In a literary work, it becomes difficult to conceptually understand a work without examining all its aspects and underlying meanings. The novel “Chrysanthemums” is the main subject of the essay. Here I would like to develop thematic sections that can be put together to highlight the fact that the relationship between Henry and Elisa parallels a society with the injustice of the inability to treat a woman as an equal. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Chrysanthemums was published in 1937 by an American writer. When teaching this literary work, I would start with the context behind it. In the 1930s, the United States was under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and experiencing the end of the Great Depression, a social and political catastrophe. “It was a moment of calm and waiting.” Organized women's suffrage movements remained small and relatively weak, even though it was the beginning of the recovery from "the worst economic downturn in U.S. history." The story is relative to history as the protagonist, Elisa Allen, is a woman who is given little to no attention as she has been presented as a wife living in the shadow of her husband, Henry Allen. The main characters are very challenged on their role in society, Elisa takes care of her chrysanthemums while her husband takes care of businessmen, affairs in which women should not get involved. The Chrysanthemums is based on a society that has little to no respect for the value of a woman, a society that believes that women should take care of the home and meet the needs of their children. Through the relationship between Elisa and Henry, Steinbeck is able to convey an idea of ​​what America was like socially in the 1930s, a society with inequality between the sexes. After teaching 1930s history, I would illuminate more information about our characters. . Starting with Henry Allen, he was Elisa's husband and a successful businessman. “Across the river, on Henry Allen’s ranch, there was little work to be done…”. He is kind and respectful to Elisa, he treats her to dinners, compliments her beauty and her gardening work while she takes care of her chrysanthemums. Although he is very nice to her, he does not really like Elisa due to society's traditional view of male dominance. He can't imagine expecting anything from her other than taking care of the house and her garden, which is why he doesn't understand her dissatisfaction with their relationship. Henry also disregards her personal desires and emotional needs. He ignores her desire to have children and does not give her the attention she desires, to which Elisa fills this void through other interactions in the story. Depending on the context, I would begin to recognize the setting. The setting is directly described in the first paragraph of the story: “The high gray-flannel fog of winter closed the Salinas Valley to the sky and the rest of the world.” In other words, it takes place on a ranch in California's Salinas Valley, specifically in the winter, in the middle of the afternoon. In the 1930s, many fled to California to find new land on which to settle and acquire new wealth. The setting is described as isolated, depressing and “a closed pot”. The imagery of the setting foreshadows a closed role in society. Coming back to the context of the story, it was a time when women had no opportunities. Elisa is isolatedin her role in society because she has limited mobility in her relationship and a closed-off sense of hope for the attention she desires. Elisa Allen is an attractive woman, but the reader has no sense of femininity. “Elisa Allen, working in her flower garden, looked across the yard and saw Henry, her husband, talking to two men in business suits.” When she is introduced into the story, we can conclude that she is a shy, quiet and curious person by nature who could also be considered a hard-working woman, but she is overlooked because she is a woman and the wife of a farmer. “She was thirty-five years old. His face is thin and strong and his eyes are clear as water. His silhouette blocked and heavy in his gardener's costume, a black man's hat pulled down over his eyes...". As Jane Smiley once said: “I am thirty-five years old and it seems to me that I have reached the age of mourning. Others get there sooner. Almost no one arrives much later. I don't think it's the years themselves or the disintegration of the body. Most of our bodies are better cared for and more beautiful than ever. What it is is what we know, now that, despite ourselves, we have stopped thinking about it. It's not just that we know that love ends, that children are stolen, that parents die with the feeling that their lives no longer have meaning. It's not just that at this time many acquaintances and friends have died, and everyone else prepares for it sooner or later. Elisa is at the peak of her life not only physically, but also mentally and sexually and is no longer at the age of youth but she is not about to die either. Given her physical attire, the work she does, and the way her husband inappropriately compliments her, the reader is led to conclude that she is a woman with a masculine psychic character. Elisa is ambitious, when her husband compliments her gardening work and jokes about her ability to work in the orchard, she quickly becomes enthusiastic but just as quickly, she loses interest when she changes the subject. Henry is unable to understand her interests and rejects the idea as he does not believe a woman could do such a man's job. She craves independence, freedom and self-expression. The relationship between Henry and Eliza highlighted the conflict of male dominance in society as their genders depict their roles in society. Eliza is uninterested and frustrated with her relationship with her husband, she has no children or romantic attention. She is not satisfied with the role she plays in life. The handyman is physically directly characterized in the story: “Elisa saw that he was a very big man. Although his hair and beard were graying, he did not look old.” He is uneducated, poor and dirty. He travels to repair other people's broken household items. Indirectly, he is described as manipulative and dishonest: “The laughter had disappeared from his face and his eyes the moment his laughing voice ceased. His eyes were dark and filled with the sullenness that characterizes the eyes of crewmen and sailors. As he interacts with Elisa, soliciting business, his thoughts and actions become deceptive, only helping him gain profits at the cost of his manipulation. As a man in society, he is allowed to freely attract clients and get what he wants through his lies, further reinforcing the role of male dominance in the 1930s. Finally, to put context and characterization together, I would end by explaining the plot. through quotes in the story. The fence suggests that her husband protects "his flower garden from cattle, dogs and chickens", this..