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写一种植物作文菊花250英文回答：Chrysanthemums, the vibrant and symbolic flowers originating in East Asia, have captured the hearts of flower enthusiasts worldwide. Their intricate petals, captivating colors, and enduring blooms have made them a beloved ornamental plant in gardens and homes.The chrysanthemum, known as "ju" in Chinese, is a member of the daisy family Asteraceae. It boasts an impressive array of over 30 species, each showcasing unique characteristics and hues. Some varieties display large, showy blooms, while others feature delicate, pom-pom-shaped flowers. The color spectrum of chrysanthemums is equally diverse, ranging from classic yellow and white to vibrant shades of pink, red, and purple.Beyond their aesthetic appeal, chrysanthemums also hold cultural and historical significance. In China, they arerevered as the "Flower of the East" and are deeply intertwined with traditional festivals and celebrations. The golden chrysanthemum, in particular, symbolizes longevity and prosperity, making it a popular gift for elders. In Japan, chrysanthemums are considered thenational flower and are featured prominently in art, architecture, and even on the imperial seal.Furthermore, chrysanthemums possess medicinal properties that have been recognized for centuries. In traditional Chinese medicine, they are believed to have cooling and detoxifying effects and are used to treat various ailments. Modern research has also confirmed the presence of antioxidants and antimicrobial compounds in chrysanthemums, suggesting their potential health benefits.中文回答：菊花，一种源于东亚的鲜艳而富有象征意义的花朵，吸引了全世界的花卉爱好者。
The Chrysanthemums is the work by John Steinbeck who is an American author of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books, and five collections of short stories. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), East of Eden (1952) and the novella Of Mice and Men (1937). Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception". In his work, he wrote about poor and sad people, and he also showed his sympathy for these people whose life is in low level.The Chrysanthemums is a short story from his collection The Long Valley first published in 1938. It was set in John Steinbeck’s hometown, the Salina’s valley in California. It is a story about a poor woman called Elisa Allen who was suppressed by the life for a long time. Elisa Allen and her husband Henry live peacefully on their farm. When Elisa is busy with her chrysanthemums in the garden, a tinker passes by and asks for work .She refused directly. Later when the man enquires about her chrysanthemums and asks for some “seeds” to bring to“a lady”, Elisa gets emotional and finds him two pots to mend. The tinker drives away with fifty cents and the cuttings. When riding on the road with her husband, Elisa sees the chrysanthemum shoots she sent to the "lady" thrown on the road. She is dismayed and cries sadly.And the main characters in the novel are concluded as following.Elisa AllenA passionate woman who leads an unsatisfying life. As a result, she devotes all of her energy to maintaining her house and garden. Elisa is so frustrated with life that she readily looks for stimulating conversation and even sex.The TinkerHe is clever and canny enough to convince the skeptical Elisa to give him work, begging at first and finally resorting to flattery. In fact, he is just a con man. Henry AllenElisa’s husband, Henry, is everything a woman should want in a husband by the standards of his society. He provides for her, treats her with respect. However, Henry is also stolid and unimaginative. Henry functions in the story as a stand-in for patriarchal society as a whole. He believes that a strict line separates the sexes.And the theme of this passage is the critique of the society for there is no place for intelligent women to realize their values. Elisa is smart and energetic, but she is limited by her sex. By the contrast, her husband, Henry is not smart as her, but he runs the ranch to support the family. Steinbeck uses Henry and the tinker as stand-ins for the paternalism of patriarchal societies in general: just as they ignore women’s potential, so too does society. It is an inequality of gender.Besides, John Steinbeck uses many symbols in this passage.1. At the beginning, the Salinas Valley symbolizes Elisa’s emotional life. The story opens with a lengthy description of the valley. The valley was closed of the high-flannel gray fog of winter. This symbolized that Elisa’s life was suppressed buy the in equality of the gender. She can not realize her intelligence just like the valley can not show its beauty because of the annoyed high-flannel gray fog of winter.2.The chrysanthemums symbolize both Elisa and the limited scope of her life.The chrysanthemums are beautiful, strong, and thriving, like Elisa Allen.Elisa identifies herself with the