The Chrysanthemums

            The feeling I had about the woman’s personality in this story is she was hard-headed. She liked to be smug, was boastful and wasn’t quite friendly. I felt like she was constantly trying to prove something to herself by being snippy to her husband and the wagon man. Maybe it wasn’t about her trying to prove anything; maybe it was just her liking to be in control.
            I think the reason why she was so angry and upset in the end is because out of everyone in her life, a stranger got under her skin. Someone she didn’t even know got her to be a person of softness and excitement as derived from this quote, “The irritation and resistance melted from Elisa’s face. ‘Oh, those are chrysanthemums, giant whites and yellows…,'” (Steinbeck, 635-51). Once the wagon man saw that she found pride in taking care of the chrysanthemums and how she loved them so, he dug into that weakness by getting her to talk more about them and she did so. When she asked him if he knew what planter’s hands were, “her breast swelled passionately,” (Steinbeck, 636-72) and she seemed almost breathless and vulnerable after talking about the chrysanthemums. It was then when the wagon man pressed on her vulnerability by stating he would have no dinner tonight. She then felt guilty and decided to give him saucepans to work on for fifty cents.
            When he left, that was probably when she realized that she wasn’t as strong as she always believed herself to be. This angered her because she then went to bathe, “Then she scrubbed herself … until her skin was scratched and red,” (Steinbeck, 638-93). It seemed like she was trying to wash the shame (or truth?) from her body. She knew that the wagon man manipulated her and seeing the pile of the dirt that was originally from her flower pot that the wagon man dumped on the side of the road confirmed her suspicions. That is probably why she was so snippy to her husband when he complimented her, she felt justified to try to feel “strong” again and this was the only way she knew how to feel strong – by being bossy-like to her husband, and being back in control. But I think in reality she was only fooling herself because she knew the truth: she was weak. Now I wonder how she actually feels about her precious chrysanthemums. Does she hate them now because they represent her definite weakness? Would she be so passionate about them now, knowing how the wagon man manipulated her with the chrysanthemums?