There are subtle actions and emotions that occur when a man and a woman meet casually and coincidentally. In an encounter, the discussions that ensue display in part the relationship and characters of the two parties engaging in a common interest. This essay is going to compare and contrast the characters of two women, Calixta from Chopins The Storm and Elisa Allena from Steinbecks Chrysanthemums , who are in different contexts of the stories.
Comparisons
Calixta and Elisa are women who are both young and newly married. These women are very industrious, and each one is specializing in her own work at their respective homes, as Calixta is a fervent tailor while Elisa is a passionate flower gardener. When these women encounter men, they are emotionally attracted to men and are tempted to indulge themselves in extramarital sex.
Incidentally, Elisa encounters a man who mends broken utensils and other homely pieces of equipment. She was scared of him at first sight, but after a lengthy discussion, she empathizes with the lonely caravan life the man was living and his desire to get attracted to beautiful women. Her feeling for him made her breasts to swell up passionately, and was tempted to touch his greasy trouser. On the other hand, Calixta met his former boyfriend, Alcee, whom she has missed since she got married.
The storm provided an opportunity for Alcee to shelter in her house until the storm is over. The opportunity made them remember the sweet moments they had shared before, and they begin to kiss and caress each other. In the end, both women felt lonely and wondered as they stare at the departing men, leaving them lonely.
Contrasts
Elisa and Calixta differ in the kind of work they do. Calixta is a passionate tailor while Elisa is a gifted flower gardener as she grows chrysanthemums flowers that give an attractive bloom in their season. Physically, Calixta has blue eyes, red lips as pomegranate, and yellow hair that charmed Alcee leading him to inevitably kiss and caress her while Elisa has clear eyes like water, a blocked figure, and pretty dark hair that makes Henry, her husband commend her as nice and strong, and also attracting the caravan man.
Another contrast between the two women is the children. Elisa seems to be newly married, as she has no kids to attend to, unlike Calixta, who is busy tailoring, washing, and cooking for her kids. Elisa and Henry are new couples who are still busy enjoying their early marriage life by going to dinner without any worry about the welfare of the kids. Elisa has self-control as she managed to avoid suggestive touch on the greasy trouser of the caravan man, but Calixta lost her self-control because she allowed Alcee to kiss and caress her, yet she is married to another man.
Conclusion
The two stories are trying to depict how promiscuous behavior is propagated in society by both men and women during socialization. The two women in different contexts have proved to have the same extramarital sexual challenges, but they differ in the extent of their self-control. Their physical looks are quite different, but in the eyes of the men, they are just seen as beautiful. The stories portray what really happens in reality when a man encounters a woman or his former girlfriend. What normally ensues is very predictable because human beings are social beings and must socialize to fulfill their emotional needs.
The Chrysanthemum is a story by John Steinbeck. It is a story about Elisa Allen, a woman living through pain in the 1930s, isolated from the world both physically and emotionally by virtue of her sex (Renner 305). Stanley Renner, critiquing the story once wrote that the story shows a strong woman held from social, personal and sexual fulfillment by the general conception/psychology of a womans place in a male-dominated world (Renner 306).
The description of the Salinas Valley; closed off from the sky and the rest of the world by the grey-flannel winter fog, which sat on the mountains like a lid such that it made the valley a closed pot (Steinbeck 1) prepares the reader for an encounter with Elisa Allens isolation. Because she lives far from town, Elisa hardly interacts with other peoples except for her husband; throughout the story, Elisas sexual frustration is reflected in the way that she slips in and out of feminine and masculine characteristics.
But through the chrysanthemum, the symbol for Elisas femininity, Elisa becomes aware of her sexuality. Her husband simply refers to them as flowers as a way to put Elisa in her place, but when the tinker comes looking for work, and she wont give it to him, he resorts to describing her chrysanthemum in feminine poetic terms (Renner 315). Through the tinkers interest in the flowers, Elisa becomes content with her sexuality, her femininity, which finally brings her great solace, it appears she loosens up, taking off her hat and shaking her hair.
After this, one hopes that Elisa will now rise to confront her feminity now that she is aware of the power of her own sexuality. Unfortunately, the story ends with Elisa resuming her old psychology, her conscious awareness of the perceived inferiority of her feminine, which is reflected when she cant face the tinker on his way (with her husband) to town (Budnichuk).
At the start of the story, Elisa Allen is a woman living through both geographical and emotional isolation (sexual hunger, for instance). The physical nature of Salinas Valley, locked within a fog-capped ring of mountains and placed far away from town, has locked her from the rest of the world (Owens 225).
Besides her husband, Elisa hardly encounters other people, but within her is a hunger to assert herself in many ways, her sexuality, for instance, in the male-dominated world. Steinbecks vivid description of her character within the story setting indicates Elisas struggles in her marriage and her hunger to break through them (Budnichuk); thus, she is described to be like a plowed field waiting to receive rain deeply (Owens 226).
But Elisa later encounters another man, the tinker; unlike her husband, who sees the chrysanthemum as merely flowers and symbols of feminine weakness, the tinker sees them as symbols of feminine beauty and importance. As such, while both men are aware of the softness of the feminine, her husband thinks it represents inferiority and resents it, while the tinker embraces it and encourages Elisa to flaunt it.
