The Chrysanthemums And The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas

Symbolism is basically the use of symbols, actions, words and objects to signify ideas, different from their literal meaning. Symbolism is contextual and the meaning is dependent on the context. Walker uses various symbols to tell the story in ‘Everyday Use’. The symbols create a deeper meaning and understanding of the theme of the story. This segment will discuss the various symbols used in this short story and explore the different meanings and interpretations, including those by made by other sources.

Symbolism is a clever device used by authors to impart a deeper understanding to the reader concerning the story. “The Scarlet Ibis” is about a newborn baby named Doodle and his struggle through his limited life being “different”. After Doodle’s accomplishment of walking, his older brother strived to make him “normal enough” to go to school. In the end, Doodle did not complete his training and brutally died in a storm. “I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain” (Hurst 198). James Hurst used the scarlet ibis to tie the story together. In many stories, such as “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, authors use foreshadowing through object symbolism to convey what is happening to the characters.

John Steinbeck’s use of imagery shows the use of confinement by relating Elisa to the Chrysanthemums. Confinement is when someone feels like they are locked in somewhere. The Chrysanthemums are a symbolism of Elisa's strengths within herself in the wire-fenced garden. When Elisa leaves her garden in the wire-fence she loses all her strengths and confidence. The theme uses confinement in “The Chrysanthemums” when it talks about the fog at the beginning. It reads, “The high gray-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world (“The Chrysanthemums”)”. The fog makes Elisa feel like she lives in a pot with a lid on top. Another example, is when it says “On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains

The chrysanthemums is a symbol for Elisa love and emotions and her happiness. The chrysanthemums give her so much love and happiness that her husband couldn’t give her. The chrysanthemums is a symbol for her broken heart and her pains of being neglected by her husband. Her husband never for once praises her or her chrysanthemums. Elisa always working hard on her garden because the love she has for her chrysanthemums is been happy. One of the theme in the story was i think it was the way her husband treating her like she is not his wife, she work and try to please her husband but he always turn and treat her like trash."The right kind of life for a woman" (344). According to what I understand about this statement is that her husband is too blind to see the beauty in his wife. “You watch your fingers work. They do it themselves... They know. They never make a mistake" (343-4). This means that the way she working on her garden trying to make sure everything is on their places. In this story there were a lots of symbols that Elisa using to take care of her beauty garden. One of the symbols is her pot where she always put her Chrysanthemums seeds whenever she wanted to plant on her garden. She is a very strong woman who always tries to make herself happy by working on her beautiful flower.

The Chrysanthemums, by John Steinbeck, is a story filled with controversy against the subject of traditional female roles. At the beginning, the protagonist, Elisa Allen, is described in a very masculine manner. In the story Steinbeck describes her as "lean and strong", saying "Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume" and describing how she had "a man's black hat pulled low down over her eyes" By this description Steinbeck is pointing out her displeasure with herself. She is purposely presenting herself in a masculine manner because she knows she, as a female, is not going to get the advantages a man has so she tries to hide her femininity. Steinbeck also uses description of her suroundings to furter show the restriction that Elisa feels. Steineck describes her surounding as a "High grey-flannel fog of winter (closing) off the Salinas Valley.. from the rest of the world" this desciption represents how her word of opertunities is closed off due to her gender. Steinbeck is explaining the lack of ability she has to move beyond her borders.

Like a flower, a person’s passion and drive can fuel them to bloom when nurtured; when these interests are neglected, however, they can wilt just as fast. This idea holds true in The Chrysanthemums, as these flowers are used to represent Elisa Allen throughout the course of the story. She raises her own garden of chrysanthemums, her labor yielding flowers “bigger than anybody around here” (Steinbeck 318). White chrysanthemums, often used as an emblem for loyalty, stand proud in her garden in result of her efforts. On the other hand, she also raises yellow chrysanthemums, which can portray neglected love. These two meanings accurately sum up Elisa’s situation, as while she is devoted to Henry and their lives, she is dissatisfied and desires

She spends her day attending to the house chores. Elisa’s garden is the only real connection she has. She uses the chrysanthemums as a way of escaping her reality and sees herself in these flowers. A beautiful accessory to the garden, but without any real purpose. Elisa lacks connection from her husband; this does not mean he doesn’t love her, but that their relationship has simply deteriorated.

