The Chrysanthemums

John Steinbeck was born in 1902 in Salinas, California, the third of four siblings. His father,
John Ernst Steinbeck II, worked as a local government official, and his mother, Olive
Steinbeck, was a teacher. Steinbeck read great literature when he was a young boy, including
novels by Dostoevsky, Hardy, and Flaubert. He studied English at Stanford University off and
on between 1919 and 1925 but never earned his degree. While beginning to write fiction, he
worked to make ends meet as a lab assistant and fruit picker. During World War II, he worked
as a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and later took a trip to Vietnam for the
New York Daily News. In 1930, he married Carol Henning, but their marriage dissolved in 1942.
He quickly remarried and had two sons with his second wife, Gwyndolyn Congor, before they
got divorced in 1949. His third marriage to Elaine Scott in 1950 lasted until his death in 1968.
Steinbeck published his first novel, Cup of Gold, in 1929. The fictionalized story of a
seventeenth-century pirate, Cup of Gold was not a critical or commercial hit. His next novel,
Tortilla Flat (1935), was much more successful, and it was turned into a film starring Spencer
Tracy and Hedy Lamarr in 1942. Steinbeck is famous for his novels of California, so much so
that Salinas, California, is sometimes referred to as Steinbeck Country. One of the best known
of these California novels is Of Mice and Men (1937), the story of two struggling migrant
workers. Director George S. Kaufman worked with Steinbeck to turn the novel into a stage
play, which was a thundering success. Steinbeck never saw the play in person, saying that he
didnt want to compromise the perfection of the production he imagined in his mind. The novel
was made into a film in 1939, the same year that he published his most famous work, The
Grapes of Wrath. Using an innovative narrative structure, The Grapes of Wrath tells the story
of an impoverished family of farmers struggling to survive the Dust Bowl during the Great
Depression. Widely hailed then and today as Steinbecks best novel, The Grapes of Wrath won
the 1940 Pulitzer Prize and was made into a film of the same name later that year.
Much of Steinbecks work is overtly political because he spent time with labor-union leaders,
radicals, leftists, and communists. Still, he was leery of far-left political persuasions,
particularly socialism. The views expressed in Steinbecks writing have offended some people,
including members of his own family. He has been attacked for being both too left-leaning and
not being left-leaning enough. Hes also been criticized for perpetuating stereotypes. The
Grapes of Wrath, for example, has been accused of sentimentalizing the poor, misrepresenting
Oklahoma farmers, and shoving a liberal agenda down readers throats. Nevertheless, Steinbeck
was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1948 and won the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1962. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson awarded Steinbeck the Presidential
Medal of Freedom.
Even Steinbecks detractors concede that his work is suffused with passion, social
consciousness, and sometimes anger. Steinbeck felt a great deal for the downtrodden, working
class, and dregs of society. His short story The Chrysanthemums (1938) also proves that he
had an understanding of the struggles faced by women in his day. Like his novels, Steinbecks
short stories feature realistic dialogue, nerve-racking dramas, and sympathetic examinations of
characters trying to find happiness in the face of poverty and oppression.