As we have seen above, the chrysanthemum symbolizes the feminine; from the perspectives of Elisas husband and the tinkers, we see the two sides of femininity as seen in this society; the husbands take being the predominant one. By the tinker appreciating the beauty of the chrysanthemum, Elisa falls in love with herself; she embraces her sexuality and also falls in love with the tinker.
At this stage, Elisa decides to shade off her masculinity and takes it as her new chance to win life. But in failing to look at the tinker and the chrysanthemum on her way to town (with her), she returns to her old inferiority with her sexuality. Ultimately, she loses the fight, and as Steinbeck writes, the farmers were patiently hopeful of good rain soon; unfortunately, fog and rain dont go together (Steinbeck 222).
Works Cited
Budnichuk, Monica. The Chrysanthemums: Exposing Sexual Tension through Setting and Character. Universal Journal. 2009. Web.
Owens, Louis. John Steinbecks Re-Vision of American. Short Story Criticism 11 (1992): 225-32. Print.
Steinbeck, John. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Modern Fiction Studies, (1999): 219-27. Print.
Every writer devotes a lot of pages to describing the setting of the story in detail. An inexperienced reader may think that there is no sense to describe the nature of the buildings in such details and he/she finds it to be quite boring to read so many pages about detailed descriptions of the setting. The role of the setting is very important as far as it helps the writers to present their characters fully and pass the main idea to the reader. Comparing the settings of John Steinbecks, The Chrysanthemums with John Updikes A & P we may point out that although these settings are very different, they play the same role.
John Steinbecks The Chrysanthemums is set in California where the writer lives, and he knows this area well to describe it in detail. The scene opens up with the depiction of the Salinas Valley in California with the fog laying over the mountains. The depiction is quite symbolic in this case as far as it gives the reader the feeling of loneliness and isolation. Steinbeck depicts the valley as a closed pot and it refers to the strained atmosphere or even it passes to the reader the feeling of isolation (Steinbeck, n.d.). Further on, the reader understands that this depiction of the valley resembles Elisa Allens life. She also feels like being in a closed pot (Steinbeck, n.d.). Such resemblance between nature and the characters presents the connection between nature and human beings.
Steinbeck uses the setting to present his characters fully. Elise Allen is firstly depicted in her garden. Her care for flowers testifies to the fact that she is a tender and hard-working person. The choice of the garden of chrysanthemums is also symbolic in this work. It is a well-known fact that the chrysanthemum is the flower of death, and it is often connected with a funeral. It is used to represent mourning and grieving. On the other hand, the Americans consider any flower to be the symbol of beauty and happiness. There are countries where flowers are the symbols of innocence and loyalty. All these symbols help to understand the character of Elisa Allen much better. She is doomed to live in routine till her death, but she tries to be happy and keep loyalty to her husband. More than that, she is a beautiful and innocent woman. John Steinbeck uses the setting to present his characters symbolically.
John Updikes A & P set in an A & P store. It is the grocery store of 1950 (Updike, n.d.). This store is situated in a small town and the boy works as a cashier that is quite a routine and monotonous work. The main character Sammy is firstly presented in the store. The author uses this setting to highlight the artificial life of his character under the artificial light of the store (Updike, n.d.). His every new day does not change from the others. The setting of his life does not change as well. Most of the time of Sammys life is spent in the store with the same atmosphere, same smells, same colors, same isles, and other boring things. The beauty of the entire world is limited for Sammy to this little store. The colorful world seems to him to be devoid of color. The girls are depicted oppositely. They are from another world, from a real world with millions of colors, smells, and feelings. The setting helps the author to pass to the reader the atmosphere of the store and cheerful and vibrant girls from the outside world. More than that, the setting helps Sammy to understand the value of the beauty of the world. The whole work is based on the setting. John Updike uses the setting to pass the main idea to the reader.
The choice of setting is connected to the main ideas of these works. The place of living as in John Steinbecks The Chrysanthemums and the place of working as in John Updikes A & P influence the main characters and they are presented as their integral parts. The surrounding world of characters says a lot about them and the author presents this world in detail to present their characters fully. An experienced reader who pays a lot of attention to these details understands that the development of events is justified. There is no wonder that Elisa Allen feels as living in a closed pot as far as the author has driven at this even at the beginning of the story with the help of the setting. John Updike has chosen the grocery store to depict the boring and monotonous life of his character not by coincidence. This setting fully presents the way of life of his main character.
From the above said we may conclude that the setting plays a very important role in John Steinbecks The Chrysanthemums and John Updikes A & P. The settings in these works are very different as far as John Steinbeck presents the character related to nature while John Updike presents the character as an integral part of the building as the so-called decoration of the building. More than that, the setting presents the general atmospheres of the works namely the atmosphere of solitude and mourning in The Chrysanthemums and artificiality and counterfeit in A & P.
Works Cited
Steinbeck, John. n.d. The Chrysanthemums. Web. 2012.
