The Chrysanthemums is a brilliant short story written by the most prominent writer of the Literary Naturalism movement, John Steinbeck. The writer brilliantly depicts the involvement of environment and stresses the necessity of social connections.
The major symbols of the story are the beautiful, decorated flowers the chrysanthemums, which are closely connected with the protagonist Elisa Allen, in both a spiritual and physical way. At the beginning of the story the woman wore a filthy garden outfit , which was described almost in the end of the story : “Elisa turned and ran hurridly into the house. In the bathroom she tore off her soiled clothes, flung them in the corner” ( Kennedy and Gioia, 242 ). The motif of changing clothes clearly indentifies the transition from the ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. While the chrysanthemums, symbolized all the traits of Elisa, her beauty, power and intellect but they existed only at that garden and were limited as her scope of life. In addition, the author describes the garden pots as full of bright colors: “ a big red flower pot” or “ bright new flower pot” so vivid and naturalistic colors and amplifies that her life in comparison to these flower pots is colorless, deprived of vitally important happiness.
What is more, Elisa’s attitude changes when she meets the tinker. She notices him not only as a tinker but also as a man. She feels admiration, and claims that: “I’ve never lived as you do, but I do know what you mean ( Kennedy and Gioia, 241 ). She clearly experiences something new, something she has never felt before and the author reports it with the words: “Elisa stood in front of her wire fence watching the slow progress of the caravan. “Goodbye, good-bye.” Along the river, the thick willow scrub flamed with sharp and positive yellow leaves” ( Kennedy and Gioia, 242). The yellow is the color of parting, and the author uses it as a symbol to stress that their conversation is not more than a flirt and she must not hope that it will mean something to him.
All things considered, this amazing story can be analyzed eternally, as there are a lot of other things which other individuals may notice and understand differently. But, to my mind the main idea which was rendered and accented by the author wasthe gender inequality and obliteration of women’s potential by the society.
References
Campbell, D. M. (2013) . Naturalism in American Literature. Retrieved from
http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/natural.htm
Kennedy, X.J. and Gioia D. Literature. An Introduction to Fiction, Drama and Writing.
Thirteenth edition. New York: Pearson.
Panesar,G. ( n. d.). John Steinbeck, Frank Norris, and Literary Naturalism. Retrieved from
http://salempress.com/store/pdfs/steinbeck_critical_insights.pdf
