Feelings Of Elisa In The Chrysanthemums example essay topic

In The Chrysanthemums, John Steinbeck is able to use symbolism in many ways to create images about being a female during the 1930's. Everything in this time period seemed to be male-dominated, and a woman was expected to depend on them for many things. Women were both socially and emotionally stereotyped and it was it seemed as though their feelings were laid out for them. It was assumed that women were always to do what is expected of them, and that they were easily softened ups and suckered into things. Steinbeck uses this symbolism to give the reader a thorough understanding of what it is like for Elisa Allen to be a woman in this era (447).

In The Chrysanthemums, Steinbeck creates a gloomy mood to start off the story. He says "the grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and all the rest of the world" (447). This sets the scene of isolation, which can be applied to the topic that women of the 1930's seem to be in their one world. "There was no sunshine in the valley now in December" gives us the sense that Elisa feels darkened by this stereotypical lifestyle (447).

Elisa is your average housewife. She works in the garden, cooks the dinner, and helps take care of the ranch. Her husband is off working everyday, as a man was expected to do in the 1930's (447). You can see that women are excluded from a lot of the out-of-the-house work when Steinbeck writes "her husband, talking to two men in business suits" (447). Emotionally, Elisa begins to have problems when chrysanthemums become involved in her life. As a man in a caravan comes to her and practically begs her for something that he can fix to make money, he knows in his mind that if he can make her weak then he will win her over.

As she becomes firm in her tone of voice and says she has nothing for him to fix, he searches around for a topic that he knows will make her soft side come out, just as every woman should be in the 1930's (450). Elisa breaks down and gives the man some chrysanthemums so he can take them to a friend down the street that can not grow them in her garden. Knowing that she is now in a softer mood, he takes this to his advantage and makes her feel sorry for him about having no dinner or money (451). She gives him a pot to fix and gives him fifty cents for his troubles, just as she begins to ask him about his life on the road (451). It is obvious that Elisa is discouraged by how women are treated when she tells the man "I wish women could do such things", in reference to his traveling lifestyle. She knows down inside that she too could do things that a man could do, and feels almost ashamed at how the world looks at women these days (452).

Steinbeck tells about the "grey afternoon", which gives a feeling of how Elisa actually is; she just wishes that people could look at women the way that men are looked at (453). As Elisa and her husband drive off together down the road to set out for a wonderful evening, she spots her chrysanthemums laying by the side of the road. "Far ahead on the road Elisa saw a dark speck. She knew". At this point in the story, she knows that she was tricked into giving the man work (453). The man did not really need to give chrysanthemums to a friend, he simply led her into a weak subject that would loosen up the firmness and change her mind.

Steinbeck is trying to prove that women of this time were not strong enough mentally as men were to stand up for themselves and not give in. She is now more upset knowing that it is expected of her to be dependent of her husband and is hurt that she was easily worked in to. Elisa and her husband continue driving on and contemplate about their evening. They decide where to go to dinner and what they will see afterward (453).

Once again she brings up the fights that men always watch and asks if women ever go. Her husband says, "Do you want to go? I don't think you'd like it" because women are stereotyped to be refined and delicate. Elisa replies with "Oh, no.

No. I don't want to go". She says this but does not like that it is assumed that she would not want to go to the fights. She thinks that women should not be assumed to think that they should always be proper and are not capable of being like a man (454). Although you have to deeply analyze the meaning of the symbolism that occurs in The Chrysanthemums, John Steinbeck helps the reader get a real understanding of what a woman in the 1930's has to go through. It is easy to see how stereotyped both socially and emotionally women were in this era.

The character of Elisa portrays the feelings of a woman living in this time period and how she feels when her characteristics are looked over. You actually get a sense of how it feels to live an expected lifestyle and not be able to work out of the ordinary. It was easy to soften over a woman because it seemed as though they did not have the strong will power that a man would have. The feelings of Elisa in The Chrysanthemums represent the many feelings that women had in the 1930's.