The Sign Of The Chrysanthemum Historical Accuracy

1. In "The Chrysanthemums," the interaction between Elisa and the traveling repairman helps develop the story's theme about taking risks. Describe their interaction and explain how it helps to develop the story's theme. Be sure to use specific details from the text to support your ideas. (10 points)

Everything is everything in the world of short stories. Steinbeck's The Chrysanthemums is full of thick rhetoric that raises questions and stirs the mind and imagination. Everything from the title, to the last line needs to be thought about more than once. The story isn't just about a farmer's wife who likes pretty flowers. Not in the least! The Chrysanthemums is a story about how Elisa Allen is forced to a life that she feels is trapping her. The story is set in the early twentieth century and these times don't allow for just any woman to leave her ordinary, socially and politically correct life. Feminism is a large part of the story, and main character Elisa Allen's language, actions, and even the way she is described play a large

John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums”, is a story about a woman struggling with strong inner feelings of loneliness and isolation. Elisa Allen is initially portrayed as a woman who overcompensates and whose tasks are far exceeded by her abilities. She appears content with her life and adores tending to her garden. However, a tinker briefly enters her life and through his power of persuasion and manipulation provides Elisa with hopes of change and excitement. He gives her the much needed attention she is so desperately looking for. As the story continues we learn that these hopes are crushed as we unravel the betrayal the tinker has bestowed upon Elisa. He exploits her and takes advantage of her hunger for company, aspirations, and

Walker continues to use negative imagery and ideas to reveal her hesitation towards the arrangement. The author uses these literary devices because she wants to illustrate Roselily’s reasons for marrying the man. Roselily does this because it is what's best for her and her children. In a way, Roselily is being forced because she does not have a better alternative to her current life. By marrying the man, Roselily will have a renewed lifestyle and reputation. Roselily imagines the flowers in her hand as kids. When she does this, her head fills with murderous thoughts. “A squeeze around the flowers in her hands chokes off three and four and five years of breath” (Walker 4). As guilty as Roselily feels, this shows how Roselily wishes she never had given birth to any of her kids. When she tightens her grip on the bouquet of flowers, she thinks of her children. Roselily dreams she did not give birth to these kids. Roselily’s ideas of murder could possibly be associated with her obsession with the idea of her personal spirit being robbed from her. Weddings usually give off positive connotations, however in Roselily’s mind she disturbs the happy wedding with dark thoughts such as the idea of murder. Deviating from the topic of “personal spirit”, Brent studies the ferocious thoughts swarming Roselily’s mind. “Roselily’s rebellious thoughts during the wedding ceremony go so far as to enter the realms of murder and blasphemy. She expresses a wish that she could be free of her three

Elisa Allen in Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums" and Louise Mallard in Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" have a great deal in common because of the fact that they both went through similar struggles. Both Elisa and Louise prove to be strong women that clearly had dreams of their own such as being equal to men and having a passionate relationship with a man. Although that may be true, they lacked resemblance in the true desire they each yearned for.

The Flowers By Alice Walker Written in the 1970's The Flowers is set in the deep south of America and is about Myop, a small 10-year old African American girl who explores the grounds in which she lives. Walker explores how Myop reacts in different situations. She writes from a third person perspective of Myop's exploration. In the first two paragraph Walker clearly emphasises Myop's purity and young innocence.

“The Storm”, was written by Kate Chopin, who was a feminist writer who insinuated that women had an unspoken sexual appetite and longed for independence. She wrote stories that were considerably taboo of her time, including “The Storm”, which was about a woman in a content marriage, longing for attention and excitement who leans on another man for it. On the other end of the American literature spectrum, there is John Steinbeck, who was also a feminist writer. Steinbeck wrote the short story “The Chrysanthemums” about a woman’s brief extramarital sexual encounter during a storm. Steinbeck understood the struggles of women of his time, sympathizing with them and ultimately becoming a voice for them. “The Chrysanthemums” and “The Storm” both have similarities in terms of subject, gender roles, and influences which amplify how normal these stories “taboos”, really were and still are today.

