Elisa's pride in her ability to grow such beautiful flowers reinforces the fact that the flowers are a replacement for her children. In the second part of the story, the chrysanthemums come to symbolize Elisa's femininity and sexuality. The portrait of Elisa caring for the flowers as though they are her children is clearly a feminine image, but her masculine image is also observed in her "hard-swept and hard-polished" home (240). This image is carried over into her relationship with her husband. Elisa feels that Henry doesn't recognize or appreciate her femininity, and this feeling causes her to be antagonistic towards him.
Janie dreams of real love, something she expects to find in marriage one day. When lying under the pear tree in her grandmother’s garden, she thinks about men and women finding one another. Contemplating the blossoming peer
Janie’s search for love begins with the harmony she finds in nature. While under the pear tree she witnesses the bees’ interaction with the flowers on the pear tree. She sees this as a passionate interaction and longs for this passion in her own life. This starts her need for emotional fulfillment as well as the horizon. Janie sees the horizon as a mystery of the world and she feels the need to connect with it.
The pear tree and its blossoms symbolize all the wonderful things life offers her such as her youth, love for her husband, financial stability as well as her cosmopolitan friends. However, the pear tree never changes but Bertha’s interactions with the Nanny of her son Little B, her husband Harry, and her newfound friend Pearl Fulton provide a depiction of how Bertha experiences a change in her character. Each of these characters contributes to different phases of Bertha’s ongoing transformation. Through three different static characters, Mansfield is able to depict Bertha in the process of changing. Bertha’s relationship with Little B’s Nanny illustrates the initial state of mind of Bertha’s character.
The name of the short story is important as flowers symbolise innocence due to their beauty and delicacy but it can also symbolize death as they are associated with funerals and graves. It is about a young girl named Rosaura who is the daughter of a maid. When her mother’s employer invites Rosaura to her daughter’s birthday party, Rosaura’s mother becomes alarmed. She tries to warn Rosaura of the differences between the rich and the poor but Rosaura brushes it off and replies ‘Rich people go to heaven too.’ We realise that at this point in her life Rosaura has seen no differences between the rich and the poor but her mother has and that is why she is disapproving.’ The word ‘Stolen’ in the title of the poem gives us insight that something will be taken away during the party and we later learn that it is Rosaura’s innocence. The name ‘Rosaura’ is a variant of rose.
The book full of symbolism and hope, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, reveals a story of a young girl, Lily, searching for answers in Tiburon, South Carolina. Throughout the novel Kidd shows the feelings, emotions and personalities of each character. The whale pin, the Our Lady of Chains statue and the bee hive all symbolize something important to the people in the novel, which impact their everyday lives. The bee hive was one of the most symbolic features in this novel because it shows three things. One, the struggle the bees go through after their queen dies.
She would always go over to Abuelitas house and help her with different things such as, planting wild lilies or different types of spices like cilantro (Viramontes 1176). The part that got me to where I knew that the young girl cared for Abuelita as much as Abuelita cared for her was when, at the end when she already knew that Abuelita had died she still cared for her by giving her a wash and just taking the time to be by her side. I felt like the end was really the main part of this story and that’s when I figured out what was the main point behind this whole story. At the end I was able to realize why this story was called “The Moths”. When she was holding Abuelita in the bathtub, she said “I heard you” (Viramontes 1179).
But through deeper examination the story discloses significant symbolism of children, susceptibility and their association with Elisa, the chief protagonist of the story. Elisa is most pompous in the garden and destabilized when she becomes defenseless and loses her association to the external world. Elisa projects a fresh sensation of self-assurance when she makes this link to a peddler, who is yet another cause of her understanding of reality. To amplify the appropriateness of the usage of symbols in the story we can put forward that the chrysanthemums represents Elisa's "children." She nurses her garden and takes care of the chrysanthemums with affection, just like she would nurture her own offspring.
English 1A February 16th, 2012 Response to Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums “The Chrysanthemums,” by John Steinbeck, illustrates the theme of a woman's dissatisfaction with her loveless marriage and a passion for adventures, life, children, equality, sex, and love. we are told a story about Elisa Allen and her flowers. While she is very good at tending her garden, she can’t help but feel something is missing from her life. There is obvious tension between her and her husband Henry. He is off doing work on the farm and making money while Elisa stays home, day after day, growing beautiful chrysanthemums.
She knows that, if she stops growing the flowers, she will eventually give up on those elements the flowers represent for her, her aspirations and her dreams. Moreover, the chrysanthemums symbolize Elisa herself. When the tinker arrives, Elisa is very cold toward him. However, as soon as he mentions the chrysanthemum, her attitude completely changes. From Elisa’s perspective, the man’s acknowledgement of the chrysanthemums symbolize that, for once in her life, someone has finally seen her beauty, and her hard work.