Essay/Term paper: Elisa takes on herself
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"The Chrysanthemums" is a short story in The Long Valley, a collection
of short stories by
John Steinbeck. This story dramatizes the efforts made by a housewife, Elisa
Allen, to compensate for
the disappointments which she has encountered in her life. Steinbeck makes
it clear that Elisa yearns for
something more in her life then the everyday routines of farm life. While
Elisa is portrayed as strong, in
the end, her strength serves to be insufficient in having the courage to
effect any real change in her life
since her fragile self-esteem proves to be too susceptible to outside forces.
From the beginning of the short story, Steinbeck emphasizes that Elisa is
a strong, competent
woman who finds her considerable energy channeled into things, such as her
garden, which never give
her the sort of recognition or satisfaction that she craves. For a brief
moment, she senses that she is
capable of much more and feels her own strength only to, once again, have a
man bring down her
efforts, and her self-esteem.
The story opens with Elisa working in her garden. Steinbeck makes a
point of telling the
reader that she is thirty-five. Her age at once implies a woman almost at
her middle-age who may be
reexamining the dreams of her youth as she contemplates the second half of
her life. Steinbeck
emphasizes Elisa"s strength as he writes, "Her face was eager and mature and
handsome" (Steinbeck
279). Her husband, Henry, comes back to the house having just completed the
sell of some cattle. He
is complimentary towards her gardening and comments on her talent. He
suggests that she put her
talent to work in the orchard growing apples, and Elisa considers his offhand
comment seriously,
"Maybe I could do it, too" (280).
Steinbeck has set the stage. Elisa clearly is feeling good about herself
and her
accomplishments in the garden when an itinerate tinker pulls up in his wagon
asking directions. The
tinker has gotten off the main road and is looking for work. He repairs pots
and pans and sharpens
kitchen utensils. At first Elisa is aloof and says she has no work for him,
but warms to the man when he
admires her garden. He mentions that a customer of his wanted to grow
chrysanthemums and asked
him to bring her seeds if he ever got the chance. Elisa is thrilled to have
someone who has shown an
interest in her expertise. She informs the tinker that chrysanthemums are
best grown from seedlings,
after which she arranges some seedlings in a pot of sand for him to take to
his customer.
This changes Elisa whole orientation toward the tinker. She finds him
some of her pots which
need repair and engages him in conversation as she digs up the seedlings. At
this point, Steinbeck"s
narrative takes on sexual overtones as Elisa describes her feelings when she
prunes the chrysanthemum
buds with sure, quick fingers. "They never make a mistake. They"re with
the plant. Do you see? Your
fingers and the plant. You can feel that, right up your arm" (283-284).
It is clear in this passage that Elisa is identifying heavily with the
tinker and that she images
that they share the same feelings toward their individual realms of
expertise. The tinker starts to
comment on what she has just described, but Elisa cuts him off. She is so
certain of what he was going
to say, she feels that she can finish the sentence for him. She describes
his solitary life living in a wagon
in a very fantasized, romantic way that, here again, has sexual overtones.
"Every pointed star gets
driven into your body. It"s like that. Hot and sharp and-lovely" (284).
Kneeling there beside the tinker
in the dirt, Elisa almost reaches out to touch him, but then decides against
it. Steinbeck writes that she
was crouched like a "fawning dog" (284).
This is a very telling line in regards to the characterization of Elisa,
especially since the reader
has not seen a great deal of her relationship with her husband, and what we
have seen has been
remarkably civil, if passionless. Elisa obviously yearns to connect with
someone who can appreciate
where she comes from in an aesthetic sense. She romanticizes the life of the
tinker who earns his trade
based solely on his own talents and images that she would love being able to
earn a living based on her
own skills. For a moment, she feels an intimate connection with the tinker
while she images that they
have shared feelings. The fact that she withdraws from this connection like
a whipped dog indicates
that she has experienced pain from trying to establish such a bond in the
past.
As the tinker prepares to leave, Elisa jokes that he might have some
competition in the future,
that she could show him, "what a woman might do" (284). At this point,
Elisa is feeling strong and
confident in her abilities. After the tinker departs, Elisa prepares to go
out for the evening with her
husband, Henry. Steinbeck makes it clear that the ritual of changing her
clothes also produces a change
in Elisa.
For one thing, Elisa"s bath takes on the ramifications of a ritual
purification ceremony. "She
scrubs herself with a little block of pumice, legs and thighs, loins and
chest and arms, until her skin was
scratched and red" (285). Although the obvious implication is that she is
punishing herself for unclean
sexual thoughts, there is an added layer of meaning in that she, for a
moment, considered stepping
outside the role prescribed by society, because she quickly steps back into
this role. She puts on
makeup and a dress which is the "symbol of her prettiness" (285).
Through this ritual, Elisa has discarded the sensible, practical clothing
of, what is really, her
calling, for the traditional dress of women in a society which places a
reward on youth and sexual
attractiveness. By also mentally stepping back into the passive role that
places a value of the opinions
of men, she makes herself vulnerable to those opinions.
Her increased vulnerability shows in her conversation with Henry when he
compliments her on
her appearance. She asks him exactly what he means, "Nice? You think I look
nice? What do you mean
by "nice" ?" (286). Poor, confused Henry isn"t sure what to answer. He
blunders on by saying "I don"t
know. I mean you look different, strong and happy" (286).
As they drive into town, Elisa sees where the tinker has carelessly
thrown her wonderful
chrysanthemum seedlings, which she so careful dug, into the road. She
notices, "he had to keep the pot.
That"s why he couldn"t get them off the road" (286). The tinker"s interest
in her garden was all a
pretense to incline her more favorably toward him so he could obtain work.
Her imaged sharing of
feelings was strictly in her own imagination and had no basis in reality.
Elisa sees all this quite plainly
and is hurt by it.
She makes one more stab at independence and showing her strength. For a
moment, she
shows an interest in going to the fights instead of the movies where she can
watch men punish each
other till the gloves become "soggy with blood" (287). However, she quickly
drops this plan for the
more mundane thrill having wine with their dinner. "It will be enough if we
can have wine" (287). With
this comment, she pulls up her coat collar and begins to cry "weakly-like an
old woman" (287).
To have her illusions crushed so quickly and thoroughly has robbed Elisa
of her feelings of
strength and independence. Although she obviously longs for more control of
her life, for meaningful
work that uses her talents and capabilities, it is obvious that Elisa will
never assert herself enough to
obtain these things.
Elisa would love to go against the restrictions imposed against women
during this time in the
1930s. Although there is nothing wrong with Henry, he obviously doesn"t
connect with her on the sort
of intimate level that would fulfill Elisa"s longings. The garden seems to
also symbolize an aesthetic
side to Elisa"s nature which yearns for expression.
For a moment, she feels she touched on such a shared intimacy with the
tinker and it is easy to
see why she could have been so easily mistaken because the tinker does imply
that he also has that sort
of aesthetic sensibility when he describes the chrysanthemums which will
bloom later in the summer,
"Kind of a long-stemmed flower? Looks like a quick puff of colored smoke?"
(282).
When the tinker casts her plants aside, it is almost as if he cast aside
Elisa"s dreams as well.
It"s not just this brief episode that makes Elisa"s cry, but what is really
upsetting her is the thought of a
future where she feels unfulfilled and unchallenged.
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