Savannah Sanders

Rachel Scalf

IV English AP

12 January 2017

In The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck, the eponymous flower in the story is

more than just a flower. To Elisa Allen, the flowers were her life. To a poor worker, however,

they meant little aside from a way to get Elisa to give him work. In Elisas mind, the

chrysanthemums were a gorgeous representation of life and work, but in the workers mind, they

were a manipulation tactic that could be tossed aside once the work was achieved. Steinbeck

employs symbolism and allegory to highlight the class-oriented complexity of the relationship

between Elisa and the worker.

The chrysanthemums are used as a symbol to show the difference between Elisa and the

worker, class-wise. Elisa is portrayed as a middle class woman who, while appreciating good

work, looks down on those that are below her class. She loves the work she puts into her

chrysanthemums, which stand for middle-class, white-collar work. She does not seem to care

about the simple, physical work that the worker offers to do. She even thinks that she is above it,

mentioning that she could do the work she does herself, even though she is a woman. These

flowers truly set up the difference between Elisa and the worker when Elisa sees that the worker

has thrown them away. To the worker, who slaves away doing menial physical work, the

emotional and physical labor that Elisa has put into these flowers is of no matter to him. The

flowers may improve Elisas middle class life, but to him they have no use. Elisa, however, is
very upset at this casual dismissal of her lifes passion, and begins to cry like an old woman

(Steinbeck). This explores the class differences between the middle class and the lower class. To

a lower class person who works to live, putting so much work into something as trivial and

non-essential to life as flowers is seen as extravagant. However, to a middle-class woman like

Elisa, these flowers are her lifes passion and are seen as an absolute. By throwing these flowers

away, the worker is making a statement against the middle class. He is rejecting her way of life

by rejecting her lifes passion - the flowers - as trivial.

While the flowers symbolize the class difference between Elisa and the worker, the

characters themselves symbolize the classes they are supposed to represent. Elisas position as a

symbol of the middle class is representative of how Steinbeck felt about the class separation in

the United States. The way that Elisa treats the worker is portrayed as cold. However, the worker

throwing away Elisas chrysanthemums clearly hurts her, and this puts her in a sympathetic light.

By portraying Elisa, the middle class, as cold but unwaveringly human, Steinbeck is saying that

class separation in the United States hurts both the lower and middle class. Elisa and the worker

have a tender moment when she is giving him the flowers. Elisa is terribly passionate about these

flowers -- the same flowers that unite, yet break them apart. This is a social commentary by

Steinbeck, who was a known socialist: if the poor and the middle class worked together, they

could work to change their status; however, the middle class is not willing to relinquish their

status, so they are stuck in a situation that hurts them as well. Elisa and the worker exemplify this

throughout the story. Elisa and the worker unite somewhat when she gives him the flowers;

however, the worker only took the flowers so that she would give him work. Elisa had been rude

to him already, showing this class divide between them. Their unification is then destroyed when
Elisa sees that he had thrown away the flowers. Steinbeck is saying that the middle class must

learn to lend a hand to the poor without something being done for them; the poor, on the other

hand, must learn to trust and unite with the middle class.

When considering Elisas role as the middle class and the workers role as the poor, the

story turns into an allegory for socialism. To portray the main character as an example of the

class relations between the poor and the middle class is a political statement that is very

characteristic of Steinbeck, who was a socialist. This characterization makes Elisa more than just

a woman who gets upset with a worker for throwing out her chrysanthemums; she turns into a

woman who symbolizes the broken relationship between the classes in America. This allows the

story to exist on a deeper plane. Elisa attempts to teach the worker something she is incredibly

passionate about, but the worker, concerned with nothing more than the labor he must get done

in order to live, is not concerned with something he sees as trivial. When this is considered, the

worker is no longer seen as a villain or a bad person, but as a poor man who does not have the

time or energy to take on the emotional and physical labor that the chrysanthemums require to

thrive. This therefore deepens the workers characterization from a cunning, manipulative man to

a poor man taking on as much as he can in order to ease his life. The characterization of the

worker is supported in idea by Steinbecks fought-over position as a socialist, as it is out of

political character for him to frame a poor worker as a villain.

The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck is a highly political story. Essentially, it was

written to be an allegory for socialism, for which Steinbeck was an advocate. This is supported

by the symbols of the chrysanthemums, Elisa, and the worker. These class differences that

Steinbeck points out are highly representative of the socialist beliefs that Steinbeck held himself.
Steinbeck uses allegory and symbolism to richen the class-based complexities of the relationship

between Elisa and the worker.