THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS

The Chrysanthemums In The Chrysanthemums J.Steinbeck uses chrysanthemums as metaphors of the innerself of Elisa and of any woman. The chrysanthemums symbolize children of Elisa. She takes care of her garden and handles the chrysanthemums with deep affection and care, just as she would deal with her own children. Elisa is very safety of her flowers and puts a wire fence around them; she makes confident no aphids were there, no sow bugs or snails or cutworms are there. Steinbeck wrote: "Her terrier fingers destroy such pests before the y can get started". These pests symbolize natural danger to the chrysanthemums, and, just as any good mother, she takes away them before they can damage the health of her children. The chrysanthemums are serving as a symbol of her children, and she feels deep pleasure of them. When Elisa's husband commendations her on her flowers, she is glad, and on her face there is a little smugness. Elisa is happy and gratified by her ability to nurture these good-looking flowers. Elisa's pride in her ability to grow such pretty flowers reinforces the fact that the chrysanthemums are a replacement for her children. Also chrysanthemums symbolize Elisas submissiveness and her fiasco to refuse being designated the other person. Because Elisas only work she does on the family farm is her yardwork, her chrysanthemums are valuable to her. She was cutting down the old years chrysanthemums stalks...spreads the leaves. For that reason, when Elisa offers the tinker a couple of her chrysanthemums, she is giving him a piece of herself, the wish that she can come to be less submissive and more a matching partner to her spouse. The tinker throwing away the flowers represents that Elisa misses any possibility at rejecting the other life. When she sees the chrysanthemums on the side of the street, her considerations throw back this casting away of independence. Works Cited

THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS

Steinbeck, John (2008). Chrysanthemums. Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. 4th compact ed. Comp. Edgar V. Roberts. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.