A Woman of Substance

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In ?The Chrysanthemums?, John Steinbeck brings a microscope into a landscape portrait. Elisa Allen is content with her life. Her husband, Henry, a farmer and rancher, has provided for her well. She has time to tend and nurture a flower garden. All is calm until a passing salesman fans a burning ember within her. His interest in her chrysanthemums, and vicariously, her, empowers her and eventually betrays her.


Elisa Allen lives a sheltered life. Her world rarely escapes ?the wire fence that protected her flower garden from cattle and dogs and chickens.? (p.47) She also uses her gardening clothes as a shield from the world.


Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man?s black hat pulled down low 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.46)


While she is gardening her world is enclosed by the fence. And she is comfortable there. She knows all that needs to be done and on what schedule. Her flowers are free of pests and she grows the largest blooms in the area.





Yet when her world is slightly disrupted by Henry?s presence, she is startled. And Elisa is further disturbed when he happens to complement her on the work that she does, and offers that she could possibly do the same with his apples, ?Maybe I could do it, too. I?ve a gift with things all right. My mother had it. She could stick anything in the ground and make it grow. She said it was having planters? hands that knew how to do it.? (p.47) She is not sure if he is sincere with his compliments and does not know how to react. Instead of thanking him, she takes his words as a challenge, and realizing the harshness of her words, she changes the subject.


Henry invites Elisa out on the town to celebrate a good sale of cattle, and Elisa accepts. He tries to capture her interest with talk of a nice dinner in a hotel in town, and a movie. She only responds with, ?Good. Oh, yes. That will be good.? (p.47) As a joke, he mentions to her that there will also be fights held in town. She does not react well, and he calms her with ?Just foolin?.? (p.47) Elisa still does not know how to react to her husband?s words.


She retreats back into her garden but is again disrupted by someone from the outside; a traveling salesman. The salesman is simply trying to earn some money. He offers his repair services to Elisa who turns him down twice. When he realizes that this tack will not result in any work, he expresses personal interest in Elisa?s activities, her chrysanthemums in particular. Elisa is excited by the salesman?s interest. She reacts much differently to his interest than to Henry?s. ?Her eyes grew alert and eager.? (p.50) The salesman claims that a woman down the road has expressed interest in acquiring chrysanthemum seeds if he should come across them. Elisa follows the salesman?s lead and divulges all that she knows about the care and nurturing of chrysanthemums. She allows the salesman into her world.


Not only does she explain to him what needs to be done with the chrysanthemum cuttings, but goes further into her world with a description of ?planting hands?. (p.50)


Well, I can only tell you what it feels like. It?s when you?re picking off the buds you don?t want. Everything goes right down into your fingertips. You watch your fingers work. They do it themselves. You can feel how it is. They pick and pick the buds. They never make a mistake. They?re with the plant. Do you see? Your fingers and the plant. You can feel that, right up your arm. They know. They never make a mistake. You can feel it. When they are like that you can?t do anything wrong. Do you see that? Can you understand that? (p.50)


These are words that even her husband has not heard. While Henry understands that she has a gift for gardening, he does not understand what power it holds, not the connection that she feels with the flowers, and the chrysanthemums in particular. During these times of tedious work, nipping the unwanted buds off of the plant, she is the chrysanthemum. She is ridding herself of the unwanted buds in her life. And she never makes a mistake. Still, she does not allow people into this world. Her flowers are fenced off, and so is she. She only shares her connection with the salesman as a response to her behavior with Henry. She realizes that while this is not their world, they are not out to destroy it.


Elisa is then consciously satisfied with her openness. She rewards the salesman?s interest with two battered pots for the man to fix along with a flower pot of cuttings for the woman to then plant and grow. But as the salesman rides off with her fifty cents and her chrysanthemum cuttings, she decides to rid herself of her gardening world.


In preparing for her evening out with her husband, she rips off her dirty gardening clothes and scrubs herself raw with a pumice stone. She takes time to look at herself in the mirror. She dresses in some of her nicest clothing. This is a completely different woman than the one in the garden. She is unrecognizable even to her husband, ?Why?why Elisa. You look so nice!? Again, Elisa?s first reactions are harsh, challenging her husband, ?Nice? You think I look nice? What do you mean by ?nice??? (p.5) Her sharpness is only tempered by Henry?s good humor and slowly, she relaxes.


Her relaxation, however, is short-lived. Not long after Elisa and Henry are on the road, she sees something on the road, and instantly knows what it is. Her chrysanthemum cuttings were discarded by the salesman. She even rationalizes why they are not further off the road, ?He had to keep the pot. That?s why he couldn?t get them off the road.? (p.5) Elisa might as well have see her own corpse thrown in the middle of the road. This hideous vision brings her thoughts back to her world of gardening. And she once rid herself of her ?gardening costume? (p.46), she attempts to rid herself of her gardening passion as well.


As the car overtakes the salesman?s wagon, Elisa turns her body away from the window and faces her husband. She does not want to see the wagon or its driver. Not because she does not want him to see her in such emotional pain, but because she is ashamed of what she has allowed to happen. She feels as though she should have seen through the salesman?s ploy of showing interest in her activities.


She asks Henry about having wine with dinner. She asks about boxing matches that are held in town. She voices concern over the amount of blood that is shed. She tries every thought that enters her mind, other than flowers, but the thoughts fail her and in the end she can only cry ?like an old woman.? (p.5)


Elisa allowed someone into her world. She talked to the salesman not only about the care required for the chrysanthemums, but about the strong connection she feels with the plants themselves. She talks with passion and energy that she does not show her husband. She speaks with caution to her husband, unsure of how to respond to his statements.


She is rewarded for this by seeing her cuttings strewn on the road like garbage. What the salesman failed to recognize is that he was not only throwing out plants. He was throwing Elisa out with them. Unfortunately, Henry does not know what happened between his wife and the salesman, nor does Elisa feel the need to let him know. She is left to cry to herself.





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