SOURCE: “‘The Chrysanthemums’: Repression and Desire,” in The Dramatic Landscape of Steinbeck's Short Stories, University of Oklahoma Press, 1990, pp. 169–77.

In the following essay, Timmerman contends that “The Chrysanthemums” is a classical example of Steinbeck's favored theme of artistic repression.

During his period of intense artistic activity during the first half of 1934, Steinbeck fought almost daily against an overwhelming sense of failure. There were days when the words flowed as if some divine muse guided them; there were others during which his ledger entries consisted of little more than despondent notes lamenting his lack of success. It is not surprising, in view of this symbiosis of exhilarating effort and exhausted despair, that one theme to surface regularly in the stories is society's failure to recognize the artistic gift and its consequent repression of the creative genius. Steinbeck explored that theme in three of his stories from The Long Valley...