Women in the Face of War: John Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums"

The National Socialist Party of Germany, the Nazi's, seized Austria through military force in 1938. The year before he sent troops into Rhineland (a strip of land between France and Germany), a direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles. In September, as part of the Munich Conference with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Britain, they also secured the Sudetenland, roughly one-third of Czechoslovakia. Six months later he would march on the remainder of Czechoslovakia. The country being previously referred to by Adolf Hitler as the "aircraft carrier" in the heart of Europe.(Gatzke, Hans., Pg.194) Complete with additional military armaments from his new conquests, in 1939 he marched on Poland, thus causing Britain and France to simultaneously declare war on Germany. John Steinbeck's The Chrysanthemums is about women, their role in war, and in the face of the impending World War II.

Throughout the story you see Elisa physically and mentally steel herself to take on the role of a woman during war. She's proven herself capable of doing hard labor, donning the garb of a man, and assessing situations that weren't considered to be part of a woman's role. Ultimately it's her husband's refusal to accept her in a capacity that goes outside her gender role, that stalemates her from becoming more, and only in war where things aren't normal, can she finally realize her need to live outside what's socially accepted.

Steinbeck foresaw a nation headed to war, and the trials and tribulations that our nation's women would endure. Winston Churchill, then just a member of the British House of Commons, also foresaw the coming war in Europe after Chamberlain's open acceptance of Nazi Germany's terms at the Munich Conference. "You were given a choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war."(Vail, John J., Pg 18) Czechoslovakia who could've easily bested Germany on the field follow both it's Western contemporaries, France and Great Britain, who were willing to risk anything for peace. "We would not be understood by Europe and the world if we provoked the war now. The Nation must endure," President Edvard Benes to his countrymen. (Gatzke, Hans. Pg 214)

Steinbeck's main character in Chrysanthemums, Elisa Allen is representative of all women who took on traditionally male roles in World War I and have now begun to realize that they might have to return to a country at war. Elisa shows this through her appearance and station in life. She's a farmer's wife making her part of the typical middle-class family of the time. She's shown as hardworking, but not outside of her own gender role. She does light gardening, but she doesn't participate in the harder farm work which is left to hired hands. Her garb is distinctly masculine, and is referred to in the work as a "costume" although she's pretending to be someone she's not with her "man's black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clod-hopper shoes, and a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron..." Her age is also appropriate as she would've been young enough to take on many of the male-dominated work positions that would've arose during WWII. Her mentality also lends itself that she'd been open to taking on a non-traditional position because during her conversation with the beggar about living in the wagon. He rejects her notion, by saying, "It ain't the right kind of a life for woman." She later tries to regain her composure and further cement that she's ready to take on issues that aren't considered feminine in nature, when she speaks to her husband about the prize fights. However her in-depth knowledge of what occurs evokes shock from her husband so she concedes to hide behind what was socially acceptable.

Elisa is seen throughout the majority of the story working steadily over the chrysanthemums that grow in her front yard. The chrysanthemums themselves are symbolic of "the American Way of Life" by how they are treated and their outcome. At the time a woman was expected to marry, have children, and raise a family. In a way, the chrysanthemums are Elisa's children, she nurtures and cares for them on a daily basis. They're protect from outside forces by the little white fence that surrounds them and she "destroys" any pests that would seek to harm them. They're the innocence, the sense of normality, that's lost during war. Just like how the chrysanthemums at the end of our story are misplaced, things such as "little fences" and "trips to town for dinner and a movie" don't exist in a world interrupted by war.

The world had been shattered by "The Great Depression of 1929," and in countries like World War I-torn Germany where unemployment rose from 1 million to 6 million people in the course of a year, promises, like those made by Adolf Hitler, were taken to heart. He spoke of a nation that would no longer have to pay the Allied forces, where every German would have a job, a nation that would grow strong again. Middle-class and the wealthy alike supported him due to his charismatic speeches and his disbelief in communism. To the ailing German people, he seemed like a godsend, a man that came from nothing and nowhere. Much like how the Beggar's Wagon emerges from the surrounding country-side.

The Beggar himself isn't very intimidating in appearance. His clothes are disheveled, and the donkey and dog he rides with are past their prime. Hitler himself was not wealthy and his position later in life can largely be contributed to the time he spent in the military, and his oratory gift. The Beggar also posses a highly persuasive nature and manages to secure Elisa's prized chrysanthemums from her through words, rather than actions. Just as Hitler managed to extort the Sudetenlands from Britain, France, and Czechoslovakia by being firm in his demands despite his lack of military power. Both the Beggar and Hitler prove themselves to be inhuman in their contempt for lives of others. The Beggar betrays himself when Elisa and her husband go into town only for her to discover that he'd gone and thrown the chrysanthemums, "the American Way of Life", in the road. Hitler passed laws against German Jews denying them the right to vote or marry non-Jews, and he later initiated the Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) on November 9^th where thirty thousand Jews were sent to prison camps after their businesses and synagogues were destroyed.