SOURCE: “‘The Chrysanthemums’ Revisited,” in Steinbeck Quarterly, Vol. XXII, Nos. 1–2, Winter-Spring, 1989, pp. 8–16.

In the following essay, Pellow calls into question the symbolic value of organic and mechanical elements in “The Chrysanthemums.”

Scholars who have interpreted and analyzed John Steinbeck's short story “The Chrysanthemums” appear to have ignored several associations and parallels between animals and characters. These associations, and some contrasts between things organic and things mechanical, support an interpretation of the story that, while not altogether new, goes somewhat beyond previous critiques in seeing the story as radically feministic, an unusual venture for Steinbeck.

Roy S. Simmonds has stated most succinctly what has occurred to numerous other readers of Steinbeck—that “a small critical industry” has been produced by this story. Stanley Renner has summarized one reading, with the intent of debunking it. The female protagonist, in Renner's summary, is seen as prevented, by men in general and...