the chrysanthemums

[holdencaulfield]

What does Elisa Allen stand for in Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums"?

[byquist]

Tricky question since she is who she is, and while Steinbeck may be motivated to transmit a theme and idea, she's not a symbol for something else (my opinion). Even though Shakespeare says, "All the world's a stage and men and women merely players," still we aren't quite puppets. (But, maybe we are watching puppet shadows on a wall according to Plato.) If anything, she seems very real, with a lot to appreciate.

If you have to write something supporting that topic, I guess I'd pick that she is an evaluator: of her life which is less than free and exciting; she evaluates the gypsy; evaluates her husband; evaluates her garden; evaluates the merits of what is it, boxing? She discriminates as to what is, and is not, up to the measure of life's cup, and esp. how her current life is far from brimming. Although, she isn't the greedy type. She knows there something more to life, and maybe (like most people) admits that she has to make adjustments, obtaining less than her ideal, and not reach too high for the stars.