According to the philosopher, Glenn Campbell, in his article from the Family Court Chronicles, “loneliness” is “the most painful human experience, apart from physical pain itself.” Elisa Allen the wife in John Steinbeck’s short story “Chrysanthemums” is a lonely and depressed woman who is frustrated with her marriage, her sense of isolation from the world, and her repressed desires to explore her sexuality and to live a fuller more passionate life. As it is depicted throughout the story, the principal issue remains centered upon the woman’s disconnection from those around her and her desperate desire to reconnect. Written with a subtle style and fluidity, the story highlights its deeper meaning within its final lines, in which it is seen that Elisa is “crying weakly – like an old woman.” Steinbeck manages to capture the isolation and sexual frustration of Elisa Allen, the reason for her tears, through his characterization of her while she is tending the chrysanthemums, the interaction that occurs between Elisa and the tinker while her husband is out on the ranch and in the depiction of the relationship between Henry and Elisa.
Elisa’s isolation and sexual frustration are quickly revealed as she works on her flower garden. She is enclosed within the garden space, symbolic of how she is enclosed and isolated from others. This isolation is made palpable as she watches her husband talk to strangers not far away as is noted by Andrew Berry in “An Explication of John Steinbeck’s ‘The Chrysanthemums.” “The second noticeable aspect of Elisa Allen is her curiosity. Elisa sees the men talking to her husband and wonders what they are talking about.” Her sexual frustration can be identified in her care for her chrysanthemums, taking pride in their size as she might take pride in her children. Her tension is also revealed as she works. Steinbeck tells us, “The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy.” Symbolism placed throughout this opening setting further supports the idea that Elisa is isolated and sexually frustrated. The ranches like the one Elisa resides at are described as being quite separated from the rest of the community. Even the weather is described as a closed space: “The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the [valley] from the sky and all the rest of the world. On every side, it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot.” Placed in less picturesque terms, Elisa is a curious woman trapped within a shaded corner of a shadow box.
The idea of her frustrated sexuality and extreme isolation is also expressed during her interaction with the tinker who stops at her ranch because he has lost his way. Although she initially treats him with friendly suspicion, his astute interest in her chrysanthemums, with his poetic description of them as “quick puff[s] of colored smoke,” elicits a sexual response within her. As she thought of her flowers and his interest, “she tore off the battered hat and shook out her dark pretty hair,” an act that is recognized by Elizabeth McMahan in “’The Chrysanthemums’: A Study of a Woman’s Sexuality” as “entirely feminine and essentially seductive,” which calls our attention to her further feminine behaviors. As she kneels on the ground at the tinker’s feet, the quintessential subjected female figure, “Her breast swelled passionately.” She provides the tinker with some of her precious chrysanthemum shoots, a symbolic sharing of the procreative spirit, and, perhaps still carried away by these emotions, she hurries to dress in “the dress which was the symbol of her prettiness. She worked carefully on her hair, penciled her eyebrows, and rouged her lips.” These are behaviors that Louis Owens describes in “John Steinbeck’s Re-Vision of America” as manifestations of her wish to leave the “barrenness of the farm” in order to realize her “romantic dream of fulfillment” (227). Thus, the jaded spirit of the repetitive life continues to hope for a moment of connection with another human being, an essential human need that encourages social behavior designed to attract positive attention.
This strong reaction to the tinker is contrasted to the politely distant relationship that exists between Elisa and her husband, Henry. McMahon points to what she calls a “distinct lack of rapport” between husband and wife that prevents the relationship from moving beyond the interaction of a business relationship. Although her husband mentions her talent for working with growing things and a desire for her to apply this ability to the orchard, her tentative acceptance of the offer to try (“Maybe I could do it, too. I’ve a gift with things, all right”) and his immediate dismissal of the idea (“Well, it sure works with flowers”) indicates that Elisa remains unnaturally confined and isolated in Henry’s inability to see beyond established gender stereotypes. This aspect of their relationship is made clear again at the end of the story when Henry cannot imagine Elisa might want to go see the fights. Realizing the limitations of her marital relationship, Elisa breaks down into the tears of a woman old before her time.
Although women in the urban cities are not physically isolated in Elisa’s sense, they are often forced to try to support their children on their own with little or no employment skills, opportunities, or options. The current welfare system in the United States, for example, limits a woman’s capacity to obtain federal financial aid for higher education purposes while still obtaining other needed services. It also forces many to work many miles away from home and imposes stringent ‘moral’ requirements. While women in the middle and upper classes have the ability to more readily choose to combine family obligations and employment, freely practice their individual sexual orientations, and have an abortion, impoverished women subsisting on welfare do not have control over these life, or lifestyle issues, which becomes the focus of Rickie Solinger’s study “Dependency and Choice”. “Dependency has come to be associated with the ‘dangerous, pathological behavior’ of poor women who make wrong choices,” rather than the result of choices that have been made for them or the passing of years without any opportunities for choice. The policies of the current welfare system are intended to force poor women to adjust their life choices so that they match with the prevailing view of ‘morality’ of those writing the legislation and to force an increasing number of women into low paying, esteem lowering jobs that provide little or usually, no benefits at all.
