Essay/Term paper: Elisa takes on herself

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Cliff Notes

"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.