FREE ESSAY ON SYMBOLISM IN CHRYSANTHEMUMS

SYMBOLISM IN CHRYSANTHEMUMS

Margaret Sidorowicz-1
Margaret Sidorowicz
ENG-102
10-02, 2000
Professor Lee
Symbolism in The Chrysanthemums
In his story The Chrysanthemums, written in 1938, Steinbeck introduces us 
with a woman, named Elisa, who is trying to gain power in a man's world. 
Elisa Allen tries to define her role as a woman in a very close society. Her 
environment portrays the social depression, while the garden shows her power and 
masculine. Elisa has trouble extending this power outside the fence that surrounds her 
garden. Finally, she learns but not accepts, that she possesses a weak feminine power,
not 
the masculine one she had tried to achieve. 
The symbols in setting and characters show us the scope and nature of this empty 
society, and the chrysanthemums portray Elisa's existence and emptiness of her life. We 
can find those symbols almost everywhere in this story, which takes place around the 
same time it was written, in Salinas Valley, California, during the wintertime.
The fog, in the beginning of the story, can be interpreted as something that can 
inhibit movement and sight, sat like a lid on the mountains (1-5). Moreover, the fog, 
like the close society, keeps things in step and restrained, like a close pot. (1-5) Not

only the fog, but also the orchards, plowed up to receive the rain...when it should 
come, symbolize the way our society create us to be empty inside, so it can fills us with

whatever it feels is needed, regardless of our personal desires and needs.
The fences, which surrounds Elisa's garden, her working environment, symbolize 
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her life. She is isolated from the real world, from the man's world. Also, like the
fences, 
the narrow paths and ordered rows of her garden, are the symbols of society which 
demands from her to stop thinking, follow the paths, and don`t go outside of the 
boundaries. Although, unlike her husband and the society he represents, Elisa shows us 
that at least she is trying to create something more than society dictates. The control
and 
care for the chrysanthemums represent her own control and care for her individuality. 
The uniqueness of her garden, the fact that she could stick anything in the ground and 
make it grow (10-15), and that her flowers are bigger than anybody around here (50-
55) shows us that she has the power to shape who she is and what she does.
The care she tends her garden with, also symbolizes her desire to have children 
and the frustration steams from not having them. She handles the chrysanthemums with 
love and care, just as she would handle her own children. Elisa places a wire fence to 
protect her flowers from cattle and dogs and chickens(10). She also make sure that no 
aphids were there, no sow bugs or snails or cutworms are there. Her terrier fingers 
destroyed such pests before they could get started (5-10). These pests represent natural

harm to the flowers, and, just as good mother, she removes them before they can harm 
her children. 
The chrysanthemums also symbolize Elisa's femininity and sexuality. The portrait 
of Elisa caring for her flowers as they were her children is strong feminine image,
which
interlace, in this story, with her masculine image. We can observe the masculine image in

the way she dresses Her figure locked blocked and heavy in her gardening
costume...mans black hat...clodhopper shoes...She wore heavy leather gloves (5-10), 
and in her hard -swept and hard-polished home (5-10). This image is carried over into 
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her relationship with her husband. Elisa feels that Henry doesn't recognize or appreciate

her femininity, and this makes her to be antagonistic toward him. There is a distinct
lack 
of harmony between them, which causes Elisa to become discontented with her husband. 
Observing her flowers, which mean a lot to her, everything he can say is I wish you'd 
work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big. (10-15) Henry's inability to 
understand Elisa's needs leaves her vulnerable in her encounter with the thinker, which 
renews Elisa's feelings of femininity and sexuality. Her masculine image disappears after

the tinker romantically describes the chrysanthemums as a quick puff of colored smoke 
(50-55). The chrysanthemums symbolize Eliza's sexuality; so when tinker admires the 
flowers, she feels like he admires her and she tears off the battered hat and shakes out

her dark pretty hair (60-65). By giving him the pot with flower, she gives him the 
symbol of her inner-self. As the tinker lives, Elisa starts to feel hope for herself and
her 
marriage. She sees a bright direction(90-95) and a new beginning of her marriage.
After the tinker leaves, Elisa takes bath, scrubbing herself with a little block of 
pumice, legs and thighs, loins and chest and arms, until her skin was scratched and red 
(90-95). This symbolizes that she is feeling guilty for her attempts to cross these 
boundaries of society. She says she's strong. Yes, strong (100-105), but this is 
complete irony. The truth is that she is weak and unable to trust herself to be her own 
carrier. When she fails to see the value of her own uniqueness, and fails to trust
herself 
and what she feels is right, then she has failed in her struggle for existence over 
emptiness. This makes her unable to trust herself, to be confident in herself and to be 
responsible for her own actions and thoughts.
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She prepares for her night out with her husband full of hope for a better, more 
exciting life. By dressing slowly in front of the mirror and admiring her body Elisa is
also 
admiring her femininity. She hopes that Henry will recognize her as a woman and 
provide her with the romance and excitement for which she longs. However, her hope is 
quickly dashed. Henry's best compliment on her appearance after all her effort she put in

order to look good is: You look strong enough to break a calf over your knee, happy 
enough to eat it like a watermelon (100-105). This unflattering remark on her 
appearance doesn't help Elisa's femininity, but her hope is totally crushed when she sees

the flowers on the road.
This one symbolic act has left her with no hope. She realizes that her life is not 
going to change, and that her femininity and sexuality are never going to be fully 
appreciated nor understood by Henry. She has to learn to be content with unexciting 
husband and her less than romantic marriage. Her devastation at this realization makes 
her crying weakly-like an old women (120) 
Steinbeck leaves the reader questioning the future for women, but Elisa's tears 
will not rid the valley of the fog, for as author tells us in the beginning, fog and rain
do 
not go together(1-5) Elisa will probably dominate her surrounding inside the fence, but 
she will never achieve the power outside of it, in a man's world.
Notes:
Hans P. Guth, Gabriele L Rico. Discovering Literature, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River,
New Jersey, 2000. John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums p.146-153