Steinbeck’s characterization of Elisa in terms of her activities and setting, her encounter with the tinker and the relationship she experiences with her husband as it is revealed in this short story expresses the loneliness and frustration of women living away from the companionship of a larger society and confined within the strict bounds of a masculine perception. Yet, the story remains applicable today as thousands of women remain confined within bounds equally as constricting as those described for Elisa. Women in the lower ranks of society are thus just as isolated from true connections with others due to their overworked schedule as a means of survival, desperate for a little attention from anyone willing to spend a little time with them, and trapped within a constrained world of expectations and behaviors with little or no control over where she will go or what she will do.
Works Cited
Berry, Andrew. “An Explication of John Steinbeck’s ‘The Chrysanthemums’.” Associated Content. 2008. Web.
McMahan, Elizabeth E. “’The Chrysanthemums’: A Study of a Woman’s Sexuality.” Short Story Criticism. Vol. 11, (1992): 214-217.
Owens, Louis. “John Steinbeck’s Re-Vision of America.” Short Story Criticism. Vol. 11, (1992): 225-232.
Solinger, Rickie. “Dependency and Choice.” Social Justice. Vol. 25, N. 1, (1998). 2008. Web.
Steinbeck, John. “The Chrysanthemums.” The Long Valley. New York: Penguin Books, (1995): 1-13.
John Steinbeck’s short story titled “The Chrysanthemums” is about a woman and the special relationship she feels for her garden during a specific day. It is not a very active story because the woman, Elisa Allen, spends her day engaged in very simple activities and only leaves the space of her garden and home toward the end of the story. Although the story seems pretty uneventful, it turns out to be unusual for Elisa because she receives a visitor to her garden that is interested in speaking with her instead of her husband. This visitor is a tinker who wants to talk with her about her beautiful flowers.
The day is also unusual because Elisa’s husband decides suddenly to take her out for the evening, seeming to express more affection and interest in her than he is used to displaying. The story ends before Elisa gets too far from her house that evening at a point where she finds some of her flowers that she had given to the tinker smashed next to the side of the road and she starts crying. The action of the story is thus not physical, but mental or psychological within the character of Elisa Allen. Steinbeck gives his story a deeper, hidden meaning by using his language suggestively, smoothly blending the story together to where the final line, where Elisa is “crying weakly – like an old woman,” make sense on a deep, emotional level for the reader.
The way that Steinbeck does this can be discovered by taking a closer look at how Steinbeck uses imagery and action to illustrate the depth of Elisa’s isolation and frustration on a physical and emotional level through her garden, her encounter with the tinker and with her husband Henry.
Steinbeck’s description of Elisa’s garden immediately illustrates how isolated Elisa really is physically from the rest of the world. The flowers, Elisa among them, are totally fenced in as a specifically defined space.
Although the fence is low, it still manages to serve as a barrier between Elisa and all of the other characters who appear throughout the story. The fact that it is low is Steinbeck’s way of emphasizing that the fence is symbolic of Elisa’s metaphysical barriers that keep her isolated and enclosed. Her isolation is further added to by the description of the location where she lives. Steinbeck opens the story by telling the reader about how “the high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the [valley] from the sky and all the rest of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot” (Steinbeck).
This setting illustrates how even if she left the garden, Elisa would still remain cut off from the rest of society, sealed within the ‘closed pot’ of the smothering cloud cover. Again reinforcing that this is a symbolic concept, Elisa stands at the beginning of the story watching her husband talk to strangers at a location not far away from where she stands. Although she is curious about what they’re saying, custom and expectation prevent her from leaving her garden to join them, beginning to illustrate why Elisa is so isolated. It is a combination of internal and external expectations, fears, custom and habit.
The flowers within the garden are also symbolic of Elisa’s frustration in life. Steinbeck makes this connection by pointing out the manner in which she works with the flowers, “the chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy” (Steinbeck). The force and energy that she expends while she is tending to her plants can easily be seen to be an outlet for the ferocity and frustration she feels as she realizes that she cannot just decide to join Henry and his visitors and expect to be welcomed and brought into the conversation that is already taking place regardless of how curious she might be about the topic or how much it might end up affecting her welfare.
At the same time, though, Elisa obviously takes a great deal of pride in the beauty of her plants. In many ways, this pride takes on the notes of a mother’s pride in her children. This is Steinbeck’s way of pointing out that Elisa doesn’t have any children running around and indicating that part of Elisa’s frustration is not as much her place in life at present, but also her so far failed ability to fulfill the expected role she is to play in her society, that of the mother and nurturer. The unusual size and beauty of her flowers demonstrate the frustrated care she has lavished upon them as well as her own ability to nurture successfully.
However, all this ability is prevented from making any significant contribution to the rest of the world regardless of her own desires or efforts or how talented she might be at bringing about positive change as it is given to flowers that were commonly considered only good for display. This concept is an idea that is brought out again and again through her relationships with the visiting tinker and later with her husband.
Elisa’s frustration and extreme isolation are painfully apparent during her visit with the tinker who has accidentally come to her ranch simply because he has gotten lost. This small detail is significant because it indicates that the tinker would not normally have stopped at Elisa’s ranch as a part of his regular rounds. Expanding this concept, it also suggests that Elisa’s home does not lie upon the primary traveling routes and, unless a person was expressly intending to visit her ranch, remains greatly isolated even within the small town.
