Portrayal of Women in Society by Steinbeck and Thurber

Women in Society
John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums” and James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” tell two very different stories about two very different people—but both share one thing in common, which is each conveys a sense of what women in society are like. Steinbeck’s short story is naturally more sympathetic and empathetic, as the main character of the story is a woman, who is aching for affection and tempted to stray from her husband by a deceitful wanderer. James Thurber’s short story focuses mainly on a bored married man, who disappears into daydreams while awaiting orders from his wife. This paper will compare and contrast the portrayal of women in society by Steinbeck and Thurber and show how an aching disconnect exists between women and their men.
In “Walter Mitty,” Mrs. Mitty is depicted as somewhat of a boring old nag, constantly chiding her husband for his seeming aloofness. She accuses Walter of having “one of his days” in the beginning of the story as he races their car through traffic, imagining that he is flying a Navy bomber into a hurricane. She does not understand what he is actually up to because he is essentially non-communicative with her. So she assumes he has some sort of medical condition, which is why she wishes that he would let the doctor look him over. She tells him to put on his gloves and to get overshoes, looking after him as though she were a little child. He drops her at the salon so that she can get her hair done. The fact that he is driving and she riding (and that she does not like to go fast in the car) indicates that the world of Mr. and Mrs. Mitty is a bit different from the world of Elisa in Steinbeck’s short story. Elisa’s story takes place at home, and she is the center of it—not her husband. The world is seen through her eyes and the reader gets a sense of the pain and the emotional disconnect she feels. In Thurber’s story, the world is seen from Walter’s eyes and Mrs. Mitty is viewed as something foreign and alien to him, something that keeps interrupting his fantasies and recalling him back to the unhappy real world.
In “The Chrysanthemums,” Elisa’s husband does not seem to appreciate her interest in the flowers, which serve as a kind of symbol of her heart and emotions. He is interested in masculine things, such as work, sports and movies. He tries to engage his wife, but does so in something of a mocking manner: “At it again,” he says to her when he sees her planting flowers. He suggests that they go to the fights in a joking tone, but she does not play along with the joke, because to her it is not a joke: their relationship is real but it sometimes feels to her like it they are not connecting—otherwise, why would he make jokes about going to fights when he knows she probably would not like to sit and watch a boxing match? Her place in society is like a fish out of water, in some regards. She plants her flowers to give herself peace and beauty, and there is great joy in nursing something and bringing it to life. But there is no one to share it with. She is left nursing the flower garden by herself as her husband seems to notice it only in passing as though it meant nothing to him. It is as though her love meant nothing to him—and that is what is difficult for her to bear.
When the stranger arrives, he sums her up quickly and realizes he can get what he wants from her by feigning interest in what she loves—the flowers. His interest in her hobby, however, almost compels her to try to make love to him. She is so lonely and sad inside that the first time a man comes along to actually take notice of what is important to her she nearly throws herself at him. She refrains, of course, but the thought and the temptation are that, and that is what troubles her—particularly later when she sees the flower and flower pot that she gave the stranger dashed on the side of road, rejected and unwanted, when she believed all the nice things he had been saying. That moment crushes her more than anything else and makes her feel like there is no way for her to obtain love in this world.
In “Walter Mitty,” Mrs. Mitty is not so much looking for love the way Elisa is as looking to control Mr. Mitty as though he were a child. The more she tries to control, the more he slips away into his daydreams and fantasies, eager to be away from her. His final daydream in the story is of facing the firing line, as he waits for her to return from the drugstore—an image that suggests she is so controlling that being around her is like being around a death squad. Thurber does not paint a very positive image of women in society in his short story. He makes woman seem like she is nagging, indifferent to the soul of man, uninteresting in herself, and unintelligent for thinking Walter could be anything more than a dopey old fool. Obviously Walter is very creative and full of a hidden vitality. In fact, he is a lot more like Elisa in Steinbeck’s story than Mrs. Mitty is. Walter and Elisa share a hidden secret—both are in love with life and yet feel like life does not love them back. So Elisa retreats into herself and into her flowers, and Walter retreats into himself and into his daydreams.
