Elisa Allen free essay sample

We often assume that the quick conversations with a stranger in the grocery store or a shopping mall are just that, quick conversations that are soon forgotten. We don’t expect them to profoundly impact our lives or even change who we are. Elisa Allen in John Steinbeck’s â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† was not expecting any visitors while cutting down the old year’s chrysanthemums, much less a visitor that would deeply impact her and her feelings. Her character starts out as a strong woman and ends in tears. Elisa Allen is a dynamic and round character. Steinbeck describes her to us in great detail from her face that is strong, lean, eager, and mature to her blocked figure in her gardening costume. We see a woman who knows how to work hard and is proud of the fact she inherited planters’ hands from her mother. The initial interaction she has with her husband is typical of the era in which the story takes place. We will write a custom essay sample on Elisa Allen or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He is uninterested in her chrysanthemums and would prefer her to use her talents to grow something worthwhile like apples. This insinuates that overall Elisa is lonely and finds solace in her flowers and we see her vulnerability early in the story. We see her strength when a man looking for work rides up to her property. He is a peddler who fixes pots, pans, and sharpens instruments. She is cordial and makes conversation with him, but when the small talk leads to paying him for services her strength rises and she quickly resists him. Unfortunately, she is not strong enough to keep from falling victim to this man’s manipulation. As the conversation turns to her beloved chrysanthemums, she drops her guard and lets this man, whom she has never met before, into her inner most feeling and thoughts. He has hit her weak spot and he takes advantage of her. Her masculine characteristics turn into femininity that she herself has dearly missed. As Elisa gives him directions on how to care for the plants, she begins to tell him of her planting hands. The conversation has sexual undertones and she gets a bit awkward when she realizes this. She is sharing a passionate discourse with a man that was merely a stranger a few moments ago. He slyly inserts another sales pitch and now instead of resistance he is met by success. As he fixes her saucepans, she curiously looks into his wagon and wonders what it would be like to live in it herself. He assures her that it is no life for a woman and this is when we once again see her strength rise again. She tells him that he may have a rival someday because she can do what he does and just as good. And just as quickly as he arrived he was gone, leaving her to process what had just happened. She is sad to see him go and what follows is another delving into the sexual undertones of the story and the character, Elisa. She tears off her clothes and flings them into a corner and then scrubs herself with the pumice stone as if she was dirtier than just working with the flowers that day. She emerges with a new sense of self as if she has found herself again after being lost for many years in an emotionally bankrupt marriage. She dresses slowly in her nicest clothing looking over every inch of her body. This stranger has changed her and made her feel alive again. When her husband enters the story again he notices the change in her. When he first sees her he is taken aback and tells her she looks different, strong and happy. He was used to the way she had behaved before the man with the crooked sign came into her life. She gets a bit defensive with him and then once again boasts of her strength. The day’s events have made her more confident about herself and her beauty. Sadly, her confidence dissipates when on their way into town for dinner she sees a dark speck in the road ahead and immediately realizes it as the flowers she gave the man. This is when I believe her true epiphany takes place as opposed to early in the story when she is slowly dressing with new confidence. Once again, her husband notices the change in her demeanor. She turns from asking if they can have wine for dinner to asking about the blood of the fights they have in town. I believe Steinbeck in showing Elisa’s anger and frustration of what has happened through her description of the fighting. In the end she can no longer hold back her tears and turns her face away from her husband so that he would not see her as a weak old woman. This is where we see her transformation come full circle. Elisa started as a strong woman whose years on a farm had made her forget what it felt like to be attractive. She met a man who in just moments made her feel like a woman again, only to strip her of her happiness a short while later. One never knows when a quick conversation will turn into a life changing event.