In other words, Elisa doesn’t even get the occasional wanderer passing by to share a few words with on a regular basis, heightening her isolation to nearly epic proportions. Although Elisa initially treats the tinker with the kind of friendly suspicion that would be customary for the situation, the salesman’s quick interest in her flowers, including his poetic description of them as “quick puff[s] of colored smoke,” plucks at the lonely creature within her.
Her mind makes a connection between the tinker’s interest in the flowers and his interest in her, which makes her feel somewhat human again. Steinbeck reveals this by describing her reactions: “She tore off the battered hat and shook out her dark pretty hair” and kneels on the ground at his feet as “her breast swelled passionately.” When she gives the tinker some of the chrysanthemum shoots, she imagines it as a sort of reverse lovemaking where the tinker is the one walking away pregnant, taking her children into the world to make a difference where she cannot.
This strongly sexual encounter is immediately placed against the distant relationship that exists between Elisa and her husband, Henry, like the fence between her and the rest of the world. Henry easily recognizes Elisa’s talent with the flowers and casually mentions how such a talent is sorely needed within the orchard that provides them with their living. However, when she shyly offers to try, “Maybe I could do it, too. I’ve a gift with things, all right” (Steinbeck), he immediately rejects her by trivializing her talent and confining her again into her garden, “Well, it sure works with flowers” (Steinbeck).
This portrayal of husband and wife interaction again indicates that Elisa remains unnaturally confined and isolated in Henry’s inability to see beyond established gender stereotypes. This aspect of their relationship is made clear again at the end of the story when Henry cannot imagine Elisa might want to go see the fights. Henry’s continued confinement of Elisa’s ideas regardless of what she says suggests some of the reasons why Elisa might not yet have children. Following this interaction with her husband and discovering the ‘pregnant seed’ she’d shared with the tinker smashed alongside the roadway forces Elisa to realize the harshly confining limitations of her marital relationship and she breaks down into the tears of a woman old before her time.
Through this short story, Steinbeck manages to the frustration and isolation of the women of his time period through the character of Elisa Allen. Through his use of setting and action, her encounter with the tinker and the relationship she experiences with her husband, Steinbeck illustrates how impossible it would be for Elisa to escape the unhappy and lonely life she is living. Every effort she makes to try to connect herself with the outside world, or even with her own husband, is rejected while simply making the effort at times seems more than she can handle.
While male perceptions commonly held that a woman’s place is in the home and this is where she will be happiest, Steinbeck illustrates, through this story, the incredible injustice this belief perpetrates on the woman herself and suggests a more open minded approach to the issue is called for.
Works Cited
Steinbeck, John. (1995). “The Chrysanthemums.” The Long Valley. New York: Penguin Books: 1-13.
John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums” is the short story associated with American Realism. The story setting is the Salina Valley, which is a nonfictional area in California. Such characteristic features of American Realism as the focus on the middle class and upper class characters, the author’s intention to make a positive social or moral influence on his readers, the author’s concentration on the inner world of the characters, and the accentuation of the details and settings are realized in the story.
The first characteristic of American Realism is the depiction of middle class or upper class characters. The main character of “The Chrysanthemums” is Elisa Allen, the wife of a beef cattle farmer, Henry Allen. The lifestyle of the couple is characteristic for the time and for the middle-class Americans.
They have a farm and a small farmhouse described as “… hard-swept looking little house with hard-polished windows” (Steinbeck 163). Their income is also typical for the middle-class family. For instance, Henry sold “…thirty head of three-year-old steers” (Steinbeck 163). Even though there were no indications as to whether they were lucky enough to get regular incomes, the fact that they chose to celebrate it by going out for a dinner showed that their budget was bigger than other families’ household budgets.
The second characteristic is the positive impact on the readers. While reading the story, the readers notice that the author uses the plot to emphasize Elisa’s passionate love for her work as the escape from the unhappy marriage. As the story develops, a stranger drops in to their farm searching for some job to earn for a living. The man repairs utensils and sharpens scissors and other household tools to make the ends meet.
As the story unfolds, the man engages Elisa in a conversation in an attempt to get some work, but she adamantly refuses his request. In persistence, the man uses Elisa’s passion for Chrysanthemums flowers to make her find some work for him.
According to Donna Campbell, “it is a technique, which also denotes a particular kind of subject matter, especially the representation of a middle-class life” (Campell). The author seeks to make the influence on the readers, representing the effects of the unhappy marriage on Elisa and her activity.
The third characteristic of American Realism is the focus on the characters’ inner world. The story depicts the woman who is not loved by her husband. She turns her affection to her flowers.
Thus, the author concentrates on depicting the variety of Elisa’s emotions when she formally speaks to her husband, angrily reacts to the stranger, and on how Elisa’s reactions change when she listens to the passenger’s emotionally vivid descriptions of the flowers “Kind of a long-stemmed flower? Looks like a quick puff of colored smoke?” (Steinbeck 164). The reades have the opportunity to understand Elisa’s changed emotions following her realistically depicted feelings.
The next characteristic of American Realism in “The Chrysanthemums” is that the story is mimetic. The author seeks to make the story true to life by using realistic details and settings. Steinbeck describes the farm and the surroundings in details to create a vivid picture of the scenery to the reader.
