Exploring the Text

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  1. Describe the relationship Elisa has with her husband. Explain why you came to the conclusion you did.

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Describe the relationship Elisa has with her husband. Explain why you came to the conclusion you did.
  2. What do you think the chrysanthemums Elisa grows represent in the story? How do the different characters’ reactions to them help develop those characters?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What do you think the chrysanthemums Elisa grows represent in the story? How do the different characters’ reactions to them help develop those characters?
  3. What do you think is the main conflict in this story? How does John Steinbeck set it up?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What do you think is the main conflict in this story? How does John Steinbeck set it up?
  4. How does the backdrop of the natural world help Steinbeck develop the themes in this story? Consider especially what the setting means for each character and the interactions with each other.

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - How does the backdrop of the natural world help Steinbeck develop the themes in this story? Consider especially what the setting means for each character and the interactions with each other.
  5. In what ways does Elisa change when she is with the tinker? What do you think those changes represent?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - In what ways does Elisa change when she is with the tinker? What do you think those changes represent?
  6. Critics have considered this story an early example of a woman trying to gain equality in a man’s world. Charles A. Sweet Jr., writing in 1974 in Modern Fiction Studies, says that Elisa is “the representative of the feminine ideal of equality and its inevitable defeat.” Do you consider that a viable reading of the story? How might we read it differently in the twenty-first century? Or would we?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Critics have considered this story an early example of a woman trying to gain equality in a man’s world. Charles A. Sweet Jr., writing in 1974 in Modern Fiction Studies, says that Elisa is “the representative of the feminine ideal of equality and its inevitable defeat.” Do you consider that a viable reading of the story? How might we read it differently in the twenty-first century? Or would we?