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Definition of Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved directly or indirectly, by making... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the... read full definition
Foreshadowing
Explanation and Analysis—A Closed Pot:
Imagery in the opening of The Chrysanthemums introduces all of the story's key themes:
The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot. On the broad, level land floor the gang plows bit deep and left the black earth shining like metal where the shares had cut. On the foothill ranches across the Salinas River, the yellow stubble fields seemed to be bathed in pale cold sunshine, but there was no sunshine in the valley now in December.
This is an image of desolation mirroring the struggling agricultural industry in the Salinas Valley at the time. Images of fog, darkness, and land scarred from over-farming help the reader understand the severity of hardship in this setting.
Steinbeck doesn't only use these images to portray the struggle of the entire region agriculturally and economically, but also to portray Elisa's struggle for personal and sexual agency within her patriarchal social context. The metaphor of a "closed pot" points to both the isolated desolation of the setting and Elisa's preordained domestic role as a farmer's wife, while a bad growing season stands in for Elisa's feeling that she is not sexually viable. Steinbeck makes social and economic struggles inextricable from one another in The Chrysanthemums to demonstrate how they are also inextricable from one another in real life.
Additionally, the appearance of "pale cold sunshine" where none exists is a symbol not only of desolation, but also of deception—a foreshadowing of what is to come between Elisa and the tinker. Toward the end of the story, just before Elisa is about to be deceived, a callback to this initial imagery sees Elisa confuse the yellow fields for sunshine herself:
She looked toward the river road where the willow-line was still yellow with frosted leaves so that under the high grey fog they seemed a thin band of sunshine.
Just as the story's opening suggests, Elisa thinks she sees sunshine, but it's only the color of the leaves. This illusion reflects the illusion of the tinker's interest in Elisa, which will soon be shattered when she discovers the chrysanthemums discarded on the side of the road.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—A Bright Direction:
Elisa leaves the interaction with the tinker somewhat optimistically after he takes an interest in her chrysanthemums. Even though he denigrated her dreams of living a similar life to him and refused her sexual advances, she found some refuge in the fact that he took some flowers, a symbol of her sexuality, femininity, and work ethic. In a passage marked by ironic foreshadowing, she feels satisfied:
Elisa stood in front of her wire fence watching the slow progress of the caravan.... Then she whispered, "That’s a bright direction. There’s a glowing there."
Here, Steinbeck is alerting the reader that the tinker's caravan is leaving something very important in its wake, which will later be revealed to be the discarded chrysanthemums, thrown out of the caravan by the tinker. This is foreshadowing colored by a hint of irony, because while Elisa would like to believe that the caravan (and her interaction with the tinker) is both a sign of her value in a patriarchal society and of her ability to transcend patriarchy entirely, the chrysanthemums on the side of the road shatter this illusion. The tinker's abandonment of the chrysanthemums confirms Elisa's lack of both sexual and personal agency and also of the fact that he had taken advantage of her, deceiving her just to get work.
Related Themes:
