pigeons-erpc
The Chrysanthemums
is the work
by John Steinbeck who is an American author
of
twenty-seven
books,
including
sixteen
novels,
six
non-fiction
books,
and
five
collections
of
short
stories.
He
is
widely
known
for
the
Pulitzer
Prize-winning
novel
The Grapes of Wrath
(1939),
East of Eden
(1952) and the
novella
Of Mice and
Men
(1937).
Steinbeck
received
the Nobel
Prize
for
Literature in
1962
his
realistic and imaginative writings,
combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen
social
perception
In
his
work,
he
wrote
about
poor
and
sad
people,
and
he
also
showed
his sympathy for these people whose life is in low
level.
The Chrysanthemums is a short
story from his collection
The Long
Valley
first
published
in
1938.
It
was
set
in
John
Steinbeck
’
s
hometown,
the
Salina
’
s
valley
in
California. It is a story about a poor
woman called Elisa Allen who was suppressed by
the life for a long time. Elisa Allen
and her husband Henry live peacefully on their
farm. When Elisa is busy with her
chrysanthemums in the garden, a tinker passes by
and
asks
for
work .She
refused
directly.
Later
when
the
man
enquires
about
her
chrysanthemums and asks
for some “seeds” to bring to“a
lady”, Elisa gets emotional
and
finds
him
two
pots
to
mend.
The
tinker
drives
away
with
fifty
cents
and
the
cuttings.
When
riding
on
the
road
with
her
husband,
Elisa
sees
the
chrysanthemum
shoots she
sent to the
And the main characters in
the novel are concluded as following.
Elisa Allen
A
passionate woman who leads an unsatisfying life.
As a result, she devotes all
of her
energy to maintaining her house and garden. Elisa
is so frustrated with life that
she
readily looks for stimulating conversation and
even sex.
The Tinker
He is
clever
and canny
enough to
convince the
skeptical
Elisa to
give him
work, begging at first and finally
resorting to flattery. In fact, he is just a con
man.
Henry Allen
Elisa’
s husband, Henry, is
everything a woman should want in a husband by
the
standards
of
his
society.
He
provides
for
her,
treats
her
with
respect.
However,
Henry is also stolid and unimaginative.
Henry functions in the story as a stand-in for
patriarchal society as a whole. He
believes that a strict line separates the sexes.
And the theme of this
passage is the critique of the society for there
is no place
for intelligent women to
realize their values. Elisa is smart and
energetic, but she is
limited by her
sex. By the contrast, her husband, Henry is not
smart as her, but he runs
the ranch to
support the family. Steinbeck uses Henry and the
tinker as stand-ins for
the
paternalism
of
patriarchal
societies
in
general:
just
as
they
ignore
women’s
potential, so too
does society. It is an inequality of
gender.
Besides, John
Steinbeck uses many symbols in this passage.
1. At the beginning, the Salinas Valley
symbolizes
Elisa’s emotional life. The
story
opens
with
a
lengthy
description
of
the
valley.
The
valley
was
closed
of
the
high-
flannel gray fog of winter. This symbolized that
Elisa
’
s life was suppressed
buy
the in equality of the gender. She
can not realize her intelligence just like the
valley
can not show its beauty because
of the annoyed high-flannel gray fog of winter.
2.
The
chrysanthemums symbolize both Elisa and the
limited scope of her life.