Inner Emotions in John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums
In John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums, the main character, Elisa Allen is challenged to explore her inner feelings. Elisa is confined to a “closed pot” according to Steinbeck. “The high gray–flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from the rest of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot” (The Chrysanthemums). Elisa is mentioned as a gardener throughout the story. A tinker comes by her garden to fix her pots, but instead disturbs Elisa’s gardening. The tinker, through his unexpected visit, inadvertently pushes Elisa towards dealing with her inner feelings. Elisa is resurrected from a life represented as a closed pot by a tinker who filters out her true emotions while she works in her garden. Her inner feelings are aroused during her time working in her garden, her conversation with the tinker, and when she goes to dinner with her husband.
Elisa’s garden is a symbol of a closed pot. A closed pot can be opened in several ways – by breaking open, or by just simply opening the top. A professional pot fixer like the tinker can technically open a pot better than a normal person. As can a psychologist successfully help a patient open the door to their feelings. The tinker is a representation of a psychologist who is inadvertently helping Elisa let out her feelings. Elisa tries to hide herself behind her defensiveness of her skills in her garden, and the men’s clothing she wears. Elisa feels that she is only in control of her garden, but when her husband tries to take her out of her little garden in order to not be confined within a small amount of space, she becomes defensive. Elisa’s husband one day comes home and tells her, “‘I wish you’d work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big.’ [Referring to the size of the chrysanthemums Elisa had grown]. Her eyes sharpened. ‘Maybe I could do it too I’ve a gift with...