flowers, even saying that she becomes one with the plants when she tends to them.She offers the chrysanthemums to thinker at the same time she offers herself, both of which he ignores and tosses aside Just like her, the flowers are unimportant: both are merely decorative and add little value to the world.3.Fences symbolize the barriers that separate Elisa from the rest of the world, including her husband Henry. Her fences protect flower garden from cattle, dogs, and chickens which represent her husband’s world while her flower garden represents Elisa’s world.4. Elisa’s clothing changes as her handsome, masculine persona becomes more feminine after the visit from the tinker. When the story begins, Elisa is wearing a gardening outfit, complete with heavy shoes, thick gloves, a man’s hat, and an apron filled with sharp implements. The narrator even describes her body as “blocked and heavy.” At the later passage, after Elisa changes her cloth, feminine items contrast sharply with her gardening clothes and reflect the newly Elisa. At the end of the story, after Elisa has seen the castoff shoots, she pulls up her coat collar to hide her tears, a gesture that suggests a move backward into the repressed state in which she has lived most, if not all, of her adult life.5.Elisa lets the tinker into the yard; she goes and gets a bright red flower pot. The red is important here because red is the symbol of power and passion. At this point in the story, Elisa is beginning to feel her own power. She is realizing she can bring forth life in her flowers, even if she is not powerful in other aspects of her life. Also, since the encounter with the tinker is likened to a sexual experience, the red flower pot is significant of their passion. The pot is symbolic of her self and her feelings.This passage uses the third person point of view to tell the story clearly and not limited by the time, place or characters.As for me, I think the passage encouraged all intelligent woman to realize their values and critic the social limitation for the women.。
《山菊花》仁爱精神作文英文回答：In the poignant short story, "Chrysanthemums," by John Steinbeck, the protagonist, Elisa Allen, embodies the essence of selflessness and compassion, illuminating the transformative power of empathy and the profound impact of genuine care.Elisa's life is marked by isolation and a longing for connection. Her dreams of a fulfilling existence arestifled by her oppressive marriage to Henry, a brusque and unfeeling man who treats her more like a servant than a companion. Despite her despair, Elisa finds solace and purpose in her love for gardening. The vibrant chrysanthemums, with their rich colors and delicate petals, become a symbol of her unfulfilled potential and suppressed desires.When a tinker visits their ranch, Elisa is drawn to histales of adventure and freedom. In his presence, she feels a glimmer of hope and the possibility of transcending her current circumstances. However, her budding connection with the tinker is cut short by Henry's jealous outburst. Inthat moment, Elisa's dreams are shattered, and she resigns herself to a life of loneliness and disappointment.Yet, amidst her despair, Elisa exhibits an extraordinary act of kindness. She gives her prized chrysanthemums to the tinker, a seemingly insignificant gesture that carries tremendous weight. In this act of giving, Elisa transcends her own pain and finds a way to nurture the hopes and dreams of another.Through Elisa's story, Steinbeck explores the transformative power of compassion. By sacrificing her own happiness for the well-being of the tinker, she not only brings him joy but also finds a sense of purpose and fulfillment. Her selfless act serves as a reminder that even in the darkest of times, the human spirit can prevail through acts of kindness and empathy.Moreover, Elisa's story highlights the importance of recognizing and valuing the dreams and aspirations of others. In a world often driven by self-interest, Steinbeck invites us to consider the profound impact that genuine care and empathy can have on the lives of those around us. By embracing a spirit of compassion, we can not only bring happiness to others but also ignite the flame of hope and possibility within ourselves.中文回答：在约翰·斯坦贝克的感人短篇小说《菊花》中，主人公艾丽莎·艾伦体现了无私和同情心的精髓，阐明了同理心的变革力量以及真正关怀的深远影响。
约翰斯坦贝克《菊花》中的象征主义解析
韩荣
【期刊名称】《语文建设》
【年(卷),期】2015(0)10Z
【摘要】《菊花》是约翰·斯坦贝克一生中少有的女性题材的作品,整篇文章因质朴的风格和对人物形象的细腻刻画而广受赞誉,尤其是在文中多处出现的象征主义手法,更是成为文章的一大特色而受到人们的广泛关注。
作者通过菊花、山谷、灰雾、灰锅,苹果、牛、花盆,丈夫、补锅匠等表达的象征意义,形象地描述了女主人公在菊花中所寄托的对自由生活的理想,在实用主义指导下的现实社会面前的幻灭。
【总页数】2页(P46-47)
【关键词】约翰·斯坦贝克;《菊花》;象征主义
【作者】韩荣
【作者单位】西安医学院英语系
【正文语种】中文
【中图分类】I712.074
