While The Long Valley is undeniably rich in female portraits, and in the portrayal of husband-and-wife relationships, Elisa's and Mary's portraits stand out as two sides of one conception: they seem to have been produced one after the other, if not conjointly, and to corroborate each other in the formulation of a correct relation of humans to their environment. The primary theme of the story The Chrysanthemums is one that appears throughout Steinbeck's canon, the issue of creative frustration. In the works of a writer like Steinbeck, who had strong confidence in his thorough understanding of "women's heart of hearts," one might encode indices of a forgotten language, decipherable hieroglyphs. Deleted or distorted by male-manipulated language, the female's quest for self-respect and fulfillment has been lost from culture and even consciousness for centuries. Historically speaking, women have been considered symbolic objects of use in a masculine structure and linguistic tokens, rather than wielders of words in their own right.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |