Flower Symbolism in John Steinbecks The Chrysanthemums - Essay Example

?Flower Symbolism in John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums” Literary critics have often regarded Steinbeck's short story "The Chrysanthemums" within feminist canon and argued that the protoganist Elisa Allen represents femininity fenced in a garden by the patriarchal society. Indeed, eminent critics have paid much attention to the issue of male domination and her marriage life. As Stanley Renner puts it “The central figure of the story that emerges from the criticism is that of a woman imprisoned by men”. While her flowers were taken as symbols of her femininity, the critics have often neglected the deeper and sexual meanings associated with the flower symbolism. John Steinbeck named his story not unhappy marriage of Elisa but “The Chrysanthemums”. Nevertheless while critics focus on Elisa, they also seem not to be caring what she cared the most: the chrysanthemums. The title and the main symbolism of the story deserve more attention and a closer reading than few remarks on the subject. The aim of this essay is to scrutinize layers of meaning attached to the symbol of chrysanthemums so that deeper messages in the story could be understood. The chrysanthemum is regarded as the official flower of the city of Salinas and the story begins with the description of Salinas Valley. The first and literal meaning of the chrysanthemum denotes a specific geographic place and contributes to the atmosphere of the story. Although the chrysanthemums represent death and grief in many countries, it is considered as a positive and cheerful symbol in the USA (Wikipedia.com). Thus, the chrysanthemums evoke positive and cheerful associations with respect to the sunny California. The chrysanthemums are mostly yellow and their shape also resembles the sun. The chrysanthemums that Elisa raises are also yellow and white. Elisa notes that they are very big: “Oh, those are chrysanthemums, giant whites and yellows. I raise them every year, bigger than anybody around here." The narrator paints a very vibrant and sunny picture with the giant chrysanthemums. Right at the beginning of the story, Steinbeck describes the energetic activity of Elisa with her flowers: “Her face was eager and mature and handsome; even her work with the scissors was over-eager, over-powerful. The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy.” Even though the chrysanthemums are giant and vibrant, Elisa is depicted as still bigger and more energetic than them. Steinbeck sets a vibrant tone and very dynamic atmosphere with the use of yellow and giant chrysanthemums and introduces a female character with overflowing energy. Nevertheless, the Salinas Valley is not energetic and sunny as it might seem at first sight. Although the narrator paints a very yellow and shiny picture with his descriptions, it lacks warmth since the sun does not shine in December. The narrator describes the cold sunshine of December as follows: “On the foothill ranches across the Salinas river, the yellow stubble fields seemed to be bathed in pale cold sunshine, but there was no sunshine in the valley now in December”. As it can be seen from the below quotation, the story is set on a cold December day, when the sunny days of summer had already been gone. Besides the setting, the chrysanthemums also indicate this time frame of the story. The chrysanthemums are late bloomers. Although they remind the sun and summer with their colors and shapes, they bloom in autumn. They also lack the warmth of sun. Furthermore, the chrysanthemums also refer to the time frame of Elisa, who is 35 and no longer a young woman. In a sense, her summer days had also been gone. Although she is a vibrant and energetic woman who’s very passionate about her flowers, she lacks the warmth of the sun. Like her flowers, she is a late bloomer. Her repressed sexuality blooms with her encounter with the visiting Tinker, who is not named in the story. However, she does not seem to have a child and she is cold towards his husband. Although she has an abundant energy, she is not warm and flowers seem to be her only outlet to invest her libidinal energy. The chrysanthemums symbolize Elisa’s budding but repressed sexual energy. According to Sigmund Freud, flowers are closely associated with sexuality and sexual organs. Freud states that “the flower-symbolism in the dream thus comprises the virginal female, the male symbol, and the reference to violent defloration. It is to be noted that sexual flower-symbolism, which, of course, is very widespread, symbolises the human sexual organs by flowers, the sexual organs of plants; indeed, presents of flowers between lovers may perhaps have this unconscious significance”. Thus, flowers do not just represent Elisa’s femininity, but her sexuality. According to Renner, since flowers are fruitless, Elisa grows them “asexually” and some critics regarded flower stems as phallic (309). However, the following and passionate