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A Woman’s Frustration in the Gender-Divided World--An A nalysis of Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums”In his 1933 letter to a friend, John Steinbeck talks about his newly composed short story “The Chrysanthemums”: “It is entirely different and is designed to strike without the rea der’s knowledge” (qtd. in Segal 214). It has indeed achieved the effect: ever since its publication, critics and readers, who unanimously “feel that something profound has happened to him”(qtd. in Segal 214), try in each way to figure out under and between the lines the theme of the story. While generally interpreting the tale as one about a woman’s frustration, critics put forward different reasons to explain th e “what” and the “how." Some critics relate the protagonist Elisa Allen’s discontent and loneliness to the fact that she has no children and therefore is thwarted in her motherhood; and others, perceiving that Elisa and her husband Henry’s relation lacks deep understanding and passion, suggest that sex-starvation is the cause of her sense of repression; still others treat the story as a tale of a bored middle-age housewife, believing that Elisa’s discontent is caused by her vague longing for illusive “romance” (Segal214).Undoubtedly these analyses help, in various degrees, shed light on the understanding of the tale. However, they haven’t exhausted the complexity of the theme yet. If we approach the story by a close reading, taking adequate notice of the images and symbols which Steinbeck has carefully woven into the story, we may find that “The Chrysanthemums” is also a “profound” tale of “gender”, a story of the doomed frustration of a female who, in her attempt at self-fulfillment, unwittingly and yet inevitably “trespasses upon” the world branded as belonging to male gender.As we know, “gender” as a social construction, is the way we are socially defined. As Scott Carpenter points out: “[o]ur lives are steeped in distinctions based on gender, and these distinctions have a real, demonstrable impact on the way people live and interact” (89). As a woman, Elisa’s gender decides the role she should play, the work she is allowed to do, and the very style of life she has but to accept. In the binary oppositions of gender there exist two and only two possibilities: male and female, or “Ladies and Gents”. “Transgressions are not tolerated,” as Carpenter maintains, for binary oppositions “are rarely even-handed, one term of the pair almost always enjoying the pr ivileged status over the other” (95). Therefore, in order to maintain male dominance and privilege over female, this proposi tion is “rigorously maintained--or even policed”(Carpenter 90). As soon as Elisa tries to break through the confinement of her gender, she inevitably bruises herself.The opening imagery sets the tone for the whole story. It not only depicts the protagonist Elisa Allen’s repressive life, but also foreshadows her inevitable disillusionment. The Salinas Valley is described as “closed off” by the “highgrey-flannel fog of winter”; the fog “sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot” (Steinbeck169).There is a prevailing sense of repression and confinement. Yet the repressive sense is mixed somehow with glimmering hope. We are told that the land floor of the valley is plowed deeply to receive the expected rains. “It was a time of quiet and of waiting…the light wind blew up …so that the farmers were hopeful of a good rain” (169). The land is expecting the nouri shing rains; the protagonist is in a vague yearning of a relief from the barren and confined life. But the promise of rain is an irony: “fog and rain do not go together” (169). Similarly, the hope of breaking through the “closed pot” for Elisa is an illusi on.When Elisa Allen first appears in the story, she is working in her flower garden with her chrysanthemums, while across the yard, her husband Henry is talking business with two businessmen by the tractor shed. Distinctly two worlds in binary oppositions of gender are presented to us: one is the female world of gardening and housekeeping, the other is the male world of business, machinery and farming. However, the problem of this distinction is immediately shown in the images of Elisa’s house and her way of gardening. The little house is “hard-swept”, the windows are “hard-polished” and even the mud-mat on the front steps is “clean” (italics added). She is doing more than good. Obviously, housekeeping is far from being a sufficient challenge for such an energetic and strong woman. Consequently, she pours her energy onto the gardening. Wearing a heavy “gardening costume”, “a man’s black hat”, and “clodhopper shoes”, she works in a way a man treats his occupation; “even her work with the scissors was over-eager, over-powerful. The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy”(169). Elisa’s bounded energy and potential finds its only outlet in growing chrysanthemums. But Henry’s remarks on her flowers revealingly indicate the significance, or rather insignificance of her gardening: “You’ve got a strong new crop coming”(170). It’s