Thursday, February 7, 2013

The Chrysanthemums

Believe it or not, I never knew that "Mums" stood for "Chrysanthemums" but I at least knew that they were flowers. But that is beside the point.
 
This story was indeed one that I will remember because I feel that I understood it better than most. The married woman with no children liked to work in her garden, and she seemed content with this. But, throughout the story it seemed that she simply longed to be viewed as an equal by her husband, as well as everyone else. The setting is described to be rather desolate and isolated from society, as well as enclosed with fog. I presume that this description was foreshadowing her feelings towards her life. She felt entrapped by the way she lived her life (or lack thereof). I viewed her responsibilities as low level and very routine. Anyone would get tired of gardening every day and domestic chores, right? Not to mention, she craved any kind of praise or recognition for her existence but never received any. The man who manipulated her into paying for his service did so by playing with her emotions (Just like every man). After convincing her that he wanted her flowers for a good purpose, he almost immediately threw them out onto the dirt road. Sadly, these Chrysanthemums were the only thing that she had passion and love for; Therefore, when she saw her prized possessions thrown onto the road she took this to heart and this proved her hypothesis that men are animals. At the end, this is why she preceded to ask her husband about the fights in town that men would engage in and ended up crying secretively. I believe that she realized that she was nothing like them and felt that her battle for equality was futile, after all.

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