Symbols In The Chrysanthemum By John Steinback

Symbolism is when a device has another meaning than it’s literal meaning. It is used to signify a deeper thought that reflects the main characters and their situations. John Steinback’s The Chrysanthemum has many symbols shown beginning to end. Steinback uses the Chrysanthemum flowers, a fence and the tinker to show Elisa Allen’s emotions throughout the story. Chrysanthemums are seen everywhere in the story because Elisa revolved her life around her flowers. She spent all her time taking care of them. Elisa loved and protected them like her own children. There was a fence surrounding her chrysanthemums to protect them from any danger. At one point she looked down at the growing plants, “No aphids were there, no sow bugs or snails or cutworms. Her terrier fingers destroyed such pests before they could get started” (Steinback 238). Elisa acted like a mother and protected her flowers from any possible harm. She was proud of them and all the work put into their life. After Henry Allen, her husband, complimented the chrysanthemums she seemed happy, “In her tone and on her face there was a little smugness” (Steinback 238). Elisa would rarely show emotion around her husband, but she was so proud of the flowers like a mother would be of their child. The chrysanthemums symbolized her children and she treated them like the children she never had. Another symbol in John Steinback’s writing was a fence.

This was described as a “wire fence that protected her flower garden from cattle and dogs and chickens” (Steinback 238). The fence isolated Elisa from everything. She thought if she surrounded herself with the one thing she loved than she would get something better in return, like her marriage. Elisa felt her husband was not fulfilling her emotional needs and was unhappy in her marriage. She would watch people come and go, “Elisa Allen, working in her flower garden, looked down across the yard and saw Henry, her husband, talking to two business men in suits” (Steinback 237). The center of her life was the flowers and she was trapped inside the fence. Elisa was alone in her marriage and the world around her. One day while Elisa was gardening, a tinker came up the road and started to talk to her. The tinker told her about his travels to and from Seattle and San Diego every year. She replied, “That sounds like a nice kind of a way to live” (Steinback 240). Elisa was jealous of the tinkers traveling because she was stuck in her “fence”. After the tinker asked if there was anything to fix and Elisa said no, he asked about her chrysanthemums. The tinker described them as, “Kind of a long-stemmed flower? Looks like a quick puff of colored smoke? ” (Steinback 240). She enjoyed the way he described her flowers and began to open up to him. Elisa was free with her emotions about her plants. More than she was when speaking with her husband. She felt a connection with him because he showed interest in the thing she was most passionate about. The tinker is a symbol of freedom. He gave Elisa a sense of freedom she never had before, physically and emotionally. Elisa Allen’s bond with her chrysanthemums show how much she cares and looks after them like a mother. She is not happy in her marriage and isolates herself within the fence surrounding her garden. After Elisa meets the tinker she feels free and has a connection she’s never had with someone before. John Steinback used symbols like the chrysanthemums, a fence and the tinker to show how Elisa felt in her situation. Her garden was her home and safe place.