The peddler is an especially important figure in this story and represents the kind of life Elisa Allen would like to experience. He is described as a big, bearded and greying man with an attractive presence, whose eyes are dark and full of brooding. He lives his life on the road, traveling the country and making what little money he can from his loyal customers by fixing their pots and knives. After entering Elisa's yard, he repeatedly asks if she has anything he can fix. She refuses him a job and becomes very irritated, “The irritation and resistance melted from Elisa’s face” (263). But when the peddler admires her flowers, she “grew eager and alert" (263), and feels like he admires her. “She tears off the battered hat and shook out her dark pretty hair” (263). She decides to allow the peddler into her world by giving him some sprouts of chrysanthemums in a pot for the "customer" that he claims is interested in chrysanthemums. By giving him the sprouts, she gives him the symbol of her inner-self. Her enthusiasm for her flowers is a very feministic characteristic. She gives the peddler a job and he leaves. The fact that others might be interested in her passion for gardening gives her the idea that she may have a distinct

Elisa’s actions and feelings towards the flowers who how they are a replacement for her children. Even when the chrysanthemums symbolize her children, later in the story we see how they show Elisa’s femininity and sexuality. At the end of the story, when she pulls

To begin “The Chrysanthemums”, is about a woman named Elisa who lives on a farm with her husband. Throughout the entire story, it is evident that she feels lonely and trapped. This is expressed through the symbolism of chrysanthemums.

“The Chrysanthemums” is about Elisa Allen, a woman that works in a flower garden tending to her chrysanthemums. She works on a ranch with her husband, Henry. She is a very strong woman with strong, tender hands. A mysterious man in his wagon approaches her house. He comes up to Elisa asking her if she has anything for him to fix like pots, knives, or scissors. He asks her because he needs money for dinner. Then, he asks Elisa about her flowers, and she happily tells him about their color, size, and unique smell. The man complimented her work and flowers. He tells Elisa he knows a woman with a beautiful garden, and she was looking for chrysanthemums to add to her garden. Elisa explains how to care for the flowers and to make them grow to the

"The Chrysanthemums" introduces us to Elisa Allen, a woman who knows she has a gift for things, but can't make more use of it than to grow her chrysanthemums. She is trapped in the Salinas Valley, where winter's fog sits "like a lid...and [makes] the great valley a closed pot." Her human nature has made her complacent in ordinary life, but the short glimmers of hope offered by her flowers and a passing stranger reveal that there is more to Elisa than her garden. Her environment may be keeping her inside her small garden, but inside her heart there is a longing for more.

Elisa is thirty-five, she is very energetic and passion of her gardening. Her husband Henry seems supportive to her work, and praises her skill in gardening. Everything is normal until the man, who is not named in the story, interrupts the silence. The man is attracted to the chrysanthemum stalks and seedlings, and his attention to the flower caught Elisa’s interest. From Elisa’s change of attitude, we can see how she envies the man’s life on the road, and she is attracted to him because of his understanding. But when the story reaches to the end, Elisa sees how the man has abandoned the pots of flowers on the side of the road, she cried with a broken heart “She turned up her coat collar so he could not see that she was crying weakly – like an old woman” (Steinbeck 123). This is dramatic, but reveals the naturalism applied to Elisa, her environment and social conditions. The naturalism is seen as Elisa tries to get herself involved with the environment and society that she is separated from. But nature only provides her with a sense of success with

Implication of fertility and sexuality are presented in the chrysanthemum symbol. Elisa’s identification with nature is symbolized by her "planting hands" that tenderly and eagerly care for the flowers. Mordecai Marcus suggests that the care and tenderness she shows towards the plants makes them symbolic of her mother impulse 26. The mature blooms of the chrysanthemums suggest to one critic the "voluptuousness of a sexually mature woman." 27

In the story, Steinbeck has Henry Allen, Elisa’s husband, comment on the size of the chrysanthemums. Henry sees the chrysanthemums and states that they are a “strong new crop”. To this she agrees. He later comments on the smaller size of some of the other organisms in her garden and how he wishes that they could be larger like the chrysanthemums. In this section, we get the sense that the chrysanthemums are the strongest, healthiest, and biggest plants in her garden. Instantly we sense the connection between the chrysanthemums and Elisa. Elisa, like the chrysanthemums, has strong and healthy characteristics. Additionally, Elisa and the chrysanthemums are the only things in the story that have common characteristics; therefore it is safe to say that the chrysanthemums symbolize Elisa.