A Feminist Perspective of John Steinbeck's The Chrysanthemums John Steinbeck, in his short story "The Chrysanthemums" describes the trials of a woman trying to gain power in a world of men. Elisa Allen tries to define the boundaries of her role as a woman in such a closed society. While her environment is depicted as a tool of social repression, it is through the nature of her garden that Elisa gains and displays her power. As the story progresses, Elisa has difficulty extending this power beyond the fence surrounding her garden. In the end, Elisa learns, but does not willingly accept, that she possesses a weak female power for the time, not the male one she had tried so hard to obtain through her imitation. The work begins with a look at the setting of the story. “The Chrysanthemums” was written in 1938 and the story is set around the same time. It's winter in Salinas Valley, California. The most noticeable feature is the "flannel-gray fog" that hid the valley "from the rest of the world" (396). The mountains, valleys, sky, and fog hold everything inside like a "closed vessel" (396). Within this closed habitat the environment is trying to change. Just as the farmers wait for an unlikely rain, Elisa and all the women hope for a change in their cloistered life. Steinbeck's foreshadowings are: "It was a time of quiet and waiting" (396). The action of the story opens with Elisa Allen working in her garden. She is surrounded by a wire fence, which is physically there to protect her flowers from farm animals. This barrier symbolizes his life; it is fenced off from the real world, from the world of men. It is a smaller, terrestrial version of the environment in which they live. The... half of this man's card... means that he couldn't be strong yet. The peddler's business of selling his pot-repairing service excludes women from his world just as the natural fog encloses the valley. Although we hope that his tears can be compared to the pruning he does to his precious chrysanthemums, clipping them for future and stronger growth, Steinbeck leaves the reader wondering about the future of women. Elisa's tears will not free the valley from the fog, because as Steinbeck tells us at the beginning, "fog and rain do not go together" (396). Although Elisa will continue to dominate her surroundings within the enclosure using the power of nature, she will not gain power outside of it, in a world of men. Work cited Steinbeck, John. "The chrysanthemums." Literature: an introduction to fiction, poetry and drama. Ed. XJ Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 6th ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.