Steinbeck has given a suitable title to the story, “The Chrysanthemums,” which relates to Elisa as chrysanthemums symbolize both Elisa and the limited scope of her life. Just like her, the flowers are unobjectionable and also unimportant; both are merely decorative and add little value to the world. Elisa is passionate and loving towards her chrysanthemums. She is smart, attractive and ambitious, but all these qualities go waste as she has limitations under which a married women lives. Henry Allen, her husband, clearly ignores her passion and care towards chrysanthemums.
The advertisements can mean a lot of things, and women are often stereotyped by their image roles in society and their image. The Unguentine advertisement for healing gel shows the image of a perfect mother. The mother is holding her son in a protective caring pose. The mother and daughter are light haired, young and good-looking; they are both perfect. The quote in the box said " when you've kissed him to make it better..." could represent that mothers are best to love and care for children.
Hidden Passion’s In John Steinbeck’s short story “The Chrysanthemums” imagery and symbols are used to show the repressed feminine qualities, hidden passion and feelings of inequality in the main character Elisa Allen. Who is a strong, capable woman kept from social, personal and sexual fulfillment . Elisa is a homemaker living in Salinas Valley, California with her farmer husband Henry. Elisa is a lonely woman whose days consist of nourishing and growing “chrysanthemum” flowers in her fenced in garden. Steinbeck uses the “chrysanthemum” flower, the variation of her clothing, the way she interacts with her husband and the tinker as examples of symbolism.
After being suffocated by the images of this absolute world, Mrs. Breedlove strives to acquire the white’s life style. While in her employer’s house, Mrs. Breedlove role plays as the household’s main woman because this is the closest she will get to living this fairytale life. Mrs. Breedlove also shows how little she values her family by “neglect[ing] her house, her children, her man” (127). She demonstrates the strain in her mother-daughter relationship with Pecola by allowing the little white girl she looks after call her Polly. Pecola does not address her mother in this casual manner.
This description symbolizes her strengths when working on her plants. Because gardening is what makes Elisa strong, the Chrysanthemums represent her inner-self. Elisa knows her own strengths, “‘Yes. They’ll be strong this coming year.’ In her tone and on her face there was a little smugness” when she replies to her husband’s remark, “You’ve got a strong new crop coming” (Steinbeck 255); and prides herself with it. The fence that surrounds and protects her garden “from cattle and dogs and chickens” (Steinbeck 55) also describes her strength because it symbolizes a guard which Elisa puts up to protect her from a man bringing her down.
Elisa’s conversation at the beginning of the narrative with Henry demonstrates this internal conflict. Henry jokingly asks Elisa to grow some apples as big as her flowers, she replies “Maybe I could do it, too” (Steinbeck, 398) Because of her response we know she wants a chance to try to help her husband in this way. This shows she is struggling between her current place in the flower garden and with her husband helping him with his work. Henry even belittles her abilities when he says “Well, it sure works with flowers.” (Steinbeck, 398) By this statement Henry implies that her job is with the flowers despite her longing to help him outside of her garden. This is further supported by the fact that despite her confidence in growing things, Elisa never gets a chance to help him in the orchard, nor do they ever bring this up again in future conversations within the narrative.
Sylvia Plath's Child depicts her disappointing emotional statement owing to the world in which her child is being raised, and radically it derives from her instinct and affection as a mother. The poem begins with a cheerful and sincere tone represented by the symbols of beauty, innocence and the wonder of childhood. Stacks of positive metaphors, like" The zoo of the new" "April snowdrop" and "Indian pipe" reinforced the idyllic form of childhood. The positive tones turn negative by the sentence 'Pool in which images should be grand and classical'. Besides, 'wringing of hands' and 'ceiling without a star emphasize her concerns to her child and explicit her disappointment towards this horrible world.
She loves to grow Chrysanthemums. Her husband think Elisa has good hand for planting because, whatever she planted everything was successful that’s why her husband is so proud of her. Elisa is a lonely woman who takes care of the garden like you could say from her point of view is “Cage” she would do anything to protect herself from harmful. In paragraph 11th Stated: “You've got a gift with things," Henry observed. "Some of those yellow chrysanthemums you had this year were ten inches across.
Beatrice is a gentle lady who treats even the poisonous of plants with tenderness. When Giovanni comes along and into Beatrice’s life, she falls in love with him; with a genuine love that has no conditions or demands. With a poisonous touch that Beatrice carried with her, she wouldn’t allow for Giovanni to come close to her for his protection because she loved and cared about him. After Giovanni had spent so much time around Beatrice in the garden, he too, ended up becoming poisonous. After realizing that Giovanni had caught the poison, Baglioni reveals an antidote to become normal again.
I wish women could do such things.” (Steinbeck 231) Elisa wants excitement and adventure in her life; she wants to feel important in the world. Everyday is the same for Elisa, “It was a hard-swept looking little house with hard-polished windows, and a clean mud-mat on the front steps.” (Steinbeck 227) Elisa has the ability to produce beautiful things; she wishes to use that ability on something other than her flowers. “You’ve got a gift with things,” Her husband said about her flowers. “I wish you’d work out in the orchard