The Chrysanthemums

Literary Analyst Portfolio for

“The Chrysanthemums”

The flow of colors was thrown aside like a bag of trash with no regard for who gave them to him. They turned from beautiful to a dark and bleak expression of love. In “The Chrysanthemums Elsa uses the delicate flower to help keep her going in life. She is not happy in her current world and replaces it with a flower that gives her the power she wants when caring for it. A simple object like a Chrysanthemum can show the character of one person towards another out of respect, love and how much a person really cares.

A Chrysanthemum can help a person psychologically if they have the need to escape a deep sadness they feel. “seemed to small and easy for her energy” (6).: While Elsa was trimming the stems she felt more powerful. Elsa was not treated as she felt she should be. She does not have the life she wants, but one thing she can do is rock when gardening. The Chrysanthemums gave her a sense of belonging, power and fulfillment.

She does not have the life she wants, but the Chrysanthemums give her the one thing she rocks at and that is gardening them to perfection like magic.: Her face was eager, mature and handsome; even her work with the scissors was over eager, over powerful”. (314) Elsa and the Flower lived in a private world of their own. In her life she was not at the top of the food chain according to men. Gardening the Chrysanthemums was not something she had to do, but something she chose to do and was proud of her achievements with the flower.

The Chrysanthemums are referred to as “dark specks” in this part of the story. The stranger lied and rejects what she values. He throws her precious Chrysanthemums aside and instead of being colorful they grew into a dark thing. When the Chrysanthemum is thrown to the ground by the man she helped, she only refers to it now as