Weak Women and Masculine Men

            Are men really the powerhouses and women the weak feeble beings? In John Steinbeck’s short story “The Chrysanthemums,” he depicts the typical work oriented man as well as the neglected, attention seeking wife. Throughout the short story, Steinbeck clearly illustrates the feminine and masculine roles in the leading male and female by attributing them with the commons characteristics associated with each gender. Moreover, he shows how they each perform under their given roles, and cites a couple of examples of them stepping outside the norm. In “The Chrysanthemums,” gender roles are established, the characters conform to them, and the boundaries are only mildly crossed.

To begin with, the feminine and masculine roles are clearly present in this short story by the portrayal of Henry and Elisa Allen’s relationship. Henry is the prototypical hard working husband, who is more concerned about his ranch than his wife. For instance, while Elisa is staring at him yearningly as he talks to the businessmen, he is oblivious to her and just pays attention to the men. He spends his time making sure everything thing about his ranch is just right, but he fails to give his wife and marriage the same attention. Like most men, he isn’t intentionally alienating his wife from his life or self, but his seemingly disinterest in her, leaves her feeling neglected.

Next, just as Henry exemplifies the characteristics of the typical man, he also acts like one. For example, he joked about going to the fights with Elisa. That’s just like a man to assume no woman would ever want experience attending the fights and see all that violence. Also, after telling Elisa she looked nice he expounded upon his statement by saying she looked strong and different too. That is definitely a classic example of a wrong choice of words by a male. Elisa is already lacking confidence about her looks at times, and Henry adding that she looks different isn’t a boost to her self-esteem. As a result of her husband’s behavior, Elisa is lonely and lacking affection. Consequently, she focuses all of her energy into her chrysanthemums. Her husband not only fails to give her the proper attention, he blunders in giving proper acknowledgement to her beloved chrysanthemums. For example, when he approaches her after talking to the businessmen, he suggests that she should work in the orchard raising large apples. This mistake leaves her feeling even more alone. Again, he isn’t doing this intentionally, but he is still doing it.

Furthermore, while Elisa’s avid interest in chrysanthemums may appear only as a hobby, her actions prove the dainty flowers are actually symbolic of her.  Elisa attempts to appear as a strong woman, but ultimately fails. In the beginning of the story, her work with the chrysanthemums was described as over-powerful. In addition, she became somewhat smug when talking about her object of interest. By the end of the story, she was the manipulated, crying, and weak woman. Elisa was easily fooled by the man on the wagon, and didn’t garner the ability keep her powerful traits. With a little flattery toward the chrysanthemums, the wagon man now held the power to control her actions as he pleased.

Like her husband, Elisa’s actions conformed to her pitiful stereotype. Specifically, when the man on the wagon asked her for work she refused. After the man caught on to her chrysanthemum obsession, he had her in the palm of his hands. Elisa officially became the easily manipulated and naive woman the moment she became mesmerized by the wagon man in light of him showing some sort of interest in the flowers. Give her a complement, and your wish will be her command. By positively commenting on the appearance of the chrysanthemums, Elisa received an instant confidence boost since she is, symbolically, the chrysanthemums. To illustrate, when the man described the flowers as beautiful, Elisa reacted by taking off her hat in favor of her likewise beautiful hair. Then she proceeded to put on her nicest clothes in effort to embrace her new found beauty. She also exhibited a woman’s typical paranoia by getting offended at her husband’s comment that she looks nice. Just as easily as her confidence was built up by a man, it was shattered in the mere moment she saw her cherished chrysanthemums on the road. At the end of the story she reverted back to the weak woman lacking confidence with a low self-esteem. When Elisa attempted to step out of her role, she ended up getting played and put back in her place.

Lastly, gender roles may be well defined in this short story, but they aren’t always a clear black and white. For instance, after Elisa’s epiphany that she had been used by the wagon man, Henry showed genuine compassion for her sudden change in attitude. While being compassionate is a feminine trait, it didn’t emasculate Henry in the least. He also demonstrated concern by suggesting they go out to dinner more often, and he even offered to actually take her to the fights if she pleased. He wasn’t just trying to appease his wife; he seemed to actually care about her wellbeing. Similarly, Elisa exhibited a few masculine traits. She revealed to the wagon man that she could give him a run for his money in terms of sharpening scissors and beating the dents out of little posts. Also, Elisa withheld her emotions from her husband at the end of the story rather than being overtly open about them like a typical woman. Males are definitely known as the ones who withhold their feelings from their spouses as well as everyone in general. Although Elisa and Henry stuck to their designated gender roles for the majority of the story, they did stray away from the norm a couple of times.

John Steinbeck’s short story “The Chrysanthemums” portrays Elisa and Henry in gender stereotypes while deviating from this notion only on a few rare circumstances.  They both embody the typical characteristics of their respective sex and don’t make startling ground on changing this conception. Even though their roles aren’t close to ground breaking, they do shed light on the conventional roles males and females are constantly cast into.