“The Chrysanthemums”
“The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck is a story about a woman named Elisa Allen, frustrated with her life of isolation. Allen enjoys working in her garden, but her gardening capabilities aren’t satisfying, as she would rather be traveling and meeting new people. “The Chrysanthemums” tone changes from hopeful to one of isolation, and that tone is created by a combination language elements including, contextual symbolism, figurative images using similes and metaphors, and irony. Tone is further supported by the fiction elements point of view and language. Allen is a married woman living in California. Mrs. Allen spends her time doing ordinary household chores such as, caring for her garden and keeps her farmhouse …show more content…
Allen, that changes at the climax of the story. When Mrs. Allen sees her chrysanthemums at the side of the road, she begins to cry, reassuring the reader she feels defeated while reminding Mrs. Allen that her love for an object didn’t make it out of her world. Mrs. Allen is fenced in with yellow chrysanthemums, “yellow stubble fields (276)” , and “The thick willow scrub along the river flamed with sharp and positive yellow leaves (277).“ Yellow is a color of happiness. It is ironic that that Mrs. Allen is surrounded by so many yellow colored things, maybe to show the reader that everyone around her is happy while she is having an internal conflict. Mrs. Allen does have a sense of happiness and empowerment when the stranger speaks with her about her lovely yellow chrysanthemums, but her happiness is then thrown to the ground carelessly, which is why she being to cry at the end of the story, supporting the isolation …show more content…
Some of these are used throughout the conversation between Mrs. Allen and the stranger. The use of similes and metaphors here could possibly be to influence the reader to have hope for Mrs. Allen as well as to believe the stranger just as Mrs. Allen did. The symbols’ throughout Steinbeck’s story also contribute to the hopeful tone at the beginning of the story. The color yellow that appears mainly throughout the introduction is a sign of hope for Mrs. Allen. The fence surrounding her “closed pot” however, changes the tone from hopeful to one of certain
“The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck is a story about a woman named Elisa Allen, frustrated with her life of isolation. Allen enjoys working in her garden, but her gardening capabilities aren’t satisfying, as she would rather be traveling and meeting new people. “The Chrysanthemums” tone changes from hopeful to one of isolation, and that tone is created by a combination language elements including, contextual symbolism, figurative images using similes and metaphors, and irony. Tone is further supported by the fiction elements point of view and language. Allen is a married woman living in California. Mrs. Allen spends her time doing ordinary household chores such as, caring for her garden and keeps her farmhouse …show more content…
Allen, that changes at the climax of the story. When Mrs. Allen sees her chrysanthemums at the side of the road, she begins to cry, reassuring the reader she feels defeated while reminding Mrs. Allen that her love for an object didn’t make it out of her world. Mrs. Allen is fenced in with yellow chrysanthemums, “yellow stubble fields (276)” , and “The thick willow scrub along the river flamed with sharp and positive yellow leaves (277).“ Yellow is a color of happiness. It is ironic that that Mrs. Allen is surrounded by so many yellow colored things, maybe to show the reader that everyone around her is happy while she is having an internal conflict. Mrs. Allen does have a sense of happiness and empowerment when the stranger speaks with her about her lovely yellow chrysanthemums, but her happiness is then thrown to the ground carelessly, which is why she being to cry at the end of the story, supporting the isolation …show more content…
Some of these are used throughout the conversation between Mrs. Allen and the stranger. The use of similes and metaphors here could possibly be to influence the reader to have hope for Mrs. Allen as well as to believe the stranger just as Mrs. Allen did. The symbols’ throughout Steinbeck’s story also contribute to the hopeful tone at the beginning of the story. The color yellow that appears mainly throughout the introduction is a sign of hope for Mrs. Allen. The fence surrounding her “closed pot” however, changes the tone from hopeful to one of certain