53 pages • 1 hour read
John SteinbeckThe Chrysanthemums
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1937A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
The Chrysanthemums
In literature, flowers often represent youth, beauty, and pleasure. This is certainly true for Elisa. Chrysanthemums are thick-stemmed, large flowers that bloom in many jewel-like colors. Like the chrysanthemum stems that she is energetically trimming when the story opens, Elisa is tough. Steinbeck even describes her face as “lean and strong” and “handsome” (1). However, the blooms of chrysanthemum flowers are delicate and beautiful, representing Elisa’s feminine attributes and desires.
Elisa views the chrysanthemums as an extension of herself. When the Tinker notices the flowers and asks about them, Elisa becomes almost giddy with excitement. In her mind, the Tinker was noticing her, including her youth and beauty. Her offer to give the Tinker the chrysanthemum stalks is, in essence, an offer of herself. She is thrilled to be sharing herself, both symbolically by giving him the flowers and literally by speaking so openly. Like the flowers, she seems dormant, waiting for gentle attention to help her take root and grow.
Elisa feels she has found someone who will give her attention and notices her. The passage in which Elisa almost touches the Tinker is the closest the reader gets to seeing Elisa “bloom.” Her bloom is short-lived, however. Not long after, Elisa sees the chrysanthemum shoots she gave the Tinker lying discarded in the road. She is deeply wounded. By throwing away the flowers, the Tinker has symbolically rejected Elisa. He instead kept the flowerpot she gave him.
Pots
Steinbeck mentions pots throughout the story. First, the narrator describes the fog that settles over Salinas Valley “like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot” (1). Next, a tinker comes along who fixes pots and pans. Elisa gives him two pots to fix as well as one of her flowerpots to keep the chrysanthemum stalks in.
Pots are containers. They keep things in their proper place. Symbolically, Salinas Valley is the pot that contains Elisa, while the flowerpot given to the Tinker contains the chrysanthemums. In both instances, an external force is in control. Elisa is controlled by a patriarchal society, while the chrysanthemums are controlled by the Tinker. At the end of the story, the Tinker discards the chrysanthemums but keeps the pot. Symbolically, the Tinker rejected Elisa but kept the ideologies that repress her. Elisa remains unfulfilled while the Tinker, as a man, has greater control over his life.
Clothing and Femininity
Elisa’s clothing reflects both her masculine and feminine sides. When Steinbeck first introduces her, Elisa is wearing a man’s hat, heavy shoes, thick leather gloves, and a large corduroy apron full of sharp gardening tools. Her clothing represents her more masculine attributes. It draws attention to her strength and energy, showing the reader that Elisa is intelligent, tough, and willing to work hard.
As the story progresses, Elisa removes layers of her gardening costume, revealing her more feminine nature as she goes. While she’s first talking to the Tinker, Elisa pulls off the leather gloves and fixes her hair under the large hat. After the Tinker compliments her flowers, Elisa takes the hat off entirely and shakes out her hair. As she spends time with the Tinker, she begins to embrace her femininity and flirts with the man.
After the Tinker leaves, Elisa takes off her clothes entirely and bathes, paying close attention to her body. When she dresses for the date with her husband, she emphasizes her femininity, putting on new undergarments and nice stockings and doing her hair and makeup. Her clothing reveals how she is feeling about herself, and which side of her nature she is currently embracing. While wearing the heavy layers of the gardening costume, Elisa feels and acts strong. By the end of the story, when she is wearing her nice clothes and makeup, Elisa describes herself as weak.
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