It is winter in Salinas Valley, California. The sun is not shining, and fog covers the valley. On
Henry Allens foothill ranch, the hay cutting and storing has been finished, and the orchards are
waiting for rain. Elisa Allen, Henrys wife, is working in her flower garden and sees her
husband speaking with two cigarette-smoking strangers. Elisa is thirty-five years old, attractive
and clear-eyed, although at the moment she is clad in a masculine gardening outfit with mens
shoes and a mans hat. Her apron covers her dress, and gloves cover her hands. As she works
away at her chrysanthemums, she steals occasional glances at the strange men. Her house,
which stands nearby, is very clean.
The strangers get into their Ford coupe and leave. Elisa looks down at the stems of her flowers,
which she has kept entirely free of pests. Henry appears and praises her work. Elisa seems
pleased and proud. Henry says he wishes she would turn her talents to the orchard. She
responds eagerly to this suggestion, but it seems he was only joking. When she asks, he tells
her that the men were from the Western Meat Company and bought thirty of his steers for a
good price. He suggests they go to the town of Salinas for dinner and a movie to celebrate. He
teases her, asking whether shed like to see the fights, and she says she wouldnt.
Henry leaves, and Elisa turns her attention back to her chrysanthemums. A wagon with a canvas
top driven by a large bearded man appears on the road in the distance. A misspelled sign
advertises the mans services as a tinker who repairs pots and pans. The wagon turns into
Elisas yard. Her dogs and the mans dog sniff each other, and the tinker makes a joke about the
ferocity of his animal. When he gets out of the wagon, Elisa sees that he is big and not very old.
He wears a ragged, dirty suit, and his hands are rough. They continue to make small talk, and
Elisa is charmed when the tinker says he simply follows good weather. He asks whether she has
any work for him, and when she repeatedly says no, he whines, saying he hasnt had any
business and is hungry. Then he asks about Elisas chrysanthemums, and her annoyance
vanishes. They discuss the flowers, and the tinker says that he has a customer who wants to
raise chrysanthemums. Excited, Elisa says he can take her some shoots in a pot filled with
damp sand. She takes off her hat and gloves and fills a red pot with soil and the shoots.
Elisa gives the tinker instructions to pass along to the woman. She explains that the most care
is needed when the budding begins. She claims to have planting hands and can feel the flowers
as if shes one with them. She speaks from a kneeling position, growing impassioned. The
tinker says he might know what she means, and Elisa interrupts him to talk about the stars,
which at night are driven into your body and are hot and sharp andlovely. She reaches
out to touch his pant leg, but stops before she does. He says such things are not as nice if you
havent eaten. Sobered, Elisa finds two pans for him to fix.
As the tinker works, she asks him if he sleeps in the wagon. She says she wishes women could
live the kind of life he does. He says it wouldnt be suitable, and she asks how he knows. After
paying him fifty cents, she says that she can do the same work he does. He says his life would
be lonesome and frightening for a woman. Before he leaves, she reminds him to keep the sand
around the chrysanthemums damp. For a moment, he seems to forget that she gave him the
flowers. Elisa watches the wagon trundle away, whispering to herself.
She goes into the house and bathes, scrubbing her skin with pumice until it hurts. Then she

examines her naked body in the mirror, pulling in her stomach and pushing out her chest, then
observing her back. She dresses in new underwear and a dress and does her hair and makeup.
Henry comes home and takes a bath. Elisa sets out his clothes and then goes to sit on the porch.
When Henry emerges, he says that she looks nice, sounding surprised. She asks him what he
means, and he says she looks different, strong and happy. She asks what he means by strong.
Confused, he says that shes playing a game and then explains that she looks like she could
break a calf and eat it. Elisa loses her composure for a moment and then agrees with him.
As they drive along the road toward Salinas, Elisa sees a dark spot up ahead and cant stop
herself from looking at it, sure that its a pile of discarded chrysanthemum shoots that the
tinker has thrown away. Elisa thinks that he could have at least disposed of them off the road,
and then realizes he had to keep the pot. They pass the tinkers wagon, and Elisa doesnt look.
She says she is looking forward to dinner. Henry says she is different again, but then says
kindly that he should take her out more often. She asks whether they can have wine at dinner,
and he says yes. Elisa says she has read that at the fights the men beat each other until their
boxing gloves are soaked with blood. She asks whether women go to the fights, and Henry says
that some do and that hell take her to one if shed like to go. She declines and pulls her coat
collar over her face so that Henry cant see her crying.

Elisa Allen - The protagonist. A robust thirty-five-year-old woman, Elisa lives with her
husband, Henry, on a ranch in the Salinas Valley. Even though Elisa is associated with fertility
and sexuality, the couple has no children. She is a hard worker, her house sparkles, and her
flowers grow tremendous blooms. Nevertheless, Elisa feels trapped, underappreciated, and
frustrated with life.
Read an in-depth analysis of Elisa Allen.
The Tinker - A tall, bearded man who makes his living repairing pots, pans, and other kitchen
utensils. The tinker is a smart person and charming salesman. He is also down on his luck and
not above pleading for work after Elisa initially turns him down. He may share her wanderlust,
or she may only imagine that he does.
Read an in-depth analysis of The Tinker.
Henry Allen - Elisas husband. Henry is a kind man, if slightly dimwitted. He loves his wife
but doesnt really understand and appreciate her. Still, he is an adequate businessman who runs
his ranch successfully and provides a comfortable life for his wife. He seems to love Elisa and
tries his best to please her despite the fact that she mystifies him.
Read an in-depth analysis of Henry Allen.

