Passive Protagonists in Steinbeck and Chopin's Short Stories
This essay compares the female protagonists of two classic American short stories: Elisa Allen in John Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums" and Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour." The paper argues that both women are passive protagonists whose political and personal agency has been stripped away by patriarchal social norms. Drawing on symbolism — particularly the use of nature and sexuality — the essay explores how both authors use their protagonists' trapped marriages, suppressed desires, and pessimistic endings to deliver a powerful social commentary on the limited roles available to women in their respective historical moments.
- Introduction: Passive Protagonists and Patriarchy: Thesis: patriarchy strips both protagonists of agency
- Nature as Symbol of Wasted Potential and Escape: Nature imagery reflects wasted potential and suppressed desire
- Loveless Marriages and Suppressed Liberation: Both women trapped in loveless marriages, fighting freedom
- Pessimistic Endings and the Cost of Conformity: Both stories end in loss, grief, and aging
- Conclusion: Storytelling Against Patriarchy: Authors use different strategies to expose patriarchal limits
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What makes this paper effective
- Uses parallel structure consistently, analyzing both protagonists side by side throughout each section rather than treating them in separate blocks — this reinforces the comparative argument at every turn.
- Grounds claims in direct textual evidence, citing specific quotations from both stories to support each analytical point about nature, sexuality, and suppression.
- Maintains a clear, sustained thesis — that patriarchy renders both women passive — and returns to it in the conclusion without simply restating it verbatim.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates effective comparative literary analysis. Rather than summarizing each story separately, the writer identifies shared thematic categories (nature symbolism, loveless marriage, suppressed desire, pessimistic endings) and uses each as a lens to examine both texts simultaneously. This technique shows analytical synthesis rather than mere plot description.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a clear thesis introducing both protagonists and the patriarchy argument. It then moves through three thematic body paragraphs — nature symbolism, loveless marriages, and story endings — before closing with a comparative reflection on each author's narrative strategy. The structure is tightly focused and each paragraph advances the central argument rather than drifting into plot summary.
Introduction: Passive Protagonists and Patriarchy
Elisa Allen is the protagonist of John Steinbeck's short story The Chrysanthemums, and Louise Mallard is the protagonist of Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour. Both Elisa and Louise are products of their social and historical contexts, particularly when it comes to gender norms. Both are passive protagonists because patriarchy has stripped them of political agency. By creating passive protagonists in their respective short stories, Steinbeck and Chopin make powerful social commentary about the role of women in their private and public lives.
Nature as Symbol of Wasted Potential and Escape
Both Elisa and Louise feel stuck in their marriages but perceive liberation as impossible within the confines of their culture. In both short stories, nature symbolizes wasted potential. Elisa, for example, is capable of so much more than gardening: "The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy" (Steinbeck). Similarly, Louise realizes she has wasted her life when she gazes at nature through the window of her room: "She felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air" (Chopin).
Nature also symbolizes fantasy and escape for both women. Elisa is most passionate when she speaks about chrysanthemums, especially in her conversation with the traveling man. For Louise, nature is literally what inspires her longing for escape — confined indoors, she can only observe it from her window. When she stares outside, she becomes lost in thought; her "gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought" (Chopin). Yet nature also represents hope for Louise: "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life" (Chopin).
Gardening further symbolizes Elisa's pent-up sexual energy. As she tends her garden in the presence of the traveler, "she was kneeling on the ground looking up at him. Her breast swelled passionately" (Steinbeck). This sexual awakening does not occur for Louise, who remains repressed throughout Chopin's story.
Loveless Marriages and Suppressed Liberation
Both Elisa and Louise long to be liberated from loveless marriages. Both protagonists are described as young and in their prime — Louise as "young" and "fair," and Elisa as "lean and strong" — yet both are trapped. Henry is kind but paternalistic, and his protectiveness prevents Elisa's passion for life from fully surfacing. In The Story of an Hour, it is only Brently's reported death that allows Louise to recognize how miserable she has been.
Neither woman has any real hope for liberation, because pursuing it would violate the social norms of their era. This is why Louise struggles against her own surging feelings of joy: "she was striving to beat it back with her will — as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been" (Chopin). Elisa similarly suppresses her emotions: "She tried not to look as they passed it, but her eyes would not obey" (Steinbeck). The patriarchal structures governing both women's lives make resistance feel as futile as it is necessary.
Conclusion: Storytelling Against Patriarchy
Steinbeck reveals far more about Elisa than Chopin does about Louise, yet their respective storytelling strategies serve the same ultimate goal: exposing the pitfalls of patriarchy. Because of their gender, neither Louise nor Elisa is able to live freely or reach her full potential as a human being. Although Steinbeck's story offers slightly more hope for Elisa — the traveler at least awakens something in her — both women are ultimately tragic figures. As scholars of American literature have long noted, stories like these serve as urgent reminders of the cost that rigid social norms impose on women's lives, and of the ongoing necessity of working to dismantle those constraints.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour."
Steinbeck, John. "The Chrysanthemums."
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