Chrysanthemums

Women are more than emotional! In John Steinbeck’s short story “The Chrysanthemums”, the chrysanthemums represent the soul of every woman. Elisa Allen represents the feminine ideal of equality and its inevitable defeat from a male’s perspective. Together the chrysanthemums and Elisa Allen convey the Woman Rights Movement; just as Elisa Allen lives her limited life that is cut off from all social and sexual pleasure and so did women. Elisa Allen tends to …

…can have wine” (253). Elisa realizes she can’t fight the battle alone and becomes the passive woman society expects of her. John Steinbeck uses Elisa Allen to represent the stereotypical male’s perspective of women. He shows that although women are handy around the house and can be very beautiful, they are too emotional and can not convey life and make decisions like men. If women were to try, they would meet the inevitable defeat.