Literray Analysis of John Steinbeck's The Chrysanthemums

Literary Analysis: The Chrysanthemums


In The Chrysanthemums, Steinbeck accurately portrays what it was like to be a female in the 1930s. He shows how isolated someone, especially women, could be. Many things in the story are obvious to the reader, however many events have underlying symbolism and depth. These events have to be read into and understood by the reader in order to get the full effect of Steinbeck’s symbolism and parallelism between Elisa and the 1930s.
Elisa is a middle-aged married woman, who lives on her husband’s, Henry, ranch. She is a very simple woman who takes great pleasure in caring for her flowers. Henry is often away at work and Elisa is left alone, which is why her flowers mean so much to her.
Throughout several parts of the story, Steinbeck shows us the emotional and social effects on Elisa and her life. The first instance of symbolism is how Elisa tends to her garden. She nurtures her flowers and babies them, by doing this it ...