The Chrysanthemums

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“The Chrysanthemums 2.0”

In this activity, students will create a modernization of Steinbeck’s short story, “The Chrysanthemums,” to make it more relevant for a modern audience.

John Steinbeck’s short story, “The Chrysanthemums,” poignantly illustrates the repression women faced in 1930s America. Despite the gains in women’s equality in the nearly 100 years since “The Chrysanthemums” was published, women are, in many ways, still as repressed as the protagonist, Elisa.

Your task is to rewrite Steinbeck’s short story to make it more relevant to a modern audience. Instead of being kept out of the orchards, where might a modern Elisa face opposition? Instead of longing for the open road, what kinds of freedoms might a modern Elisa dream about? Be creative in your exploration and creation of this modern retelling, but be sure to address the following situations in your rewrite:

• Setting: Ensure that the setting itself is in some ways responsible for Elisa’s oppression.
• Relationships: Ensure that Elisa is in some way dependent on someone else for safety and security, which leads, in some part, to her resentment.
• Characterization: Ensure that Elisa has an obvious and beneficial talent that is being underutilized and overlooked, which contributes to her frustration.
• Conflict: Ensure that someone or something causes her to see that she can be or do so much more than she is currently experiencing.
• Denouement: Despite dreaming for more, Elisa ultimately decides to stay where she is.

Present your modernized version of the short story to your class.

Teaching Suggestion: It might be helpful to remind students of the characteristics of realistic fiction before they start on their modernization of “The Chrysanthemums.” The goal is to illustrate the themes of Dissatisfaction and Gender Inequality and Repression of Women within the realms of realistic fiction. By asking students to “modernize,” they may errantly go in the direction of science fiction or dystopian literature, so a reminder at this juncture may help them stay on track.

Differentiation Suggestion: Auditory learners may benefit from having a teacher orally quiz them about the realistic setting, conflict, and characters of their original story. Then, they might create an outline and tell the story out loud instead of rewriting the story in its entirety.