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Chrysanthemum by John Steinbeck

Biography John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. It was no surprise

that majority of the setting among his famous works were set in or around that area. Though his

beginning as a writer received little or no recognition, his latter years brought forth much

appreciation from the masses. As Charles J. Shindo notes, “The realism of his writing, along

with the intensity of his belief in the transformative power of literature, has helped develop an

American literary style, which influenced the protest writings, both literary and musical, of the

late 1950s and 1960s”(523).

Early Work

His earlier unsuccessful works such as Cup of Gold (1929) and Pastures to Heaven

(1932) received unsatisfactory remarks from critics of his day. It was not until he returned to

Salinas that he produced critically acclaimed works, drawing inspiration from the rural

surroundings and cementing his name as a “leading exponent of the proletarian novel and a

prominent spokesman for the victims of the” 1930s. (Encyclopedia of World Biography 416).

Carol Henning, his first wife, aided him in making the Great Depression as a focal point of his

writing. He wrote about the escapades of a group of Mexican-Americans in Monterey (Salinas

area) in Tortilla Flat, garnering notoriety and wealth along the way. A year after, he wrote In

Dubious Battle, detailing the accomplishments of migrant fruit pickers during their strike. He

followed with Of Mice and Men a year later, writing an unfortunate story about a couple of ranch

hands and their peculiar friendship. It was not until a book about an Oklahoma family who migrates to California in the midst of the Dust Bowl that Steinbeck truly made a name for

himself. The Grapes of Wrath became a classic overnight.

Steinbeck remained true to his surroundings in most of his works. He incorporated much

of what he saw and much of what he experienced in his writings. The breathtaking landscapes

and scenic spots played vital functions to his characters who are times at odds with the setting

and other times played harmoniously with, exposing them bare so as to see the complexity of the

true human form. It is certainly the case in his work, “Chrysanthemum”, part of a short-story

collection, The Long Valley, that came out in 1938. This story is not unlike any of Steinbeck’s

novels or short-stories regarding its stance on marriage. He often times depict it as an unhappy

one filled with missed opportunities, coldness, sense of alienation and at times filled with

introspection and deep ponder about many what-could-have-beens.

Plot

The protagonist in “Chrysanthemums” is Elisa Allen. Her husband is Henry. And though

Elisa truly cares for him, time spent together along with the geographical location of their

residence has left her stagnant and unfulfilled. Often times the only available task at hand is to

tend to her flower garden. One morning as she routinely tends to her flowers and trees, a man not

from around Salinas drove by offering his services. Apparently he sharpens scissors and repairs

pots for a living, driving around with his dog. The prospect of making a customer out of Elisa

Allen was a tough sell. But like any good salesmen, the strange man was able to maneuver and

manipulate his way into gaining Elisa’s attention through her flowers. He even made a bold lie

just to make a sale, saying that the ranch across the same road Elisa and her husband reside in also had a flower garden but with no chrysanthemum in site. Coming from the salesman, the

lady of the house told him, “If you ever run acrost some nice chrysanthemums I wish you’d try

to get me a few seeds.”(DiYanni 463). Afterwards Elisa felt compelled to give the “kind” traveling

salesman odd jobs (i.e. two old aluminum sauce pan) and getting money from his service. Before

finishing, she gave him chrysanthemum seed to give to the lady across the road, excited at the

prospect of somewhat reaching out to the outside world apart from the house, the land, and her

flower garden. But in the afternoon, as she and her husband went out for a nice night out, along

the road she sees the Chrysanthemum seeds scattered on the road as it was dumped there. She

knew then that the salesman bamboozled his way into taking money from her. And vividly her

character was left exposed to how empty and unsatisfying life she was leading.

Characters Though there are three characters in this short story, undoubtedly the character that is in

focus is Elisa Allen. Her relationship with her husband is not of an antagonistic one. In fact she

does care for him greatly. It is just the matter of how secluded their lives are. Her husband feels

his day in the ranch as she fills her time with tedious tasks inside their cozy house and with her

flower garden. She feels quite satisfied with her life up until the travelling salesman comes

along, detailing his life on the road. This elicits many images in Elisa’s mind that maybe, just

maybe, there is a bigger world out there. That there are better things to occupy her time with.