1.Flowering Chrysanthemum This was an art piece done by Leon Bonvin in 1863. He captures this scenery of the plant making it the focal point of the picture. You can see workers and other plants or buildings in the background, but the chrysanthemum plant really captures the viewers' eye with the bolder colors. 2.Top of flowering stem of Royen's Tree Cactus Created in 1916, this bright, bold, water color piece was done by a lady named Mary Emily Eaton.

John Steinbeck’s, The Chrysanthemums, was published in 1938 in a book of short stories, entitled The Long Valley. The Chrysanthemums has been a rather powerful draw for scholars because of its wide gap for interpretations and analysis of its main protagonist character, Elisa Allen and also the unique descriptions used to portray the deeper meaning behind the setting of the story. Themes of sexuality, oppression of women, as well as other numerous types of conflict portrayed in this rather somber short story have made it a popular study among scholars and students alike. Steinbeck also uses literary elements including a dramatic tone, rich symbolism, and personification which increase the stories feeling and value exponentially. Steinbeck

It was law in society that you had to be married in ordered to have a child and couldn’t cheat on your husband, if you broke any of this the automatic punishment would be death. Next to the prison door there is a rosebush and it being there meant that beauty still existed or in other words hope was still available to them. "Condemned criminal as he [comes] forth to his doom," the petals of the rose meant natures sympathy towards them. If you understand what each of these images symbolize, you will see that each plays an important role in the novel. Symbolism played an important part in the novel

The short story "The Chrysanthemums" gives insight into the life of its author. John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. The locale of the story is of key resemblance to the Salinas in which Steinbeck was born and bread. "Salinas was a typical American small town, [differing] only in location and a few distinctive features" (McCarthy 3). The protagonist of this story, Elisa Allen, also resembles Steinbeck's first wife. "Steinbeck probably based the character of Elisa Allen on his own first wife, Carol Henning Steinbeck. Like Elisa, Carol was a woman of considerable talent and energy who wore 'masculine clothes' and was 'strong, large-boned' and 'handsome rather than

triangular. They used herbs to make wreaths and garlands with an accent of flowers. The Greeks

It tells the Story of Hester Prynne who commits an act of adultery and is faced with Social and Moral obstacles on her road to repentance and a new life. Hawthorne uses three pieces symbolism in the first chapter. The first piece of symbolism is an old prison “Like all that pertains to crime, it seemed never to have known a youthful era (Hawthorne, 45).” He represents the harshness and strictness of the puritan society. Another piece of symbolism is the town cemetery “almost as seasonably as they marked the first burial ground, on Isaac Johnson’s lot, and round about his grave, which subsequently became the nucleus of all congregated sepulchers in the old churchyard of Kings Chapel (Hawthorne, 45). The cemetery symbolizes a mark of darkness and age on the puritan society. Lastly is the rosebush outside the prison “But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rosebush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him (Hawthorne, 46).” The rosebush symbolizes hope and perseverance through tough moral conflicts and acts of

Growing up in the South and living life by working every day outside, and growing crops

The short story “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck tells the story of Elisa Allen, a woman living with her husband in the Salinas Valley. Elisa is unsatisfied with her role as a rancher’s wife and would like to gain more independence and importance, yet she lives in a time when women were generally not as independent as men. The singular effect of entrapment is present throughout aspects of Elisa’s life from her personal identity, to her relationship with her husband, to her interactions with the pot mender. When the travelling pot mender arrives and speaks of his lifestyle, Elisa’s desire to see and do more in life is stirred. In the end he discards Elisa’s importance, which leaves her feeling dejected. Ultimately, she becomes defeated in her pursuit for a more meaningful existence. In “The Chrysanthemums,” author John Steinbeck represents the theme of gender inequality through the development of Elisa’s primary dilemma of a lack of purpose and importance in a society that did not see men and women as equals.