By comparing and contrasting these two stories, it can be seen that women in society are portrayed very differently by the two others: Elisa is portrayed as thoughtful, kind, caring, but emotionally and perhaps physically neglected. She loves her husband—that is apparent—but there is a great sorrow in her that he does not seem to be aware of or understand, and it has something to do with life itself, with the nurturing of life. If love is meant to bear fruit, it has to be asked why the only fruit Elisa has to nurture is that of the flowerbed—why does she have no children? With Walter and Mrs. Mitty it is the same. They are older but there is no mention of children: do they have any? Since none are around, Mrs. Mitty treats Walter as though he is the child.
Thus, the two stories do seem to indicate that woman in society is defined—no matter where she is—by this need to nurture and care for something. In neither story is that need satisfied by a child. Rather, in “Walter Mitty,” Walter himself is the stand-in for the child as the recipient of the woman’s maternal instinct. In Steinbeck’s story, the flowers are the stand-in for the child as the recipient of Elisa’s need to nurture something beautiful and bring it to life.
Yet in neither story is there much happiness. Mrs. Mitty is constantly fretting over her husband, thinking him ill or senile because she mistakenly views him as a child as she goes about her maternal ways—and since he is not a child, he chafes at her actions, which further causes her to fuss. In “The Chrysanthemums,” Elisa frets over the fact that no one seems to care about her need to nurture something beautiful—and that causes her to sink into herself.
Both stories, in this sense, suggest that woman in society is not going to be satisfied by anything that does not directly relate to this natural, instinctive drive within them to mother and nurture, to care for and to help grow. Mrs. Mitty is always looking after her husband in an attempt to make sure he is okay, but her actions would be better fit towards a small child. Elisa is always “at it again” as her husband says, taking care of her garden. What would the story be if these women had more than flowers or withdrawn husbands to care for?
As Mordecai Marcus notes, it is a lost dream of sex and childbirth that haunts Elisa in “The Chrysanthemums.” She is basically cut off from nature and there seems to be a sense of her missing out on what she should have—the fruit of the womb, as Marcus points out. Charles Sweet notes that Elisa’s frustration is palpable throughout the whole story: it is like she is the potted flower that has been discarded on the side of the road. Sex for her has not led to fulfillment. She has no children, apparently. She has no family. She has only her flowers—and even they are despised.
In conclusion, Thurber’s “Walter Mitty” and Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums” both depict women in society in different ways. Thurber depicts an older woman who is going to town with her husband in order to get her hair done and run a few errands. She fusses over everything her husband does because he is so aloof and uncommunicative: she chides him for going too fast, for sitting in the wrong chair, for not getting overshoes, and so on. He disappears into himself and daydreams to pass the time. In Steinbeck’s story, the woman is different—she is at home but seemingly cut off from her home and disconnected from everything. She tends to her garden like it is the only thing that matters, but no one appreciates it. She is drawn to a stranger who feigns interest, but she does not stray physically from her husband. Emotionally, she is already stayed. There is a sense in both stories, in spite of their differences, that the two women suffer from having their maternal instinct stifled. Each acts as though she must care for something—but there are no children in the story to care for. So Mrs. Mitty fusses over Walter and Elisa gives all her love to flowers, hoping someone will take notice and understand what it all means.

Works Cited
Marcus, Mordecai. \"The Lost Dream of Sex and Childbirth in\" The Chrysanthemums\".\"  Modern Fiction Studies 11.1 (1965): 54.
Steinbeck, John. “The Chrysanthemums.” http://mspachecogdhs.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/2/0/13206998/the_chrysanthemums_by_john_steinbeck.pdf
Sweet, Charles A. \"Ms. Elisa Allen and Steinbeck's\" The Chrysanthemums\".\" Modern Fiction Studies 20.2 (1974): 210.
Thurber, James. “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” http://www.novamil.org/sites/novamil.org/files/secret_life_of_walter_mitty_se.pdf