SSRJ #3: Steinbeck

I didn’t feel anything in particular when I began to read this short story. I have read literature by Steinbeck before, and can never seem to get excited about his work. However, I found Elisa’s affection and love for these chrysanthemums a bit more heart warming than I had originally anticipated.

I believe that Steinbeck’s use of character really helped to make his story interesting and light. Elisa is a strong woman - even her husband knows it. She lives in a time where women are supposed to lay low and care for their husbands, but are never equal to a male. But in the opening of the short story, it is shown that Elisa does not follow this general rule of the doormat wife. She wears hats for men, and works eagerly and enthusiastically on the plants outside. Her facial expressions are always tight and hard, like that of a mans’; not to be expected of a woman.

The only thing that seems to soften her personality are the chrysanthemums. She has what she and her husband call “planting hands.” This ability of hers has helped her find love within these beautiful plants. She connects with them, and they respond to her. When the traveler comes by to sell his work for some dinner, she refuses his offer to sharpen any tools around the house. She insists that she does not need this. But as the traveler mentions these chrysanthemums, her heart begins to melt. The traveler manipulates her, preying on her love for flowers to get what he wants. And in the end, he does get what he wants. Elisa is excited to have shared her love of chrysanthemums with someone else in the world.

However, when she sees a spot on the ground down the dirt path, she knows that she had been tricked. I do not think that it was the fact that she was tricked that hurt her, but the fact that she had shown a weakness, even though she had defined herself as not just an ordinary woman. This man had tricked her, and she had ended up buying a service that she had strongly refused beforehand.

I think that Steinbeck wrote this story to tell of the strength of this one woman. She prided herself in being strong, and not succumbing to the everyday housewife image. And although her love for these chrysanthemums should not be seen as a weakness, but rather as something she enjoys and love, it is still used as a weakness, and to Elisa, that is the most painful thing to experience - being weak.

I think that Steinbeck was also able to show that it was Elisa’s strength that destroyed her. If Elisa had not been so proud, and strong, then something so simple as giving someone a plant that they discarded might not have hurt her quite as much. This strength of hers makes her weaker than the average housewife that she strives to overshoot. I’m wondering if anyone else agrees that her strength happened to be her downfall?