why i chose The Chrysanthemums

For the position paper assignment, I chose to use John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums as the text to be examined. I actually have this passion of doing Pygmalion and Educating Rita. I had been comparing these two plays since I was in first year at MPTI. It seems I have a thing for identity issues. However, when Dr Edwin told us that we can’t use the same text we did in position paper for our research paper, I had to think twice. Because I don’t want to loose the chance of commenting about both the plays again together, I opt for a different story which was The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck. At first, I’ve forgotten the existence of this story (terrible me)…so, I went on flipping through the pages of Kennedy and Gioia’s Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. That is when I come across this story and at that moment I remembered on how I really enjoyed this story. I like this particular Steinbeck’s story because of the feminism issue in it. I think I really like story with the feminist zest in it. It’s interesting and also made me aware of the women’s position in the world since the time I’m not even born yet. The symbolism of the chrysanthemums itself is also unique as I never heard a man comparing women to this type of flowers as often they do with roses. Nevertheless, the chrysanthemum is a perfect symbol of Elisa Allen. She is yet a strong woman at will but how strong she is, there is still that soft part in her. Just like the chrysanthemums, it has the biggest and hardest stalks of all flowers but it is just a flower…not a log or a pine…just a delicate little flower. Personally, even though this story took place in the early 1930’s but the issue rose is still relevant today. Not many women in the world can achieve the same position as man in any aspect. And if they do manage, women will always be paid lesser than their male counterparts. Maybe men had forgotten the reason of women’s existence that they tend to suppressed the women. Yes, women are the daughters and mothers to men but still they deserve to be treated with equal amount of respect too…being mothers doesn’t mean staying at home and do the chores only. Yes, there are things which are better left to the men but that doesn’t mean women have no rights to leave the pots and pans and start working with pen and papers…