Elisa Allen
Elisa Allen is an interesting, intelligent, and passionate woman who lives an unsatisfying,
understimulated life. Shes thwarted or ignored at every turn: having a professional career is
not an option for her, she has no children, her interest in the business side of the ranch goes
unnoticed, her offers of helping her husband to ranch are treated with well-meant
condescension, and her wish to see the world is shrugged off as an unfit desire for a woman to
have. As a result, Elisa devotes all of her energy to maintaining her house and garden. The
pride she takes in her housekeeping is both exaggerated and melancholy. Although she rightly
brags about her green thumb, Elisas connection to nature seems forced and not something that
comes as naturally as she claims. She knows a great deal about plants, most likely because as a
woman, gardening is the only thing she has to think about.
Elisa is so frustrated with life that she readily looks to the tinker for stimulating conversation
and even sex, two elements that seem to be lacking in her life. Her physical attraction to the
tinker and her flirtatious, witty conversation with him bring out the best in Elisa, turning her
into something of a poet. Her brief flashes of brilliance in the tinkers presence show us how
much she is always thinking and feeling and how rarely she gets to express herself. When the
prospect of physical and mental fulfillment disappears with the tinker, Elisas devastation
suggests how dissatisfied she is with her marriage. Shes so desperate to transcend the trap of
being a woman that she seeks any escape, trying to banter with her husband, asking for wine
with her dinner, and even expressing interest in the bloody fights that only men usually attend.
None of these will truly satisfy Elisa, though, and it is doubtful that shell ever find fulfillment.
The Tinker
Elisa idealizes the visiting Tinker as exciting and smart, although its difficult to tell whether
he is actually either of these things. Although his misspelled advertisement for kitchen
implement repair indicates that he hasnt had much schooling, the tinker comes across as a
witty man who flirts and banters with Elisa. He is also clever and canny enough to convince the
skeptical Elisa to give him work, begging at first and finally resorting to flattery. His ability to
manipulate her may appeal to Elisa, who is used to manipulating her own husband. In fact, she
seems to relish the chance to spar with a worthy partner, and the tinker produces an intense
reaction in her. If we can trust her interpretation of him, he shares her appreciation for travel
and her interest in a physical connection. However, Steinbeck suggests that although the tinker
may actually possess these qualities, it is also possible that Elisa merely imagines that he
possesses them because shes so desperate to talk to someone who understands her. In fact, the
tinker may be bewildered and embarrassed by her intensity and want only to sell his services to
her. The fact that he tosses away her chrysanthemum shootsa symbol of Elisa herself
supports the idea that the tinker does not share Elisas passions at all.
Henry Allen
Elisas husband, Henry, is a good, solid man whos unable to please his wife. By the standards
of his society, Henry is everything a woman should want in a husband: he provides for her,
treats her with respect, and even takes her out every now and then. At the same time, however,

Henry is also stolid and unimaginative. He praises his wife as he would a small child, without
understanding the genuine interest she takes in business or realizing that she has the potential
to do so much more with her life. A traditional man, Henry functions in the story as a stand-in
for patriarchal society as a whole. He believes that a strict line separates the sexes, that women
like dinner and movies, for example, and that men like fights and ranching. His benevolent,
sometimes dismissive attitude toward his wifewho is undoubtedly smarter highlights
societys inability to treat women as equals.

Themes
The Inequality of Gender

The Chrysanthemums is an understated but pointed critique of a society that has no place for
intelligent women. Elisa is smart, energetic, attractive, and ambitious, but all these attributes
go to waste. Although the two key men in the story are less interesting and talented than she,
their lives are far more fulfilling and busy. Henry is not as intelligent as Elisa, but it is he who
runs the ranch, supports himself and his wife, and makes business deals. All Elisa can do is
watch him from afar as he performs his job. Whatever information she gets about the
management of the ranch comes indirectly from Henry, who speaks only in vague,
condescending terms instead of treating his wife as an equal partner. The tinker seems cleverer
than Henry but doesnt have Elisas spirit, passion, or thirst for adventure. According to Elisa,
he may not even match her skill as a tinker. Nevertheless, it is he who gets to ride about the
country, living an adventurous life that he believes is unfit for women. Steinbeck uses Henry
and the tinker as stand-ins for the paternalism of patriarchal societies in general: just as they
ignore womens potential, so too does society.
The Importance of Sexual Fulfillment