Moreover, the description of characters’ is also realistic. Elisa’s face is “lean and strong…Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man’s black hat pulled low…clod-hopper shoes…completely covered by a big corduroy apron” (Steinbeck 163). The setting of the story is a nonfictional place. The Salina’s Valley is a real place located in central California. This realistic setting is important because it helps bring out the whole realism of the story.
In conclusion, it must be pointed out that “The Chrysanthemums” is realistic fiction story in which John Steinbeck has successfully used the issues inherent in the American society to bring out a ‘true to life’ masterpiece with a positive social influence on its readers.
Works Cited
Campell, Donna. Realism in American Literature, 1960-1890. Washington: Washington State University, 2011. Print.
Steinbeck, John. “The Chrysanthemums”. An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Barnet Sylvan, William Burto, and William Cain. Upper Saddle River: Pearson College Division, 2008. 162-169. Print.
When John Steinbeck’s short story “The Chrysanthemums” first appeared in the October 1937 edition of Harper’s Magazine, Franklin D. Roosevelt had just been re-elected president of the United State of America. During the history of mankind, women have been often regarded as inferior to men. Consequently, many women have audaciously strived to liberate themselves from this long-standing prejudice, and highlighted the female ideal of independence. John Steinbeck’s short story, “The Chrysanthemums” reflects the struggles of a stereotyped woman of the time, Elisa Allen to find her own identity in the oppressive world of men.
John Steinbeck’s short story, Chrysanthemums, through the protagonist, Elisa Allen illustrates women’s efforts to explore the life beyond the traditional standards. Elisa is desperately searching for appreciation, and goes to great lengths to achieve her aspirations. Regrettably, her desires for equality are not granted due to the discrimination based on her sex. The time has not come yet; and she has to let go of her dreams for liberation. (Hayashi, 1991) At first glance, this is a simple story with an ordinary plotline. But the deeper we understand it, we start to discover that life have its limits and restrictions especially for women which are usually indefinable. Throughout the story, Elisa suffers a failure from the masculine role she sees as equality to the feminine role she sees as passive. Her frustration with the male-dominated society causes her to let go of her dreams for liberation and to become what society expects her to be a passive woman.
Her chrysanthemums meant a lot to her. She is very proud of them. When Elisa’s husband Henry comes over and compliments her garden and ability to grow things Elisa is smug with him and very proud of her skill with the flowers. Her “green thumb” makes her an equal in her own eyes. It is safe to say that they were almost like her children and she took care of them like a mother. We see this when she talks about them so passionately with the tinker. Nevertheless, she is depicted as a woman whose strengths are really too much for the tasks at hand. “She was cutting down the old year’s chrysanthemum stalks with a pair of short and powerful scissors.” This not only shows that she is physically strong but symbolize to the readers that she wants more from life than just being a gardener. She has too much energy for the job. (Shillinglaw, 1997)
The vibes from Elisa’s infatuation with these flowers are picked up by the old man and there is an unspoken friendship between these two perfect strangers as they have both chosen their own preoccupation in life, his being a passion of pots and hers a love of chrysanthemums. It is this camaraderie that ignites the realization that she longs to break free from the everyday routine she calls life. Elisa’s character undergoes a dramatic change. Her love for the natural beauty of the flowers–for her own feminine side–combines with her natural strength, and a whole woman begins to emerge. She talks about them with enthusiasm and starts to feel that at least someone understands her. Elisa’s feminine side begins to emerge as she takes off her masculine gloves and hat.
There are many symbolic references to Elisa Allen as a sexually repressed woman. The chrysanthemums represent Elisa’s passion and eagerness to experience life a content woman. While tending her chrysanthemums “she pulled out the crisp little roots and trimmed of the leaves of each one with her scissors”. This represents Elisa Allen closing off all opportunities to grow as a sexual woman; she has resigned herself to the monotonous life as a farmer’s wife. The figured print dress under the apron shows the readers that Elisa is aware of her sexuality. However, she has chosen to subdue this sexuality rather than act upon it. She keeps her sexuality and passions under control. (Maurice, 1965)
Steinbeck’s uses the flower to symbolize his main character’s thoughts and ideas in his novel. In a romantic or sexual context, a woman is often said to be as beautiful as a flower; in John Steinbeck’s short story “The Chrysanthemums”, Elisa Allen never receives this recognition. Elisa Allen is a lonely woman who enjoys growing and nourishing her chrysanthemums. Since her husband is always working in their farm, she never has enough attention or any kind of affection. Although, she discovers an outlet for her frustration in a flower garden where she cultivates beautiful chrysanthemums; she refuges herself in her chrysanthemum, which symbolize her spirit, in other word, herself. Steinbeck uses these elegant flowers as a symbol to represent the tender, inner-self of all women, including Elisa. (Beach, 1996) Because Elisa does not feel appreciated by her husband, she takes care of her chrysanthemums, symbols of how beautiful she really is and how she wants to be seen. Steinbeck uses little symbolic phrases in his story to let the reader know that the chrysanthemums are an extension of Elisa, with a lot of links. Therefore, she doesn’t want her husband come into her garden “He had come near quietly, and he leaned over the wire fence that protected her flower garden from cattle and dogs and chickens.” (Steinbeck p.176) Because she considers her husband Henry like a predator, so she protects her garden/her inner-self from him; she is isolating herself because she doesn’t want to be affected by Henry.