ironical praise, with the implication that the chrysanthemums are NOT crops and therefore are not of any value in a pragmatic sense. If we regard chrysanthemums as a symbol related to Elisa’s potential, then this potential is neither recognized nor valued.The tinker comes, bringing double illusions for “rains-expecting” Elisa. First, he enchants Elisa with an aura of a free life which Elisa has never had a taste of except in her imagination. In term of physical appearance, the sloppy stubble-beard tinker is by no means attractive. In fact, stopping in front of Elisa’s house, this strange sloppy team of man, horse, burro, and mongrel dog strikingly contrast with Elisa’s neat and clean house and wire-fenced garden. However, the tinker’s nomadic and free way of life in the wagon “sounds like a nice kind of a way to live” to Elisa, awakening her lurking yearning for a different unbounded life (172). After conversing with the tinker for a while, she expresses her wish explicitly: “It must be nice. I wish women could do such things.” But, the tinker’s answer-- “[i]t ain’t the right kind of a life for a woman” (175)--indicates equally explicitly that this way of living is only for man, not “right” for woman. Elisa is wishing for something beyond her gender.The tinker’s insincere praise of the chrysanthemums constitutes a deceiving evaluation of Elisa’s worth and potential, bringing another illusion for Elisa. Finding that the tinker is interested in her flowers, “[t]he irritation and resistance melted from Elisa’s face” (173). Too excited in finding a person who knows the worth and value of her work, Elisa fails to notice the discernible lies in the tinker’s oily words. She ea gerly and excitedly transplants the buds for the tinker so that he can bring the flower to a lady who, as the reader knows, actually does not exist. The dramatic irony here echoes the irony in the opening imagery of false promise of the rain, building up continually until the last revelation for the protagonist.The encounter of the tinker and Elisa is also a confrontation between a man and a woman. Elisa’s eagerness to show her chrysanthemums results only from her excitement in finding a kindred spirit, but also is partly due to her intention to compete with the tinker in terms of competency for work. As we have noticed, the tinker’s sloppiness is in striking contrast to Elisa’s competent neatness. He is not efficient and competent except when he starts his work. When Elisa hands the saucepans for him to repair, “[h]is manner changed. He became professional” (174). But, Elisa launches her challenge. “You might be surprised to have a rival some time. I can sharpen scissors, too. And I can beat the dents out of little pots. I could show you what a woman might do” (175). In terms of capability, Elisa is probably a far better worker. In offering the chrysanthemum buds she plants, Elisa shows her capacity and obtains a sense of triumphant pride.Enchanted by the free life of the tinker, and intoxicated by her sense of unfolding potential, Elisa imagines the night in the wagon: “Every pointed star gets driven into your body. It’s like that. Hot and sharp and—lively” (174). If the statement is tinted with a sexual overtone, it’s more directed to the fascinating uninhibite d life associated with the tinker rather than to the sloppy person himself. In this state of high-spirited fantasy, she murmurs good-bye to the tinker: “That’s bright direction. There’s a glowing there” (175).In the same state of mind, she returns to her house to have a bath before going to town with her husband. “In the bathroom she tore off her soiled clothes and flung them into the corner. And then she scrubbed herself with a little block of pumice…until her skin was scratched and red” (176). She has t o hold back the surging passion by dressing slowly. “She put on her newest underclothing and her nicest stockings and the dress which was the symbol of her prettiness. She worked carefully on her hair, penciled her eyebrows and rouged her lips” (176). Here the image of Elisa forms a contrast to her image in the garden. If we believe the garden image indicates Elisa’s so-called “masculinity,” then this one obviously asserts her “femininity.” Elisa seems to take on different gender features. Once again, gender features are called into question. A single either /or designation of gender, which speaks of our tendency for binary oppositions, is problematic when used to describe Elisa, who cannot be comfortably put into this arbitrary label.On the other hand, t his change also corresponds to Elisa’s development of her sense of self. In the garden, Elisa assumes a man’s image in order to snatch a slice of privilege from man’s world—the privilege of having one’s own occupation. Convinced, after the encounter with the tinker, of her female potential, she is more confident with her female self. Instead