Womens Role in Steinbecks N essays

Women's Role in Steinbeck's N essays John Steinbeck was born in 1902 in the Salinas Valley in California. This is also the setting for most of his early works in the 1930s. It is two of these works "The Chrysanthemums" and "The White Quail" that I will focus on when explaining the role of women in Steinbeck's novels during this period. The women in "The Chrysanthemums" and "The White Quail" are used to show the reader the inner strength, frustration and antagonism of women in the 1930s who will never realize their full potential. Elisa Allen in "The Chrysanthemums" and Mary Teller in "The White Quail" use Mother Nature for their inner strength. Elisa demonstrates this in a conversation with her husband about her chrysanthemums. " 'You've got a gift with things,' Henry observed. 'Some of those yellow chrysanthemums you had this year were ten inches across. I wish you'd work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big.' Her eyes sharpened. 'Maybe I could do it, too. I've a gift with things, all right' " ( Steinbeck 5). In this instance you get the feeling that Alisa feels extremely confident in her abilities to work with all things that are planted and that there is nothing she can't grow if only she put her mind to it. This sense of self worth is further amplified when Elisa asks the tinker " 'Did you ever hear of planting hands?' 'Can't say I have, ma'am.' 'Well, I can only tell you what it feels like. It's when you're picking off the buds you don't want. Everything goes right down into y our fingertips. You watch your fingers work. They do it themselves. You can feel how it is. They pick the buds. They never make a mistake. You can feel it. When you're like that you can't do anything wrong. Do you see that? Can you understand that?' "(12). It is at this moment that the reader should realize that Elisa derives her inner strength from her ability to bond with Mother Nature and grow her chrysanthemums. Similarly, Mary Teller in "The...