There are subtle actions and emotions that occur when a man and a woman meet casually and coincidentally. In an encounter, the discussions that ensue display in part the relationship and characters of the two parties engaging in a common interest. This essay is going to compare and contrast the characters of two women, Calixta from Chopin’s “The Storm” and Elisa Allena from Steinbeck’s “Chrysanthemums”, who are in different contexts of the stories.
Comparisons
Calixta and Elisa are women who are both young and newly married. These women are very industrious, and each one is specializing in her own work at their respective homes, as Calixta is a fervent tailor while Elisa is a passionate flower gardener. When these women encounter men, they are emotionally attracted to men and are tempted to indulge themselves in extramarital sex.
Incidentally, Elisa encounters a man who mends broken utensils and other homely pieces of equipment. She was scared of him at first sight, but after a lengthy discussion, she empathizes with the lonely caravan life the man was living and his desire to get attracted to beautiful women. Her feeling for him made her breasts to swell up passionately, and was tempted to touch his greasy trouser. On the other hand, Calixta met his former boyfriend, Alcee, whom she has missed since she got married.
The storm provided an opportunity for Alcee to shelter in her house until the storm is over. The opportunity made them remember the sweet moments they had shared before, and they begin to kiss and caress each other. In the end, both women felt lonely and wondered as they stare at the departing men, leaving them lonely.
Contrasts
Elisa and Calixta differ in the kind of work they do. Calixta is a passionate tailor while Elisa is a gifted flower gardener as she grows chrysanthemums flowers that give an attractive bloom in their season. Physically, Calixta has blue eyes, red lips as pomegranate, and yellow hair that charmed Alcee leading him to inevitably kiss and caress her while Elisa has clear eyes like water, a blocked figure, and pretty dark hair that makes Henry, her husband commend her as nice and strong, and also attracting the caravan man.
Another contrast between the two women is the children. Elisa seems to be newly married, as she has no kids to attend to, unlike Calixta, who is busy tailoring, washing, and cooking for her kids. Elisa and Henry are new couples who are still busy enjoying their early marriage life by going to dinner without any worry about the welfare of the kids. Elisa has self-control as she managed to avoid suggestive touch on the greasy trouser of the caravan man, but Calixta lost her self-control because she allowed Alcee to kiss and caress her, yet she is married to another man.
Conclusion
The two stories are trying to depict how promiscuous behavior is propagated in society by both men and women during socialization. The two women in different contexts have proved to have the same extramarital sexual challenges, but they differ in the extent of their self-control. Their physical looks are quite different, but in the eyes of the men, they are just seen as beautiful. The stories portray what really happens in reality when a man encounters a woman or his former girlfriend. What normally ensues is very predictable because human beings are social beings and must socialize to fulfill their emotional needs.
Every writer devotes a lot of pages to describing the setting of the story in detail. An inexperienced reader may think that there is no sense to describe the nature of the buildings in such details and he/she finds it to be quite boring to read so many pages about detailed descriptions of the setting. The role of the setting is very important as far as it helps the writers to present their characters fully and pass the main idea to the reader. Comparing the settings of John Steinbeck’s, The Chrysanthemums with John Updike’s A & P we may point out that although these settings are very different, they play the same role.
John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums is set in California where the writer lives, and he knows this area well to describe it in detail. The scene opens up with the depiction of the Salinas Valley in California with the fog laying over the mountains. The depiction is quite symbolic in this case as far as it gives the reader the feeling of loneliness and isolation. Steinbeck depicts the valley as “a closed pot” and it refers to the strained atmosphere or even it passes to the reader the feeling of isolation (Steinbeck, n.d.). Further on, the reader understands that this depiction of the valley resembles Elisa Allen’s life. She also feels like being in a “closed pot” (Steinbeck, n.d.). Such resemblance between nature and the characters presents the connection between nature and human beings.
Steinbeck uses the setting to present his characters fully. Elise Allen is firstly depicted in her garden. Her care for flowers testifies to the fact that she is a tender and hard-working person. The choice of the garden of chrysanthemums is also symbolic in this work. It is a well-known fact that the chrysanthemum is the flower of death, and it is often connected with a funeral. It is used to represent mourning and grieving. On the other hand, the Americans consider any flower to be the symbol of beauty and happiness. There are countries where flowers are the symbols of innocence and loyalty. All these symbols help to understand the character of Elisa Allen much better. She is doomed to live in routine till her death, but she tries to be happy and keep loyalty to her husband. More than that, she is a beautiful and innocent woman. John Steinbeck uses the setting to present his characters symbolically.
John Updike’s A & P set in an A & P store. It is the grocery store of 1950 (Updike, n.d.). This store is situated in a small town and the boy works as a cashier that is quite a routine and monotonous work. The main character Sammy is firstly presented in the store. The author uses this setting to highlight “the artificial life of his character under the artificial light of the store” (Updike, n.d.). His every new day does not change from the others. The setting of his life does not change as well. Most of the time of Sammy’s life is spent in the store with the same atmosphere, same smells, same colors, same isles, and other boring things. The beauty of the entire world is limited for Sammy to this little store. The colorful world seems to him to be devoid of color. The girls are depicted oppositely. They are from another world, from a real world with millions of colors, smells, and feelings. The setting helps the author to pass to the reader the atmosphere of the store and cheerful and vibrant girls from the outside world. More than that, the setting helps Sammy to understand the value of the beauty of the world. The whole work is based on the setting. John Updike uses the setting to pass the main idea to the reader.
