John Steinbeck, "The Chrysanthemums" 2/13

Steinbeck’s story, “The Chrysanthemums” is a story full of symbolism and deeper meaning. It is hard to find just one main point within the story but overall the story seems to be about sexuality, gender, and self-discovery. The main character in the story is Elisa Allen, wife of Henry Allen. The Allen’s live in Salinas sometime around the 1930’s. They live on an isolated ranch, where they both also work. Elisa Allen is a thirty-five year old woman who is described to have strong and manly features. Elisa seems to spend a lot of time on the ranch, in the garden, planting and taking care of her chrysanthemums. The chrysanthemums are a very important of the story, as they seem to symbolize her sexuality and inner-self.
When the man passing on his carriage begins to show interest in the flowers, all of the sudden Elisa seems to become a new woman. It’s almost as if she is finally liberated and is finally able to discover her sexuality. The second he asks about the chrysanthemums Elisa is described as, “kneeling on the ground look up at him. Her breast swelled passionately” (152). As soon as this happens, the man self-consciously looks away. Later she is still kneeling bellow him and Steinbeck writes, “Her hand went out towards his legs in the greasy black trousers. Her hesitant fingers almost touched the cloth. Then her hand dropped to the ground. She crouched low like a fawning dog” (152). Just these few sentences alone, show how much sexuality is all of the sudden arising inside of her-as if no man before had paid attention to her, or her chrysanthemums. Once the man has left she goes to the bathroom, tears of her “soiled clothes” (154) and looks at herself in the mirrors, like she all of the sudden just noticed she was a woman, and a strong woman at that.
I like this story because it has so many different elements within it. I also found that the most important symbols where one’s of sexuality and discovering of ones own sexuality; which also seem to be the least obvious. This made me a lot more interested in reading the story because it’s something that everyone goes through, especially since I feel that most females don’t discover their own sexuality until somebody else notices it or someone else brings it out in them. It is sad that it usually takes a man’s notice to make a woman find her own sexuality but from my experience, this is quite often the case. I felt like I could relate to certain aspects of this story, yet also understand that there are many things within it that I also do not relate to nor really understand the perspective that Steinbeck is coming from; it kept me intrigued and interested to know more.

Muddy Road-W. Somerset Maugham 2/6

A short, yet very effective and well devoloped short story; "Muddy Road" written by W. Somerset Maugham is an intriguing story of conflict and imbalance. Maughham tells a story of Tanzan and Ekido; two monks traveling together. As they're walking together in the rain, down a muddy road, they run into a girl who is hesitant or "unable" to walk across the mud. Tanzan picks the girl up and carries her to the other side of the mud. This event effects the other monk, Ekido, in an odd way that creates the imbalance in the story. The imbalance seems to be between Tanzan and Ekido but later it's obvious that the imbalance is actually an internal imbalance within Ekido himself. Ekido does not speak to Tanzan until later that night when he says to Tanzan, "We monks don't go near females...especially not young and lovely ones. It is dancgerous. Why did you do that?". Tanzan replies to Ekido by saying, "I left the girl there...Are you still carrying her?"
I really enjoyed this story. It had an effect on me that was much deeper than just what is shown on the surface of this story. At first, the story can be seen only as the difficulties and conflicts of being a monk and not being aloud certain "normal" human desires. However, after looking deeper and further into the meaning of this story, it turns out that it's a very important and symbol story. The reason it effected me so much is that I saw it as an overrall story about not being able to let go of ones feelings, desires, decisions, or regrets. It's natural for humans to dwell on things and unless they teach themselves to do otherwise, some people can become obsessed with holding onto things and analzying every little choice they make. Thoughts like this can keep someone from living their lives and functioning "normally". In this story, Ekido is unable to let go of the feelings and desires that the "lovely girl" had raised in him. Therefore he was unable to speak to Tanzan and instead of realizing his own faults, he put his blaim on Tanzan, who had done nothing wrong. Unlike Ekido, Tanzan was able to make a decision and then move on normally with his life.