"The Chrysanthemums" - John Steinbeck

7.How do you interpret Elisa's asking for wine with dinner? How do you account for her new interest in prize fights?

a.The moment when Elisa sees her contents of the flower pot dumped on the road, she feels rejected, weak and betrayed. Her hope to be appreciated as a woman, is crushed. She has no desire to try and be strong. Elisa realizes that her life is not going to change. She wants wine at dinner and i think that this wanting of her, is a way to show her acceptance that her life is never going to change, that she will be always confined in her Chrysanthemums, never be able to experience or express the joys and passions that are buried deep inside her. Elisa by wanting to drink wine accepts the life of the typical married woman, aging and dying as only a domestic woman.

b.Elisa, after regaining her confidence, asks her husband if any woman go to prize fights. I think that she wonders if she could enter a man's world of business and other masculine responsibilities but when she responds to her husband that she doesn't want to go, Elisa, now, fully understands that she does not want anymore to gain power in a man's world. She represses even more her feelings and her unrealized dreams and adventures.  

8.In a sentence, try to state this short story's theme.

In my opinion, the theme of this story is: The repression of women and the desire for equality between man and women.

Throughout the story, i see that Elisa is confined from world, which is symbolized in the story through the fence, she desires to pass that fence, to live her adventures. Also, i see that Elisa wants to be appreciated by her husband and by the tinker as a woman. Even though her husband tries to makes her happy, by taking her at dinners, she requires for more. Her husband fails to understand the interest she takes in business and the potential she has for doing much more with her life. Elisa longs for the romance and excitement, to have her needs as woman fulfilled. Her relationship with her husband is like the relationship between two good friends, they even have no children, and only with the appearance of tinker, Elisa's repressed needs show and make her to hope for her life, to be appreciated.

When Elisa talks with the tinker, she shows that she likes the life of the salesman 'It must be nice'. She likes to do a life of a man. While reading the story, i understand that women weren't supposed to do other jobs except domestic one. Also this inequality between women and man, is also showed when Henry speaks to her wife but doesn't pass the fence, as to symbolize that it is the field of women, doing domestic works like gardening and Henry is the man, the patriarchal, whose only job is to do business not domestic works and this is why i think that the main theme of the story is the repression of women and desire for equality. Elisa is repressed and not equal with the male gender.

9.Why are Elisa Allen's chrysanthemums so important in this story? Sum up what you understand them to mean.

The chrysanthemums garden is what motivates Elisa's life.  Her gardening area could be described as a “cage” to protect herself from anything harmful. They are like the children that she hasn't, she handles the chrysanthemums with love and care, just as she would handle her own children. Elisa is very protective of her flowers and places a wire fence around them. She makes sure no bugs or worms are there, "Her terrier fingers destroy such pests before they can get started". 

Also, the chrysanthemums symbolize Elisa's femininity and sexuality, her soft and delicate character. Like Elisa the chrysanthemums are lovely and strong. When the tinker notices the chrysanthemums, Elisa brightens, just as if he had noticed her instead. She offers the chrysanthemums to him at the same time she offers herself, both of which he ignores and tosses aside. His rejection of the flowers also mimics the way society has rejected women as nothing more than mothers and housekeepers. Just like her, the flowers are unimportant, both are decorative and add little value to the world. In the end, the chrysanthemums represent the repressed feelings and desires of Elisa.