanthemums, right after the men leave. Consequently,

The use of chrysanthemums in Steinbeck’s story is to symbolize Elisa and her self worth. Like Elisa the chrysanthemums are confined to a restricted area where they are not for sale so others may enjoy its beauty. The chrysanthemums stay in the garden just for Elisa’s enjoyment. Elisa is seen the same way by being confined to her life on the farm and in her marriage, where she is

Therefore, the intricacies of Elisa’s soul, primarily match with the psychological approach. Next, Elisa adopts the defense mechanism of rebellion to mask her fragility. Evidently, after Elisa finds the Tinker’s chrysanthemums on the road, she asks Henry, “"could we have wine at dinner?"..."Henry, at those prize fights, do the men hurt each other very much?"” Henry replies to his wife’s hint at attending a fight, “"...I don't think you'd like it, but I'll take you if you really want to go"” (Steinbeck 7). On the outside, Elisa craves to portray herself with an ambience of adventure and liberty through these cheap thrills, but realistically and authentically, she is a fragile woman; her immediate reaction of utilizing a defense mechanism, from the Tinker rejecting her gift, reveals the sensitive and delicate nature of her psyche. Additionally, she cannot balance her superego that abides by social roles of conventional femininity, or her id urges of attending the fight. Much like society’s ordeals with repudiation, Elisa’s faces rejection in a bitter and toxic manner.

In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the word sorrow is used to develop the complex personality of Lennie Small. The story is centered around two migrant farmers; Lennie, who has a mental disability, and George, who watches over and protects Lennie from getting into any trouble. With his illness, Lennie feels the constant need to feel soft things, so when he accidentally killed his puppy by petting him to rough, we became nothing short form an emotional wreck. After Lennie realized the horrible mistake he had made, he came to the shocking realization that George may not let him tend to the rabbits that they hope to own in the future. After a failed attempt to bury his puppy, Lennie “rocked himself back and forth in his sorrow” (Steinbeck 85). Through his actions,

One of the themes of “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck is gender inequality. In this short story, the main character Elisa Allen was a strong, smart woman who was stuck being a common housewife. Elisa wishes she could go out and be like the tinker, sleeping under the stars and adventuring every day of her life. Elisa’s husband owns a ranch of some sorts, and when he tells Elisa of the business deal he’d just made he gave her an unspecific explanation, or a dumbed down one so he doesn’t “confuse her”.

Tennessee Williams once said “All you have to do is close your eyes and wait for the symbols.” In a variety of colors, the Chrysanthemum flower symbolizes fidelity, optimism, joy and long life .Works of literature usually go into a great amount of detail and sometimes use a symbol as an aid to scratch the surface of whatever the author is trying to shine light on. The variety of symbols used in “The Chrysanthemums” gives the story a greater meaning.

Marigolds by Eugenia Collier is about a woman named Lizabeth looking back on her past, specifically the moment and things leading up to when she became an adult. “Chaotic emotions of youth” as she calls it are what really lead to the main event and are caused from confusion. In the story she as well as other children don’t understand how something like their neighbor, Miss.Lottie’s, marigolds could be so beautiful amid such a poverty-stricken, dilapidated town. She also does not understand where she belongs in her family after witnessing a huge role change between both her mother and father. These along with peer pressure are what made Lizabeth embrace those chaotic emotions and childishly act out in a violent way mutilating and destroying

Flowers symbolize so many things in society nowadays. People receive and give flowers on several different occasions. Flowers are symbols of love, sadness, apologizes, excitement, passion, and many others. Flowers also play a big role in the story “Paul’s Case” written by Willa Cather. The main character, Paul, often gives special meaning to the flowers present in the story. That being said, the flowers in the story represent who Paul is. They represent the beauty in dismay, but most importantly they symbolize Paul.

In “Marigolds” the author uses diction, symbolism and point of view, to develop the theme that people can create beauty even in the poorest of situations. Through diction, Collier is able to show the reader the contrast between the beauty of the marigolds compared to the run-down town the story is set in. Through her use of symbolism the author shows how much the marigolds mean to Miss Lottie. Through her use of point of view readers have a clear view of the look and atmosphere of the old town and the how the marigolds were the only beautiful thing

Steinbeck illustrates Masculine and feminine roles of the 20th century in the “Chrysanthemums” to show Elisa’s struggle with identity. Elisa role as wife is brought to light through the task she is given as a character and wife. The reader sees this here as she draws her husband a hot bath fulfilling his needs before her own as she isn’t dressed yet for the evening “He entered the house calling, “Elisa, where are you?” “In

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). The beauty of the flowers against the extreme background of poverty makes the children's realize the lack of beauty and hope in their future. The children do not know whey they are angry by the flowers but the flowers represents the only hope, beauty and life amongst their life in the dust. When Lizbeth hears her father sobbing over his inability to find a job, she loses hope because her father had represented strength

Flowers are living organisms, as diverse as humans, ranging from beautiful and delicate to strong and sturdy. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the symbolism of flowers develop the characters and show the effect money had on their lives and social status in The Great Gatsby. Daisy and Myrtle are two characters with these symbolic floral names, one with a life of money, and one without.

Alice Walker uses imagery and diction throughout her short story to tell the reader the meaning of “The Flowers”. The meaning of innocence lost and people growing up being changed by the harshness of reality. The author is able to use the imagery to show the difference between innocence and the loss of it. The setting is also used to show this as well.

They were getting ready to go and have a nice dinner and then go and see a movie. Steinbeck states, “After a while she began to dress slowly. She put on her newest underclothing and her nicest stockings and the dress which was the symbol of her prettiness. She worked carefully on her hair, penciled her eyebrows and rouged her lips”. Steinbeck goes into a really detailed description of how Elisa was getting ready and this gives every reader their own little picture or movie of what she is doing. Steinbeck uses this imagery to give the reader a good picture of Elisa breaking out of her “manly work clothes” into something a little nicer. One last great example of imagery used by Steinbeck was when Henry and Elisa were going down the street to head into town. Steinbeck explains, “The little roadster bounced along the dirt road by the river, raising the birds and driving the rabbits into the brush. Two cranes flapped heavily over the willow-line and dropped into the river bed”. In this part Steinbeck gives the reader a great picture of the area around them by using imagery. He lets the readers know that the area around them has all types of wildlife and a river.

Steinbeck give us a lot details about Elisa’s preparation for her evening out because he wanted us to know how much excited and happy Elisa was for her night out. At first, Elisa felt a little overwhelmed of how she looked like and what she should wear. She then find back her confident and dress-up as the best as she could. She was looking pretty for the night out because she wanted to renew the passion and love she had with her husband. Moreover, Elisa wanted to see if she was still as pretty she was by seducing her own husband.