That there are things to do out there that are more productive and more life-altering. She was

excited at the prospect of giving the lady across the road some of her chrysanthemum seeds as to

conjure up some type of connection out of the ranch and out of the secluded world that she lives

in. Setting

Equally as significant as the chrysanthemums, the Salinas Valley depicted in the text,

plays an integral part in dissecting Elisa Allen’s psyche. There is somewhat of a parallel or a

symbiotic relationship between the two that explains why or how Elisa’s life became what it

was. “The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from

the rest of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley

a closed pot.” (DiYanni 459). This immediately paints a picture of seclusion and isolation that

mirrors Elisa’s true being. Leading a monotonous domestic lifestyle, as a housewife, the

geography of where Elisa resides, became what defined her. Tied down to her life and garden, it

became the true essence of the unfulfilled life she unnoticeably led. Steinbeck beautifully

described and flowered details in this work not to the extreme case of being bleak but as a n

incomplete, half-full, gray picture. The Salinas Valley contained “the yellow stubble fields and

seemed to be bathed in the pale cold sunshine, but there was no sunshine in the valley now in

December”. (459). Nothing could be further on the dot mirroring the portrayal of Elisa than this

description. Her life became cold and empty as the marriage grew increasingly routine, leaving

her once sun-bathed self in utter stagnation.

Elisa unraveled towards the end of the story, realizing that years of her life, she was in

fact “strong” and that she “...never knew before how strong” she was. Regrets raced inside her.

The travelling salesman opened her eyes to the opportunities missed and how her life would

have been if in fact she chose to go a different path.

Symbols and Themes Though short, this story is packed with many hidden meanings among the meticulously

chosen words. The description of the Salinas Valley in the beginning of the story hinted an

ominous outcome, or simply a bleak picture. Steinbeck chose the month of December as the time

of the story. December expresses bitter coldness, emptiness and depletedness among the many

that somehow translates to the depiction of Elisa’s life. The overwhelming theme of this short is

the incomplete life, the limitation of the life of a married woman. Of course Steinbeck magnifies

this greatly by setting it in a ranch that is remote to say the least, far enough for Elisa to

remain domesticated and not out in the world. Elisa is clearly cut off from the rest of the world as

described by Steinbeck of Salinas Valley’s fog that descended upon it as a “closed pot”.(459).

This is not unlike imprisonment, though voluntary. It’s not only the entire valley that encloses

Elisa but also their house itself. “Behind her stood the neat white farm house with red geraniums

close-banked around it as high as the windows.” Being inside the house, hardly anything could

be seen from the outside with plants growing high enough to block anything to be seen from the

inside further enclosing Elisa, limiting her. Also, it is worth noting the sexual connotation the chrysanthemum itself plays in the

story. The flower symbolizes the sexual prowess or being Elisa possess. And the traveling

salesman wanted it. Later, when Elisa found the seeds on the side of the road, she realized how

quickly the salesman “deflowered” her, making her extremely sad in the process.

References

1. Steinbeck, John. "Chrysanthemum." Literature:Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, 2nd Edition. Ed. Robert DiYanni. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.

2. Reisel Gladstein, Mimi. The Dramatic Landscape of Steinbeck's Short Stories by John H. Timmerman. American Literature Vol. 63, No.3 (Sept, 1991): 558-560. JSTOR. 

3. Steinbeck, John (1902-1968). Encyclopedia of World Biography. Ed. Paula K. Byers. Vol. 14 2nd Ed: 416-417. Detroit:Gale, 1998. Gale Virtual Reference. 

4. Steinbeck, John (1902-1968). Charles J. Shindo. St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Eds. Sarah Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 4:522-523 Detroit: St.James Press 2000. Gale Virtual Reference. 