Reading and Responding to Short Stories

Response #1: Chrysanthemums

John Steinbeck's “The Chrysanthemums”, is a story about a woman struggling with strong inner feelings of loneliness and isolation. Elisa Allen is initially portrayed as a woman who overcompensates and whose tasks are far exceeded by her abilities. She appears content with her life and adores tending to her garden. However, a tinker briefly enters her life and through his power of persuasion and manipulation provides Elisa with hopes of change and excitement. He gives her the much needed attention she is so desperately looking for. As the story continues we learn that these hopes are crushed as we unravel the betrayal the tinker has bestowed upon Elisa. He exploits her and takes advantage of her hunger for company, aspirations, and vulnerabilities. We are left with sympathy for a woman who longs for another life, but will never possess it. Elisa's inner feelings of loneliness are most apparent with the vivid descriptions of Elisa's appearance, the portrayal of her working in her garden, the conversation she has with the tinker and her dinner date with her husband.

Steinbeck's portrayal of Elisa Allen signifies the internal struggles of a housewife in the 1930's. Through the main character, Elisa, we get the feelings of empathy for a woman who desperately wants a more fulfilling and social life. A brief encounter with a tinker restores her hopes, but inevitably crushes them. She is left ashamed at the gullibility she possessed and how she allowed the tinker to take advantage of her weaknesses. Elisa is left, once again, to her isolated and lonely life; we can only assume she returned to asserting all her energy and inabilities onto her chrysanthemum garden. After all, the garden is all hers and will never leave nor hurt her.

Response #2: Ulysses

“Ulysses” by Tennyson concerns Ulysses, an ancient Greek King of Ithaca and a warrior hero. After the Trojan War ends, Ulysses is forced to wander for ten years by the Greek Gods before he can come home. He has been gone for twenty years when he returns home. Ulysses has been King of Ithaca for three years. Ulysses desires a life of independence, physical adventure, and intellectual pursuit.

Ulysses desires a life of independence. Ulysses wants to escape the confines of Kingly responsibility in a land that is dependent on him. He does not want to have the responsibility to bring a higher level of civilization “unto a savage race, /That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.” He wants to live life to the fullest without having to look back. He feels that his people do not understand the kind of person he really is. Ulysses believes his talents are not getting the use they should be getting. For that, he feels that he is rusting as he says, “To rust unburnished, not to shine in use.” Ulysses would; “Leave the scepter and isle” to his son, Telemachus. He feels that there is still work for him, but not “among ...