Women In Chrysanthemums

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)

The chrysanthemum is cut every year before it blooms. Elisa said that helping them bloom is the hardest part. This is also a way the flower is like Elisa. Even though she is cut down, she tries to grow right back so to speak. In this way she is strong like the flower, but also very delicate in the fact that it only takes one man to humiliate her and cut her right back down to size. Elisa is a very strong woman, and the word strong is language that is used quite often in this story. Like the strong, resilient chrysanthemum so is Elisa. On page 285 Henry Allen tells his wife that she has "a strong new crop coming." With an arrogance she says "Yes. They'll be strong this coming year." The word 'strong' itself is a way the language in the story has a little something extra on it. Healing is the longest, hardest part about anyone being put down and humiliated. Eventually she will "bloom" again and it is like she was never hurt. When Henry says she has a strong crop, Steinbeck is referring to Elisa's state of mind. At the time of the statement, Elisa was

We get our next glimpse into the struggles she is internally suffering when her house is introduced to us as “hard swept” (Steinbeck 348). Elisa extends her insecurities and sorrow onto over-compensating in tending to the house she shares with her husband. The exchange between Elisa and her husband is cold and uncompassionate as they discuss their plans for dinner and a movie. He stands outside the wire fence which serves as a wall between Elisa and the rest of society. As her husband leaves to herd their cattle she watches and swiftly returns to tending her garden.

In “The Chrysanhemums” and “A Rose for Emily” are both about how women are oppressed by the societies in which they live. In “The Chrysanthemums”, Elisa is going through a tough time dealing with how her husband and the world view her. She wants to break free of the traditional view of the woman, and tries to push forward into a manlier role. She does this because she is tired of the life she is experiencing as a woman at home. She feels as though if she inhabits the part of a man, that she will be able to experience more than she does at home in a woman’s atmosphere. Although she wants to break free from the woman status, she is unable to suppress her emotions and falls back to her womanly state. From here, she tires to impress her husband by dressing up and

Firstly, Elisa and Mrs. Mallard related in the fact that they both faced the sad reality that women in their time periods were unbearably unequal to men. For example, in "The Chrysanthemums," it was clear that women had no say in the business aspects of things such as running a ranch. This is

If one were an independent woman stuck inside a woman’s body in the late 1920’s to early 1930’s, one would not have a very good time. Throughout the times that even we millennials live, there are still traces of what gender roles should be. Although the younger generation is slowly getting rid of the phrase and its stereotypes, the past still defined what was expected of women in a still patriarchal society. This society still has these expectations for both men and women. The story written by Steinbeck: “The Chrysanthemums”, portrays a vivid setting of how men and women each had their own tasks to complete in their daily lives. Henry Allen was in charge of the labor, like tending cattle and herding them. Elisa Allen

Thesis: A “true women” in the 19th Century was one who was domestic, religious, and chaste. These were virtues established by men but enforced and taught by other women. Women were also told that they were inferior to men and they should accept it and be grateful that someone just loved them.

When John Steinbeck 's short story "The Chrysanthemums" first appeared in the October 1937 edition of Harper 's Magazine (Osborne 479), Franklin D. Roosevelt had just been reelected president. The country was recovering from the Great Depression, unions were developing, and child labor in manufacturing was terminated (Jones 805-6). The first female cabinet member in American history, Frances Perkins, was appointed the Secretary of Labor (Jones 802). She was one of the few women in her time to gain equality in a male-dominated society. For most women, liberation was a bitter fight usually ending in defeat. In "The Chrysanthemums," this struggle for equality is portrayed through Steinbeck 's character Elisa Allen. According to Stanley Renner, "The Chrysanthemums" shows "a strong, capable woman kept from personal, social, and sexual fulfillment by the prevailing conception of a woman 's role in a world dominated by men" (306). Elisa 's appearance, actions, and speech depict the frustration women felt in Steinbeck 's masculine world of the 1930 's. "Steinbeck 's world," observes Charles A. Sweet, Jr., "is a man 's world, a world that frustrates even minor league women 's liberationists" (214).

In the early nineteenth century, women were expected to be, “‘angels in the house,’ loving, self-sacrificing, and chaste wives, mothers and daughters or they are… ultimately doomed” (King et al. 23). Women of this time were supposed to be domestic creatures and not tap so far into their intellectual abilities (King et al.). The role of women in the nineteenth century is described:

From all areas of the world, people have been changing their forms of government in an attempt to decide on what’s best for their country. Apart from most, Communism is targeted toward making all equal, and it eliminates the concept of a dictator. The contradictory fact is that the concept fails when people cannot reach an agreement themselves, and then they realize a leader is needed to make the final decisions. Of course, with greed to be on top, people do not stray from this empty position for long. As unfortunate as it is, even when people decide to become equal, someone always wants to be the king. When this thirst for power is between men and women rather than the dictator and the country, men try to be in control while women serve

Many followed the “Cult of Domesticity” without realizing it. With the beliefs followed by this, women were to be the central role in the family. They were to follow God-given roles. To be a wife and mother, caretaker of the household, and was to guard the moral purity of her family. “Womanly virtue resided in piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity.”

Elisa has obviously taken on a more masculine façade due to her years spent on the farm. However, it seems apparent, both early on and later in the story that she has tried to maintain what femininity she has.

"[Elisa's] passionate involvement with the process of planting becomes an expression of all the suppressed romance in her life" (Lewis 393). "She is a strong, childless woman of thirty-five that has subliminated her maternal instincts by producing remarkable flowers" (French, John 83). Nevertheless, "the plants and flowers cannot compensate for the lack of understanding and affection from her husband" (McCarthy 27). In the story, Elisa plays the role of a simple-minded lady who allows her husbands thoughts and actions to dominate her. "Elisa's marriage neither fills her time nor fulfills her desires" (Hughes 24). However, Beach concludes that Elisa without a doubt has a "soul" and is much less simple than she seems (Beach 32).

Most women were tied to the home in the 18th Century. Modesty had become an important part of family and society life. Women were considered to have a natural maternal instinct and a natural devotion to family. Attempting to leave this role of motherhood was seen as monstrous and unwomanly by society (Wolbrink, 4 Nov. 2011) Women expected to stay in the private sphere. This hiding from the outside world was an attempt to protect the purity of women reiterating that women are the weaker sex and must be protected. This philosophy is exemplified in an 18th century metaphor, “Women is a plant which in it’s own green house seclusion will put forth all its brilliant

As she looks out to these men, we look at Elisa. Although she is doing the "feminine" work of gardening, she is dressed like a man. She wore a black hat low on her forehead to cover her hair, thick leather gloves covered her hands, and clodhopper shoes covering her small woman's feet. A "big corduroy apron" covered the dress making "her figure look blocked and heavy" (396). Unconsciously, as she looks through her fence at the men talking business, she is trying to cover up her feminine qualities. She longs to be in their position and possess their characteristics.