The Chrysanthemums

The Chrysanthemums is a short story by John Steinbeck, written in 1937, about the happenings of one day in the life of a thirty-five year old woman named Elisa Allen.

Plot Summary

Elisa Allen and her husband Henry live peacefully on their farm in the Salinas Valley; he is busy with his orchard and steers and she with her housekeeping and flower garden. While tending to her garden, Elisa encounters a tinker who passes by their farm, first asking for work fixing cutlery and pans, and then inquiring about chrysanthemums in her garden. He asks for some seeds to take to another lady who asked him for some once. Elisa is happy to give young seeds to the tinker, and in fact goes to the extent of taking some of her new shoots and planting them with great care and skill in a nice large pot for him to give to the woman. Elisa goes into great detail when she explains how to care for them. Elisa connects with the tinker and realizes that her stationary life may not be as satisfying as she thought it was. When the tinker leaves with the potted seeds Elisa gave him, she feels uplifted. She goes inside and gets dressed up to go out with Henry later on. However, her mood is reversed. In the car on the way to town, she sees the chrysanthemum shoots she'd given the tinker thrown carelessly on the road. She realizes that the tinker had lied to her just to flatter her into giving him some business (before the tinker left, Elisa let him fix a few old, dented pans which Elisa was more than capable of repairing on her own), and also that he had kept the pot, throwing away only the plants. She is dismayed and though she does not cry, she is shaken and deeply disappointed, even wounded by the sight of her chrysanthemum shoots lying on the side of the road. When the car her husband is driving passes the tinker's wagon, Elisa turns away from the tinker, facing her husband, so her husband will not see the cast off shoots on the road or the tinker. The fire that had been ignited by the connection with another is utterly quenched and Elisa again reels in her passion and sinks into her former repressed state, now worsened by the complete realization of its existence.

exual frustration

Some interpret certain aspects of the story as pointing to sexual frustration on Elisa's part. It could be interpreted that she and her husband sleep in separate bedrooms, however, it does not directly say this in the text. She makes a couple of subtle passes at the handyman, but is rejected. References to seeds and flowers throughout the story may be interpreted as symbols of sexuality and fertility.Many readers note, though, that Henry is not insensitive or unloving. He compliments her gardening skills. He takes her out to dinner, and offers a low-key compliment about how she is dressed. He does notice that her mood changes while in the car, but since he is unaware of the interaction between her and the tinker and does not see the plants on the road, he makes no connection with them as the source of her quenched enthusiasm.