25+ paper examples, study guides & outlines
Chrysanthemums as a literary subject centers almost entirely on John Steinbeck's short story "The Chrysanthemums," a work widely taught in undergraduate English and composition courses. The story follows Elisa Allen, a woman whose intense care for her chrysanthemum garden becomes a lens for examining gender, identity, and unfulfilled desire in Depression-era America. Its layered use of symbolism and imagery makes it a rich text for courses focused on American literature, feminist criticism, and close reading, and it rewards analysis precisely because its meaning operates beneath the surface of a quiet, seemingly uneventful plot.
Papers on this topic gravitate toward a few consistent approaches. Symbolism and imagery analysis are the dominant modes, with writers examining how the chrysanthemums themselves represent Elisa's inner life, creative energy, and suppressed potential. Comparative essays are also common, pairing Steinbeck's story with other works such as Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," Willa Cather's "Paul's Case," or William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" to draw out contrasts in character, theme, or gendered experience. Some papers situate the story within its historical moment, reading Elisa's constraints against the broader social conditions of the period between 1929 and 1945.
A strong essay on this topic builds a specific, arguable thesis about what the chrysanthemums ultimately reveal — about Elisa's relationship with her husband, her sense of self, or her place in the world — rather than simply cataloguing symbols. Textual evidence drawn from the story's dialogue, setting, and descriptive language carries the most weight. The most common pitfall is treating the flowers as a single fixed symbol; effective analysis tracks how their meaning shifts across the story's arc.