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Chrysanthemum by John Steinbeck
Biography
John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. It was no surprise
that majority of the setting among his famous works were set in or around that area. Though his
beginning as a writer received little or no recognition, his latter years brought forth much
appreciation from the masses. As Charles J. Shindo notes, “The realism of his writing, along
with the intensity of his belief in the transformative power of literature, has helped develop an
American literary style, which influenced the protest writings, both literary and musical, of the
late 1950s and 1960s”(523).
Early Work
His earlier unsuccessful works such as Cup of Gold (1929) and Pastures to Heaven
(1932) received unsatisfactory remarks from critics of his day. It was not until he returned to
Salinas that he produced critically acclaimed works, drawing inspiration from the rural
surroundings and cementing his name as a “leading exponent of the proletarian novel and a
prominent spokesman for the victims of the” 1930s. (Encyclopedia of World Biography 416).
Carol Henning, his first wife, aided him in making the Great Depression as a focal point of his
writing. He wrote about the escapades of a group of Mexican-Americans in Monterey (Salinas
area) in Tortilla Flat, garnering notoriety and wealth along the way. A year after, he wrote In
Dubious Battle, detailing the accomplishments of migrant fruit pickers during their strike. He
followed with Of Mice and Men a year later, writing an unfortunate story about a couple of ranch
hands and their peculiar friendship. It was not until a book about an Oklahoma family who migrates to California in the midst of the Dust Bowl that Steinbeck truly made a name for
himself. The Grapes of Wrath became a classic overnight.
Steinbeck remained true to his surroundings in most of his works. He incorporated much
of what he saw and much of what he experienced in his writings. The breathtaking landscapes
and scenic spots played vital functions to his characters who are times at odds with the setting
and other times played harmoniously with, exposing them bare so as to see the complexity of the
true human form. It is certainly the case in his work, “Chrysanthemum”, part of a short-story
collection, The Long Valley, that came out in 1938. This story is not unlike any of Steinbeck’s
novels or short-stories regarding its stance on marriage. He often times depict it as an unhappy
one filled with missed opportunities, coldness, sense of alienation and at times filled with
introspection and deep ponder about many what-could-have-beens.
Plot
The protagonist in “Chrysanthemums” is Elisa Allen. Her husband is Henry. And though
Elisa truly cares for him, time spent together along with the geographical location of their
residence has left her stagnant and unfulfilled. Often times the only available task at hand is to
tend to her flower garden. One morning as she routinely tends to her flowers and trees, a man not
from around Salinas drove by offering his services. Apparently he sharpens scissors and repairs
pots for a living, driving around with his dog. The prospect of making a customer out of Elisa
Allen was a tough sell. But like any good salesmen, the strange man was able to maneuver and
manipulate his way into gaining Elisa’s attention through her flowers. He even made a bold lie
just to make a sale, saying that the ranch across the same road Elisa and her husband reside in
also had a flower garden but with no chrysanthemum in site. Coming from the salesman, the
lady of the house told him, “If you ever run acrost some nice chrysanthemums I wish you’d try
to get me a few seeds.”(DiYanni 463). Afterwards Elisa felt compelled to give the “kind” traveling
salesman odd jobs (i.e. two old aluminum sauce pan) and getting money from his service. Before
finishing, she gave him chrysanthemum seed to give to the lady across the road, excited at the
prospect of somewhat reaching out to the outside world apart from the house, the land, and her
flower garden. But in the afternoon, as she and her husband went out for a nice night out, along
the road she sees the Chrysanthemum seeds scattered on the road as it was dumped there. She
knew then that the salesman bamboozled his way into taking money from her. And vividly her
character was left exposed to how empty and unsatisfying life she was leading.
Characters
Though there are three characters in this short story, undoubtedly the character that is in
focus is Elisa Allen. Her relationship with her husband is not of an antagonistic one. In fact she
does care for him greatly. It is just the matter of how secluded their lives are. Her husband feels
his day in the ranch as she fills her time with tedious tasks inside their cozy house and with her
flower garden. She feels quite satisfied with her life up until the travelling salesman comes
along, detailing his life on the road. This elicits many images in Elisa’s mind that maybe, just
maybe, there is a bigger world out there. That there are better things to occupy her time with.