description of Elisa reveals an almost erotic (if not auto-erotic female masturbation) activity: “You watch your fingers work. They do it themselves. You can feel how it is. They pick and pick the buds. They never make a mistake. They're with the plant. Do you see? Your fingers and the plant. You can feel that, right up your arm.” Her fingers become one with the plants. By referring to planting hands, she almost describes an intimacy between her hands and her flowers. In her description, it seems like a highly eroticized activity and not asexual as Renner asserted. It is also difficult to regard flowers as phallic symbols, since flowers resemble female genitals with their petals and buds. Indeed, as Bennet notes buds, together with seeds and small flowers, are privileged clitoral images (243). According to Elisa, in order to make flowers bloom, “it's the budding that takes the most care”. Thus, Elisa conveys a highly eroticized message to Tinker, which he’s quick to grasp as he responds with remarks “hot and sharp, and---lovely”. However, Elisa goes beyond auto-eroticism by offering her flowers to Tinker, in fact, Elisa makes a sexual advance towards him with her flowers. At this point of narrative, the chrysanthemums become expression of her repressed sexual energy. Elisa is not a traditional woman, by offering her flowers to a strange man; she reverses the stereotypical gender roles, in which men offer flowers to women in order to gain sexual favors. Although Tinker seems like a free-spirit roaming on the roads, he is still bound to the roles of the patriarchal capitalist society. Although, he flirts with Elisa and shows a fake attention to her flowers in order to get a financial gain, he throws out the chrysanthemums and keeps the pot. When Elisa sees her flowers are tossed away, she realizes that her libidinal investment is not reciprocated and feels frustrated. At this point of the narrative, uncared Chrysanthemums represent her sexual rejection. She takes utmost care when she stresses that the chrysanthemums need care to Tinker, but Tinker neither cares about her flowers nor herself. It must be noted that Elisa’s frustration with her rejected flowers, is not only related with her sexual unfulfilment but also with the fact that she’s becoming old and her prospects for fulfilling sex like are fading away like her uncared flowers. Like the chrysanthemums she raises, she is a late bloomer in terms of her sexuality. Although she is a very attractive and sexually energetic woman, no man seems to be caring her budding sexuality. Her husband is a decent guy who takes care of her, but he’s not able to understand her true needs and the delicacies of the female sexuality. Tinker pretends to understand the female sexuality by his fake attention to her flowers. At the end of story, the narrator points out that she cries like a weak and “old” woman. Indeed, there are no prospects for her; she’s becoming old and there is no hope for her to realize herself sexually. She’s stuck on a sterile marriage, she sees the warmth and hope at the direction of Tinker and she says "That's a bright direction. There's a glowing there", but she’s unable to take that road as a woman. Her fantasies about bright and warm future fade away together with the chrysanthemums that are not cared and tossed away by men. To sum up, the symbol of chrysanthemums in Steinbeck’s story is rich in associations and significations. Firstly, they denote the geographic setting of Salinas by contributing to a sunny and yellowy imagery. Nevertheless, this imagery lacks warmth. Secondly, the chrysanthemums signify the time frame of the story and the time frame of the female protagonist. The story is set on December, when the bright summer days had already been gone and the chrysanthemums with their colors and shapes are the last remnants of the sunny summer days. Elisa, who is no longer a young woman and aware that she’s getting older feels identified with these late blooming flowers. Thirdly, the chrysanthemums represent Elisa’s budding but repressed sexuality. Fourthly, the symbolic act of offering flowers to a man becomes her expression of sexual needs. Fifthly, rejected and uncared flowers represent her sexual needs that are not cared by men. Lastly, the chrysanthemums signify her dying hopes with old age. John Steinbeck synthesizes two symbolical meanings attached to the chrysanthemums: cheerful-positive and mourning. At the beginning, Elisa is cheerful and positive about her flowers and at the end she mourns for her lost hopes after her flowers are tossed away. Works Cited Bennet, Paula. “Critical Clitoridectomy: Female Sexual Imagery and Feminist Psychoanalytic Theory”. Signs 18.2 (Winter 1993): 235-259. Print. Renner, Stanley. “The Real Woman Inside the Fence in ‘The Chrysanthemums’”. MFS Modern Fiction Studies 31.2 ( Summer 1985): 305-317. Print. Steinbeck, John. “The Chrysanthemums”. Web. 28 November 2011. http://nbu.bg/webs/amb/american/4/steinbeck/chrysanthemums.htm Read More