illustrated profile of a woman's head with cracks running through it set against a chrysanthemum background

The Chrysanthemums

by John Steinbeck

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The Chrysanthemums Questions on Gender Roles

The Chrysanthemums

The major conflicts in "The Chrysanthemums" are Elisa's internal struggle with her unfulfilled desires and her external conflict with societal gender roles. The climax reveals her deep sense of loss...

3 educator answers

The Chrysanthemums

She cries like an old woman because she is defeated and she is weakened and powerless to go back and change it.  She is defeated in the sense that the man from the repair wagon...

1 educator answer

The Chrysanthemums

In John Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums," irony and symbolism are pivotal. The chrysanthemums symbolize Elisa's strength, beauty, and unfulfilled desires, paralleling her constrained life. Irony...

12 educator answers

The Chrysanthemums

Elisa is perhaps considered a complex character because she seems sometimes passionate and lively and at other times melancholy and restless. She is passionate and lively when she is working with...

1 educator answer

The Chrysanthemums

In the story, "The Chrysanthemums," by John Steinbeck, Elisa's "sense of power" comes from her ability to make things grow. She takes great pride in this, and this helps her to define who she is...

1 educator answer

The Chrysanthemums

I would say there are a couple of reasons Elisa rejects this description.  For one, even though she projects a no-nonsense image, she actually longs for a soft place to rest, mentally, that...

1 educator answer

The Chrysanthemums

The pivotal realization in "The Chrysanthemums" occurs when Elisa recognizes her unfulfilled desires and the limitations placed on her by society. After a brief encounter with a tinker, she feels a...

1 educator answer