Dubuisson

Claudelle Dubuisson
Professor B.Winchell 1
English 102
Feb. 11 2009
“The Chrysanthemums”

The 1930’s was a very fashionable era for women, their “…outfits began to hug the body

and ripple with its movements” (The A. & L...). Elisa the main character in “The

Chrysanthemums” overlooks this fashion fad, “her figure looked blocked and heavy in her

gardening costume, a man’s black hat, [and] clod-hopper shoes” (Steinbeck 1). Elisa is a thirty-

five year old with a lean and strong face (Steinbeck 1). When it came to gardening Elisa wasn’t

afraid to get dirty. She has such a strong enthusiasm for gardening that a “smudge of earth on her

cheek” physically showed the passion on her face (Steinbeck 2). Her garden reflects who she is;

A strong woman with limitations. There is far more to Elisa than just a woman with a green

thumb but the men around her fail to recognize that.

Elisa is a strong but not your ordinary woman. Steinbeck stresses how strong she is

throughout the story. For example she is introduced to the readers as a woman with a “strong and

lean” face (Steinbeck 1). Steinbeck portrays Elisa as a masculine woman. She isn’t dressed

femininely which is signified from the description of her gardening outfit that takes away her

womanly figure. Taken that Elisa is not your ordinary woman, it would have been lady like of

Elisa to keep her gloves on while working in the garden but instead, “she took off a glove and

put her strong fingers down into the forest of new green chrysanthemum sprouts” (Steinbeck 2).

This also illustrates how Elisa is merged with the earth suggesting that she is not just gardening,

she is her garden.

Elisa’s garden is symbolically a reflection of herself. She has a garden of yellow and

white Chrysanthemums and around her house are red geraniums. There is a “wire[d] fence that
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protected her flower garden from cattle and dogs and chickens” (Steinbeck 2). The wired fence
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symbolically implies that Elisa has a fence built up around herself so that nothing can hurt her.

“Her terrier fingers destroyed such pests before they could get started”, this illustrates how Elisa

defends her garden (which also is herself). Another example of Elisa defending her garden is

when the man from the wagon tells Elisa that the Chrysanthemums smelt nasty she replied “it’s a

good bitter smell … not nasty at all” (Steinbeck 5-6).

The chrysanthemum’s that she grows in her garden is a flower made up of many “florets

(a small flower, usually part of a dense cluster)” (NCS). It could represent how Elisa is one

person who has different parts to her that make up her personality. However, Elisa is limited just

like her garden. This ties in with wired fence because she only has that limited amount of space

for her garden and the rest of the farm belongs to her husband Henry. Elisa has her pest proof

amour on, but the man with the wagon manages to make his way through her fence.

Elisa is taken advantage of by the man with the wagon. The man with the wagon finds

Elisa’s weak spot which is her passion for gardening. He pretends to take interest in her

chrysanthemums. For example, “While the man came through the picket fence Elisa ran

excitedly along the geranium-bordered path to the back of the house. And returned carrying a big

red flower pot”, the man coming through her fence symbolizes how the man from the wagon got

through Elisa’s barrier (Steinbeck 6). It also showed how excited she was to share her passion

with somebody else. In the end the man with the wagon didn’t care for her garden. He ends up

throwing the flowers on the road. This passage shows how hurt Elisa was, when she discovered

“She whispered to herself sadly, ‘He might have thrown them off the road. That wouldn’t have

been much trouble, not very much. But he kept the pot…’”.
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“The Chrysanthemums” takes place in Salinas, California. The same place John
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Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 (Steinbeck 2). The time setting of the story is in

1930’s. During this time frame the United States had been greatly affected by the Great

Depression (1 Sutton). Many people migrated to California in search of a better life. What made

California a target was because of its rich soil. Steinbeck was one of the major writers who wrote

on what was happening in the country during the Great Depression.

Works Cited
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"FASHION IN THE 1930s.” The A. & L. Tirocchi Dressmakers Project. The A. & L. Tirocchi

Dressmakers Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. <http://tirocchi.stg.brown.edu>

Sutton, Bettye. "American Cultural History." Kingwood College Library.Web. June/30/05. 17

Feb 2010. <http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade30.html>

"NCS - History of the Chrysanthemum." National Chrysanthemum Society. N.p., 7 Oct. 2003.

Web. 12 Feb. 2010.

<http://www.mums.org/journal/articles/chrysanthemum_history.htm>.

Steinbeck, John. The Chrysanthemums. The Long Valle. London: Penguin, 1938. Print

Steinbeck, John, and Steinbeck, Elaine. and Wallsten, Robert. Steinbeck : a life in letters /

edited by Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten Viking Press, New York : 1975