That there are things to do out there that are more productive and more life-altering. She was
excited at the prospect of giving the lady across the road some of her chrysanthemum seeds as to
conjure up some type of connection out of the ranch and out of the secluded world that she lives
in.
Setting
Equally as significant as the chrysanthemums, the Salinas Valley depicted in the text,
plays an integral part in dissecting Elisa Allen’s psyche. There is somewhat of a parallel or a
symbiotic relationship between the two that explains why or how Elisa’s life became what it
was. “The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from
the rest of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley
a closed pot.” (DiYanni 459). This immediately paints a picture of seclusion and isolation that
mirrors Elisa’s true being. Leading a monotonous domestic lifestyle, as a housewife, the
geography of where Elisa resides, became what defined her. Tied down to her life and garden, it
became the true essence of the unfulfilled life she unnoticeably led. Steinbeck beautifully
described and flowered details in this work not to the extreme case of being bleak but as a n
incomplete, half-full, gray picture. The Salinas Valley contained “the yellow stubble fields and
seemed to be bathed in the pale cold sunshine, but there was no sunshine in the valley now in
December”. (459). Nothing could be further on the dot mirroring the portrayal of Elisa than this
description. Her life became cold and empty as the marriage grew increasingly routine, leaving
her once sun-bathed self in utter stagnation.
Elisa unraveled towards the end of the story, realizing that years of her life, she was in
fact “strong” and that she “...never knew before how strong” she was. Regrets raced inside her.
The travelling salesman opened her eyes to the opportunities missed and how her life would
have been if in fact she chose to go a different path.
Symbols and Themes
Though short, this story is packed with many hidden meanings among the meticulously
chosen words. The description of the Salinas Valley in the beginning of the story hinted an
ominous outcome, or simply a bleak picture. Steinbeck chose the month of December as the time
of the story. December expresses bitter coldness, emptiness and depletedness among the many
that somehow translates to the depiction of Elisa’s life. The overwhelming theme of this short is
the incomplete life, the limitation of the life of a married woman. Of course Steinbeck magnifies
this greatly by setting it in a ranch that is remote to say the least, far enough for Elisa to
remain domesticated and not out in the world. Elisa is clearly cut off from the rest of the world as
described by Steinbeck of Salinas Valley’s fog that descended upon it as a “closed pot”.(459).
This is not unlike imprisonment, though voluntary. It’s not only the entire valley that encloses
Elisa but also their house itself. “Behind her stood the neat white farm house with red geraniums
close-banked around it as high as the windows.” Being inside the house, hardly anything could
be seen from the outside with plants growing high enough to block anything to be seen from the
inside further enclosing Elisa, limiting her.
Also, it is worth noting the sexual connotation the chrysanthemum itself plays in the
story. The flower symbolizes the sexual prowess or being Elisa possess. And the traveling
salesman wanted it. Later, when Elisa found the seeds on the side of the road, she realized how
quickly the salesman “deflowered” her, making her extremely sad in the process.
References
1. Steinbeck, John. "Chrysanthemum." Literature:Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, 2nd Edition. Ed. Robert DiYanni. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
2. Reisel Gladstein, Mimi. The Dramatic Landscape of Steinbeck's Short Stories by John H. Timmerman. American Literature Vol. 63, No.3 (Sept, 1991): 558-560. JSTOR. <http://www.jstor.org>
3. Steinbeck, John (1902-1968). Encyclopedia of World Biography. Ed. Paula K. Byers. Vol. 14 2nd Ed: 416-417. Detroit:Gale, 1998. Gale Virtual Reference. <http://galegroup.com>
4. Steinbeck, John (1902-1968). Charles J. Shindo. St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Eds. Sarah Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 4:522-523 Detroit: St.James Press 2000. Gale Virtual Reference. <http://www.galegroup.com>