Many times, in romantic context, a woman is often said to be as beautiful as the flower. In John Steinbeck's short story "The Chrysanthemums", Elisa Allen never gets this recognition all thought she is in many ways the flowers in the story. She is a strong woman and she is frustrated because her husband will not admire her romantically in any way. She discovers an outlet for her frustration in a flower garden where she cultivates beautiful chrysanthemums. Steinbeck uses these elegant flowers as a symbol to represent the caring, inner-self of Elisa.
Elisa Allen is an isolated woman whose only joy in life comes from growing and caring for her chrysanthemums. Her husband is always working the cattle at the farm; she never has enough attention or affection from him. Steinbeck describes Elisa as follows, “Her face lean and strong…Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man’s black hat pulled lo
When Elisa’s husband got back, he said, “Why – why, Elisa. You look so nice!” With her boost of confidence now, she says “Nice? You think I look nice? What do you mean by ‘nice’?” Elisa obviously takes offense and wonders why she looks just “nice.” In the last critical example of symbolism, Elisa sees her precious chrysanthemum on the ground, but without the pot it was given in. With everything that happened between the stranger and Elisa, this could be explained one word, “used.” She was fooled into giving herself away to someone who showed any interest in her. Her flower symbolizes all this and it is used throughout this story.
She gardened to create her own world that she could live in, to protect herself from anything harmful that may be out there in the real world. Knowing that her husband does not take any interest in her gardening, she gets the idea in her head that he does not have interest in her. When her husband leaves
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