The Chrysanthemums

“The Chrysanthemums”

• Genre: Fiction; short story
• Originally Published: 1937
• Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
• Structure/Length: Approx. 33 pages
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: Thirty-five-year-old Elisa Allen tends to her chrysanthemums when a man shows up looking for work. Though she does not have work for him, they bond over her flowers, thus exposing her unhappy marriage.

John Steinbeck, Author

• Bio: Born in 1902 in California; raised near the Pacific Coast; attended Stanford University to study literature but left before earning a degree; worked as a manual laborer and New York City reporter; met success with writing in 1935 with Tortilla Flat; traveled throughout the Western US during the Great Depression, which influenced his writing; known for his treatment of social and economic issues through the plights of his characters; earned the Nobel Prize for Literature (1962) for his body of work
• Other Works: Of Mice and Men (1937); The Grapes of Wrath (1939); East of Eden (1952) 

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Dissatisfaction
• Gender Inequality and Repression of Women
• Sexual Fulfillment

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Develop an understanding of the social and historical context regarding the role of women like Elisa.
• Study paired texts and other brief resources to make connections via the text’s themes of Dissatisfaction and Gender Inequality and Repression of Women.
• Analyze and evaluate the character details, themes, literary devices, and author’s purpose and techniques to draw conclusions in structured essays regarding Gender Inequality and Repression of Women, Dissatisfaction, Sexual Fulfillment, and other topics.