Steinbeck argues that the need for sexual fulfillment is incredibly powerful and that the pursuit
of it can cause people to act in irrational ways. Elisa and Henry have a functional but
passionless marriage and seem to treat each other more as siblings or friends than spouses.
Elisa is a robust woman associated with fertility and sexuality but has no children, hinting at
the nonsexual nature of her relationship with Henry. Despite the fact that her marriage doesnt
meet her needs, Elisa remains a sexual person, a quality that Steinbeck portrays as normal and
desirable. As a result of her frustrated desires, Elisas attraction to the tinker is frighteningly
powerful and uncontrollable. When she speaks to him about looking at the stars at night, for
example, her language is forward, nearly pornographic. She kneels before him in a posture of
sexual submission, reaching out toward him and looking, as the narrator puts it, like a fawning
dog. In essence, she puts herself at the mercy of a complete stranger. The aftermath of Elisas
powerful attraction is perhaps even more damaging than the attraction itself. Her sexuality,
forced to lie dormant for so long, overwhelms her and crushes her spirit after springing to life
so suddenly.
Motifs
Clothing

Elisas clothing changes as her muted, masculine persona becomes more feminine after the
visit from the tinker. When the story begins, Elisa is wearing an androgynous gardening outfit,
complete with heavy shoes, thick gloves, a mans hat, and an apron filled with sharp, phallic
implements. The narrator even describes her body as blocked and heavy. The masculinity of
Elisas clothing and shape reflects her asexual existence. After speaking with the tinker,
however, Elisa begins to feel intellectually and physically stimulated, a change that is reflected
in the removal of her gloves. She also removes her hat, showing her lovely hair. When the
tinker leaves, Elisa undergoes an almost ritualistic transformation. She strips, bathes herself,

examines her naked body in the mirror, and then dresses. She chooses to don fancy
undergarments, a pretty dress, and makeup. These feminine items contrast sharply with her
bulky gardening clothes and reflect the newly energized and sexualized Elisa. At the end of the
story, after Elisa has seen the castoff shoots, she pulls up her coat collar to hide her tears, a
gesture that suggests a move backward into the repressed state in which she has lived most, if
not all, of her adult life.
Symbols
Chrysanthemums

The chrysanthemums symbolize both Elisa and the limited scope of her life. Like Elisa, the
chrysanthemums are lovely, strong, and thriving. Their flowerbed, like Elisas house, is tidy
and scrupulously ordered. Elisa explicitly identifies herself with the flowers, even saying that
she becomes one with the plants when she tends to them. When the tinker notices the
chrysanthemums, Elisa visibly brightens, just as if he had noticed her instead. She offers the
chrysanthemums to him at the same time she offers herself, both of which he ignores and tosses
aside. His rejection of the flowers also mimics the way society has rejected women as nothing
more than mothers and housekeepers. Just like her, the flowers are unobjectionable and also
unimportant: both are merely decorative and add little value to the world.
The Salinas Valley

The Salinas Valley symbolizes Elisas emotional life. The story opens with a lengthy
description of the valley, which Steinbeck likens to a pot topped with a lid made of fog. The
metaphor of the valley as a closed pot suggests that Elisa is trapped inside an airless world
and that her existence has reached a boiling point. We also learn that although there is sunshine
nearby, no light penetrates the valley. Sunshine is often associated with happiness, and the
implication is that while people near her are happy, Elisa is not. It is December, and the
prevailing atmosphere in the valley is chilly and watchful but not yet devoid of hope. This
description of the weather and the general spirits of the inhabitants of the valley applies equally
well to Elisa, who is like a fallow field: quiet but not beaten down or unable to grow. What first
seems to be a lyrical description of a valley in California is revealed to be a rich symbol of
Elisas claustrophobic, unhappy, yet hopeful inner life.

Point of View
Steinbeck displays an extraordinary ability to delve into the complexities of a womans
consciousness. The Chrysanthemums is told in the third person, but the narration is presented
almost entirely from Elisas point of view. After the first few paragraphs that set the scene,
Steinbeck shrugs off omniscience and refuses to stray from Elisas head. This technique allows
him to examine her psyche and show us the world through her eyes. We are put in her shoes and
experience her frustrations and feelings. Because she doesnt know what Henry is discussing
with the men in suits who come to the ranch, we dont know either. Because she sees the tinker
as a handsome man, we do too. Because she watches his lips while he fixes her pots, we watch
them with her. As a result, we understand more about her longings and character by the end of
the story than her husband does.
Steinbecks portrayal of Elisa seems even more remarkable considering that he wrote the story
in 1938, when traditional notions of women and their abilities persisted in America. Many men
unthinkingly accepted the conventional wisdom that working husbands and a decent amount of
money were the only things women needed. Considered in this light, Steinbecks sympathy and
understanding for women are almost shockingly modern. On the face of it, Elisa seems to invite
the disapproval of traditional men: she is overtly sexual, impatient with her husband, and
dissatisfied with her life. Yet Steinbeck never condemns her and instead portrays the waste of
her talent, energy, and ambition as a tragedy. Instead of asking us to judge Elisa harshly, he
invites us to understand why she acts the way she does. As a result, his attitude toward her is
more characteristic of a modern-day feminist than of a mid-twentieth-century male writer.

