She was wearing a mans black hatclod-hopper shoes, heavy leather gloves and a big corduroy apron doing her best to cover up her femininity. In John Steinbecks short story, The Chrysanthemums, we are introduced to Elisa Allen. Elisa is living during a period after the Great Depression when womens rights issues were becoming a topic of public concern. Steinbeck uses the character Elisa Allen to portray the womens struggle for equality. She is a woman deprived of social, personal and sexual fulfillment in a male-dominated world. Elisa struggles to find satisfaction in her womanhood and a desire to escape from her isolated world. She was thirty-five. Her face was eager and mature and handsomeher figure looked blocked and heavy Elisa seems to be very masculine in appearance, and envious of the male authority. She has a very strong character and wishes to be independent and free herself. She struggles with the idea of women being inferior to men and feels that she must live up to what society believes a woman should be, passive. Elisa is unhappy and bored with the traditional roles she must play being a woman and frequently tries to behave as a man would. In several points in the story, she seems to take on a masculine role. For instance, when the man looking for work came by the house, she took authority and told him sternly I tell you I have nothing like that for you to do, a typical male response. She shows her strong qualities as she refuses him work making her feel like she has authority over him. Elisa tries so hard to be equal to her husband; she works so hard in her garden as he works on the farm. He compliments her garden, youve got a strong new crop coming, making her feel that she is equal to him in her eyes. However he returns with I wish youd work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big, completely neglecting her prize possession, her chrysanthemums, and unknowingly disrespecting her. She fights f...