of hiding her female self under the guise of a man, she is now proudly manifesting it, unfolding herself like her chrysanthemums in full bloom.This change is, howeve r, quite puzzling for Elisa’s husband. The latter blunders bewilderedly and helplessly upon seeing his wife in the house: “you look different, strong a nd happy.” When Elisa boasts, “I am strong,” Henry is almost stricken with fear. The familiar image of his wife seems to have undergone a mysterious change. However, “Henry looked down toward the tractor shed, when he brought his eyes back to her, they were his own again” (176). He regains his composure. The world is still the old world under his--man’s--control.The realization of the same fact does not come to Elisa until she is on the way to Salinas. “Far ahead on the road E lisa saw a dark speck. She knew” (177). The tinker has deserted her chrysanthemum buds on the road. The chrysanthemum, whose value has not been recognized by the husband, is now more heartlessly deserted by the tinker. Ironically, that man has thrown away her treasure and kept the pot; the latter is obviously regarded as more useful. The unusual briefness of the statement “she knew” is charged with tension between the overwhelming pang of disappointment and Elisa’s ultimate effort to hold it down. The briefness of the sentence also implies the simplicity of the truth revealed to Elisa. This is the moment of epiphany for Elisa. She knows that all the while she has been manipulated by the tinker and cheated by the illusion he brings to her; she knows that her aspiration of unconfined fulfillment is totally impossible in this male dominated world; she knows that if she goes outside of the “fence” of her confined world and attempts something beyond what the society assigns for her gender, she inevitably bruises herself.Seized by an impulse to fight back and disgusted by the cruelty of men in their subjugation of their fellow creatures, Elis a asks Henry: “at those prize fights, do the men hurt each other very much?” (177) But when Henry asks her whether she really wants to go to the prizefights, she “relaxe[s] limply in the seat.” “Oh, no. No. I don’t want to go. I’m sure I don’t” (177). She has no courage to venture any further into man’s world now. “It will be enough if we can have wine. It will be plenty” (177). From “gardening” to “wine”, that’s the farthest way Elisa could go. Gardening, which is usually a female job but also occasionally attempted by men, can be done by Elisa with a tint of so-called “masculinity”; wine, which is a drink usually for a man, but is also allowed for a woman, can be drunk by Elisa without the danger of raising brows from the society. Elisa has been venting her repressed energy and emotion through planting chrysanthemums, and now she can only resort to the wine to quench her frustrated aspiration and to solace her bruised self-esteem. Elisa “was crying weakly—like an oldwoman” (177). She is a withered chrysant hemum now.The use of third-person objective point of view in the story is significant. First, it forms a constrained point of view, corresponding with the fact that a female’s heart is generally not understood by the male world. In the story, neither husband nor tinker tries to comprehend Elisa’s inner feelings. Second, this narrative technique helps add ambiguity and complexity to the theme of the story, leaving enough space for the reader to speculate on the implied message. Most importantly of all, by using this objective point of view, Steinbeck refrains from making “The Chrysanthemums” a personal story, but instead, opens up a symbolic dimension. Elisa’s frustration is depicted not as a personal misfortune, but rather an indication of a prevailing issue in the gender-divided world: the impossibility for a woman to unfold her potential when she is confined to a subjugated role and receives only a limited possibility in the male-dominated world.It’s amazing that as a male writer writing in an age whe n most writers concentrated on characterizations of men and their problems, Steinbeck could have such a keen perception of a woman’s aspiration and frustration. It’s also amazing that by his adept use of symbols and carefully drawn images, Steinbeck renders so compellingly the vague and inarticulate yearnings and discontent of a woman, forcing the readers to make an attempt to understand and respect a woman’s heart and to rethink the validity of one of the basic foundations of the society—the division of gender.Works CitedCarpenter, Scott. Reading Lessons—An Introduction to Theory. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2000.Segal, David, et al. ed.Short Story Criticism. V ol. 2. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1992.Steinbeck, John. “The Chrysanthemums.” British and American Fiction. Ed. Wang Shouren and Zhao Yu. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 1994.。