Narration
The Chrysanthemums is narrated in a restrained, almost removed way that can make
interpreting the story difficult. While the narrator gives us clues as to how to understand the
various events that occur, he rarely identifies a single correct interpretation. For example, when
Henry compliments Elisas strength, her moody reaction may be understood in several ways:
perhaps she is wishing Henry had the tinkers cleverness; perhaps she longs for him to call her
beautiful; or perhaps it is some combination of feelings. All these readings are equally
plausible, and the narrator never points to any single reading as the correct one. Elisas reaction
to Henrys compliment is one example of many, and throughout the story the narrator holds
himself removed from small moments and important incidents alike, inviting us to do the
interpretive work.
Although the narrators refusal to provide one interpretation may make reading more difficult
for us, it is also a useful way of capturing the multifaceted, rich emotions Elisa feels. Steinbeck
doesnt mean to puzzle or frustrate his readers by obscuring Elisas inner sentiments. Rather,
he wants to suggest that no single interpretation can exist because people feel a mix of
emotions at any single moment. If it is unclear whether, for example, the discarded
chrysanthemum shoots make Elisa feel sad, furious, or unloved, thats likely because she feels
all of those things simultaneously. Moreover, the difficulty of interpretation is part of
Steinbecks point. By forcing us to observe Elisa closely and draw our own conclusions about
her behavior, Steinbeck puts us in the position of Henry or any other person in Elisas life who
tries and fails to understand her fully. Indeed, even Elisa herself seems to have difficulty
interpreting her own behavior and has a hard time separating the strands of her own emotions
or understanding why she feels the way she does.

1. The man on the seat called out, Thats a bad dog in a fight when he gets started.
Elisa laughed. I see he is. How soon does he generally get started?
The man caught up her laughter and echoed it heartily. Sometimes not for weeks and
weeks.
Upon first meeting each other, Elisa and the tinker exchange a few friendly words that are
slightly menacing at the same time. Just like his dog, the tinker is an interloper, an unknown
and potentially dangerous person. Indeed, the tinkers rugged appearance and slightly
flirtatious banter stimulates Elisa, who flirts with him in return. The laughter with which he
responds to her question is subtler than it first appears: he may be simply amused, he may
sense an emotional connection between the two of them, or he may be matching her laughter in
the hopes that shell hire him to do some work. This difficulty interpreting the tinkers
reactions persists throughout the story. In fact, it may be the mysteriousness of the tinker that
attracts Elisa to him in the first place.
2. Elisa stood in front of her wire fence watching the slow progress of the caravan. Her
shoulders were straight, her head thrown back, her eyes half closed, so that the scene came
vaguely into them . . . . she whispered, Thats a bright direction. Theres a glowing
there.
As Elisa watches the tinker move off into the distance, she reveals that her interest in him is not
purely physical but also connected to his lifestyle. The tinker wanders wherever he likes, sleeps
under the stars, and answers to no one, all of which captivates Elisa. While the tinker repairs
her pots, she comes close to begging him to take her along with him, touting her pot-mending
and scissor-sharpening skills and saying that she could show him what a woman is capable of.
She is interested in sleeping with the tinker but perhaps even more interested in having
adventures with him. When he turns her down, shooing away her desire with assurances that his
lifestyle is too lonesome and frightening for a woman, Elisa has nothing left to do but watch
him leave. Her stance as she tracks his progress is proud and strong, and her half-closed eyes
hint that shes imagining all the possibilities of such a lifestyle. For Elisa, the bright
direction is the one that would take her away from her own life.

How to Cite This SparkNote

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Their conversation is awkward, especially when she mentions Wickham, a subject Darcy
clearly wishes to avoid (SparkNotes Editors).
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clearly wishes to avoid (SparkNotes Editors, 2007).
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Table of Contents
in-depth analysis of Elisa Allen.
in-depth analysis of The Tinker.
in-depth analysis of Henry Allen.