The choice of setting is connected to the main ideas of these works. The place of living as in John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums and the place of working as in John Updike’s A & P influence the main characters and they are presented as their integral parts. The surrounding world of characters says a lot about them and the author presents this world in detail to present their characters fully. An experienced reader who pays a lot of attention to these details understands that the development of events is justified. There is no wonder that Elisa Allen feels as living in a “closed pot” as far as the author has driven at this even at the beginning of the story with the help of the setting. John Updike has chosen the grocery store to depict the boring and monotonous life of his character not by coincidence. This setting fully presents the way of life of his main character.
From the above said we may conclude that the setting plays a very important role in John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums and John Updike’s A & P. The settings in these works are very different as far as John Steinbeck presents the character related to nature while John Updike presents the character as an integral part of the building as the so-called decoration of the building. More than that, the setting presents the general atmospheres of the works namely the atmosphere of solitude and mourning in The Chrysanthemums and artificiality and counterfeit in A & P.
Works Cited
Steinbeck, John. n.d. The Chrysanthemums. Web. 2012.
‘The Chrysanthemum’ is a story by John Steinbeck. It is a story about Elisa Allen, a woman living through pain in the 1930s, isolated from the world both physically and emotionally by virtue of her sex (Renner 305). Stanley Renner, critiquing the story once wrote that “the story shows a strong woman held from social, personal and sexual fulfillment by the general conception/psychology of a woman’s place in a male-dominated world” (Renner 306).
The description of the Salinas Valley; closed off “from the sky and the rest of the world” by “the grey-flannel winter fog,” which “sat on the mountains like a lid” such that it made the valley “a closed pot” (Steinbeck 1) prepares the reader for an encounter with Elisa Allen’s isolation. Because she lives far from town, Elisa hardly interacts with other peoples except for her husband; throughout the story, Elisa’s sexual frustration is reflected in the way that she slips in and out of feminine and masculine characteristics.
But through the chrysanthemum, the symbol for Elisa’s femininity, Elisa becomes aware of her sexuality. Her husband simply refers to them as flowers as a way to put Elisa in her ‘place,’ but when the tinker comes looking for work, and she won’t give it to him, he resorts to describing her chrysanthemum in feminine poetic terms (Renner 315). Through the tinker’s interest in the ‘flowers,’ Elisa becomes content with her sexuality, her femininity, which finally brings her great solace, it appears she loosens up, taking off her hat and shaking her hair.
After this, one hopes that Elisa will now rise to confront her feminity now that she is aware of the power of her own sexuality. Unfortunately, the story ends with Elisa resuming her old psychology, her conscious awareness of the perceived inferiority of her feminine, which is reflected when she can’t face the tinker on his way (with her husband) to town (Budnichuk).
At the start of the story, Elisa Allen is a woman living through both geographical and emotional isolation (sexual hunger, for instance). The physical nature of Salinas Valley,” locked within a fog-capped ring of mountains and placed far away from town,” has locked her from the rest of the world (Owens 225).
Besides her husband, Elisa hardly encounters other people, but within her is a hunger to assert herself in many ways, her sexuality, for instance, in the male-dominated world. Steinbeck’s vivid description of her character within the story setting indicates Elisa’s struggles in her marriage and her hunger to break through them (Budnichuk); thus, she is described to be like a plowed field “waiting to receive rain deeply” (Owens 226).
But Elisa later encounters another man, the tinker; unlike her husband, who sees the chrysanthemum as merely ‘flowers’ and symbols of feminine weakness, the tinker sees them as symbols of feminine beauty and importance. As such, while both men are aware of the softness of the feminine, her husband thinks it represents inferiority and resents it, while the tinker embraces it and encourages Elisa to flaunt it.
As we have seen above, the chrysanthemum symbolizes the feminine; from the perspectives of Elisa’s husband and the tinker’s, we see the two sides of femininity as seen in this society; the husband’s take being the predominant one. By the tinker appreciating the beauty of the chrysanthemum, Elisa falls in love with herself; she embraces her sexuality and also falls in love with the tinker.
At this stage, Elisa decides to shade off her masculinity and takes it as her new chance to win life. But in failing to look at the tinker and the chrysanthemum on her way to town (with her), she returns to her old inferiority with her sexuality. Ultimately, she loses the fight, and as Steinbeck writes, “the farmers were patiently hopeful of good rain soon; unfortunately, fog and rain don’t go together” (Steinbeck 222).
Works Cited
Budnichuk, Monica. “The Chrysanthemums:” Exposing Sexual Tension through Setting and Character.” Universal Journal. 2009. Web.
Owens, Louis. “John Steinbeck’s Re-Vision of American.” Short Story Criticism 11 (1992): 225-32. Print.
Steinbeck, John. “Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama.” Modern Fiction Studies, (1999): 219-27. Print.