Blog #4 assignment

I feel that the story “The Chrysanthemums,” by John Steinbeck is a good example of gender criticism. Gender criticism is defined as “the examination of the ways in which sexual identity influences the creation, interpretation, and evaluation of literary works” (Kennedy, X.J. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing). In the end of “The Chrysanthemums,” John Steinbeck has Elisa associate her crying to that of a weakly old woman. Even though Steinbeck has Elisa wanting to break through the gender barriers of her day all throughout the story, she settles by sticking to the gender roles of her society. The approach of gender criticism would help the reader to interpret this story more efficiently because it will make the expectations of women during those times clearer, and makes it easier to understand the hardships that Elisa was going through as well. For example, she had added stress to her already stressful life, just because women were looked down upon for no good reason. Probably like many women during her time, Elisa wanted to be treated as an equal to men and have some say in her life. However, Steinbeck showed how women dealt with these aspirations; they kept them to themselves. The use of gender criticism would help the reader fully understand why Steinbeck's story followed a woman as opposed to a man, as well as explain the events that unfolded around her.