The Description of the Major Character: Elisa Allen.

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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS

In this chapter, there are three problem formulations will be analyzed by the writer. The first problem is about the description of the major character; Elisa Allen. The second problem is about the symbols are used in the short story, and the third problem is about the reflection of the symbols toward the major character‟s life.

A. The Description of the Major Character: Elisa Allen.

Elisa Allen is a ranchers wife, an awesome gardener, and a pretty strong lady. But still, she doesnt quite seem happy with her day-to-day life, so when the tinker approaches and the pair strike up their mysterious and revealing conversation, her life changes, maybe forever. When Elisa is first introduced, shes wearing a gender-bending outfit that conceals her body, making her figure looked blocked and heavy p.5. The fact that shes wearing mens clothes might mean that Elisas the kind of lady who isnt afraid to go against whats expected of a woman. But on the other hand, the clothes, which are manly, could also be seen as oppressing her womanliness by hiding it from the world. “The Chrysanthemums” is a story about a strong woman; Elisa Allen. Elisa Allen is the story‟s protagonist, a thirty-five-year-old woman who lives on a ranch in the Salinas Valley with her husband Henry. She is lean and strong, and wears shapeless, functional clothes. The couple has no children, no pets, no near neighbors, and Henry is busy doing chores on the ranch throughout the day. Elisa fills her hours by vigorously cleaning the “hard-swept looking little house, with hard- polished windows,” and by tending her flower garden. Her life is full of loneliness and frustration. Elisa‟s inner frustration can be seen from her dressing. She is frustrating about her relation with her husband; Henry Allen. But here, she tries to define her role as a woman through gardening and her efforts to show off woman‟s power in male-dominated society. Her husband does not pay attention to her. She feels lonely and unhappy with her life, especially her marital life. Her husband is a rancher. He is always working the cattle in their farm; because of her husband job she never has enough attention from her husband. She also does not have children in her marital life with her husband. Because of that, the solution of her frustration is taking care of her flower garden where there is a beautiful chrysanthemum. She loves her chrysanthemum a lot. Like her children, she gives her love, care and attention to her lovely flower. Elisa feels more enjoy in gardening than her relationship with her husband. It is written in the short story, “…Her face was lean and strong and her eyes were as clear as water. Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man‟s black hat pulled down over her eyes, clod-hopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big pockets to hold the snips, the trowel and scratcher, the seeds and the knife she worked with. She wore heavy leather gloves to protect her hands while she worked ...” p.5 She is ignored by her husband. This ignorance causes her to take care of her beautiful chrysanthemum than her husband who does not care about her. The other saying shown that her husband does not really interest for Elisa‟s chrysanthemum , “… I wish you‟d work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big…” p.10. Henry Allen is Elisa‟s husband, a hard-working and successful small-scale rancher. As the story opens, he has completed the sale of thirty steer, and he wants to celebrate with Elisa. He suggests an evening in town, with dinner and a movie, and compliments her on her gardening skills. But there is no intimacy in his talk; the two are serious and formal with each other, and when Henry attempts a bit of humor Elisa does not understand it. As the couple prepares to leave for town, Henry can see that something is bothering his wife, but he cannot guess what it is and everything he says is wrong. In the face of her strange mood he blunders, he is bewildered and speaks helplessly. He is a good man, and he wants to make her happy, but he does not know what she needs. Knowing that her husband does not show his interest in Elisa‟s chrysanthemum, Elisa feels that her husband does not really appreciate her and does not have interest in her too. She feels that Henry does not recognize her femininity and her beauty. Henry does not able to understand Elisa‟s needs as a woman. One of the major weaknesses of Elisa Allen is her misconception that changing her physical appearances and mannerisms, to become more masculine, makes her appear stronger; when in actuality it emphasizes her true feelings of weakness. For example, when Elisa is gardening she wears a costume, which includes: a mans hat, clodhopper shoes, a print dress that is covered by a large corduroy apron, and heavy leather gloves-all of which make her figure look blocked and heavy. Although Elisa feels that by dressing in this manly fashion she will be considered equal to men in a mans world, she is still seen by the men as just an average house wife. Another example of her attempts to hide her feminine qualities is while she is tending to her garden. Steinbeck describes Elisa as over- eager and over-powerful when she had control of the short and powerful scissors, and when she is seen destroying the aphids, sow bugs, snails, and cutworms of her garden with her terrier fingers. Clearly, Elisa is over- compensating, using more power than needed or used by a female to kill the pests living in her garden. In this story, the author also mentioned another character who makes Elisa changed her looks for a while; the tinker. The man is a tinker who travels up and down the coast every year with a horse-drawn wagon bearing the legend “Pots, pans, knives, scissors, lawn mores, Fixed.” He is large, with careworn face and hands and a dirty suit. Because he depends on his salesmanship to earn his living, he is skillful at bantering small talk, but his friendly laughter is only superficial. Elisa has no work for him and is about to send him away when he notices the chrysanthemums and gets her to talk about them. Instantly her tone changed. She becomes enthusiastic, and she finds some work for him to do. When she finds her discarded chrysanthemums on the road that evening, Elisa realizes that his interest in the flowers was insincere, simply a way to win her over. When the traveling tinker comes along and talks about his wandering habits, she begins to think about how limited her life is, and she longs for adventure. The idea that her chrysanthemums will be shared with a stranger who will appreciate them gratifies her, makes her think that in a small way she is part of a larger world. When the man betrays her by throwing away the chrysanthemums, he makes it clear that her world extends only as far as the boundaries of the ranch. When the tinker approaches her, Elisa feels interested in him. Elisa feels that way because the tinker shows her that he is interested in her flower. The tinker says, “…Kind of a long-stemmed flower? Looks like a quick puff of colored smoke … That‟s it. What a nice way to describe them…” p.50.When the tinker says that, Elisa feels appreciated and attractive to him. After the tinker leaves, she feels confident about herself, “… and then she scrubbed herself with a little block of pumice, leg and thighs, loins and chest and arms, until her skin was scratched an d red… after a while she began to dress, slowly. She put on her newest underclothing and her nicest stockings…she worked carefully on her hair, penciled her eyebrows and rouged her lips…” p.93-94 She applies her make up slowly. She hopes that her husband will pay attention to her and recognize her needs as a woman and wife; love, care, attention and romance. But, Elisa‟s hope is quickly shattered when she heard Henry‟s comments on her change, “… you look strong enough to break a calf over your knee, happ y enough to eat it like a watermelon…” p.103, and also her hope is really shattered when she sees her chrysanthemum that he gave to the tinker is on the road. She feels frustrated and devastated by the way of the tinker towards her chrysanthemum. In the end, she is as she was; back to who is she at the first. Elisa Allen struggles to characterize her position as a woman in a very close society. Her environment portrays the social depression, while the garden shows her power and masculine. Elisa has trouble extending this power outside the fence that surrounds her garden. She finally learns but not acknowledges that she possesses a fragile feminine power, not the masculine one she had attempted to attain.

B. The Symbols Used in