Chrysanthemums The society of the United States is, and has always been, one that is highly and heavily patriarchal. Males are the gender that is in charge and women are expected and indeed required to accept this as fact. Their gender necessitates submission and dominion by their male counterparts. Women who strive for power in this society are meant to feel as though they are somehow very wrong because they want

Chrysanthemums and Young Goodman Brown Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1835 short story "Young Goodman Brown" and John Steinbeck's 1938 short story "The Chrysantemums" both deal with female purity and with how it can be easily tainted by temptation. Faith, the protagonist's wife in "Young Goodman Brown" is initially shown advising the main character against performing immoralities. Similarly, Elisa, the central character in "The Chrysantemums," is presented in the first part of the story

As Elisa expresses it, "When the night is dark -- why, the stars are sharp-pointed, and there's quiet. Why, you rise up and up! Every pointed star gets driven into your body. It's like that. Hot and sharp and -- lovely" (par. 73). The open night sky, in contrast to the lid of fog that sits on Elisa now, is felt as a release or a joining of energies,

Chrysanthemums John Steinbeck's famed short story, "The Chrysanthemums," was published in Harper's Magazine in 1937. This story is quite vigorously argued to be Steinbeck's best short story, as well as a piece that outshines and does not belong to his remaining body of work. "The Chrysanthemums has been called John Steinbeck's best short fiction, and some rank it with the world's greatest short stories." (Haggstrom, Page 1) He wrote the

In effect, he is throwing her away carelessly, just as he threw the flowers away on the side of the road. Therefore, they represent Elisa herself too, and the wants and dreams that have already died in her own life. She is not a happy person, she has many desires and dreams that are unfulfilled, and her husband really does not recognize that. The chrysanthemums are also a symbol

Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck [...] theme of the story, and how it relates to the story's conflict and outcome. Steinbeck weaves the theme of loneliness and isolation throughout this touching story of a lonely woman and her unfulfilled life. The outcome of the story is as unemotional and removed as Elisa's life is, and so, it is clear her life will go on just as it has, she is