What is the theme of Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes?

In the book Chrysanthemum, the theme is learn to love yourself how you are. This is shown throughout the story. In the beginning, Chrysanthemum loves her name and thinks it’s perfect. She then goes to school and kids there make fun of it and say it’s too long and too different because it is a kind of flower.

What is the theme of Chrysanthemum book?

‘The Chrysanthemums’ tells the story of Elisa Allen as she struggles for feminine fulfillment in the 1930s. Through Steinbeck’s depictions of Elisa’s mannishness, winter, and the chrysanthemums, we come to see them as themes and symbols of sexual repression and wasted womanhood.

What is Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes about?

Product Description. Written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes, the nationally bestselling and celebrated creator of Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, Owen, and Kitten’s First Full Moon, Chrysanthemum is a funny and honest school story about teasing, self-esteem, and acceptance to share all year round.

What is the lesson in the story Chrysanthemum?

Early elementary students experience a tactile and visual lesson about how unkind words can “wrinkle” your heart. The lesson develops emotional intelligence by making the connection between words, actions and feelings.

What is the problem in the book Chrysanthemum?

Chrysanthemum’s only problem, once she reaches school age, seems to be her name, which becomes the object of ridicule by jealous classmates. Chrysanthemum begins to feel that her name is “absolutely dreadful” instead of “absolutely perfect” as it once was.

Why does Elisa cry at the end of the story?

She has turned away from the tinker. She has turned away from Henry. She cries quietly in the confines of a car “like an old woman” (122).

What point of view is the chrysanthemums?

“The Chrysanthemums” is told in the third person, but the narration is presented almost entirely from Elisa’s point of view. After the first few paragraphs that set the scene, Steinbeck shrugs off omniscience and refuses to stray from Elisa’s head.

What do scissors symbolize in The Chrysanthemums?

Throughout “The Chrysanthemums” scissors connote a sense of masculine power and control. Elisa is rarely without her scissors throughout most of the story. She has a special pocket in her apron devoted to her scissors and she uses them in her chrysanthemum garden to cut down the previous season’s growth.

Why is Elisa attracted to the Tinker?

She is attracted to the tinker because, as Stanley Renner points out, he represents a world of adventure and freedom that only men enjoy (306). She allows her emotions to control her and lets go of her masculine side, freeing her central feminine sexuality, according to Sweet (212).

How does the story The Chrysanthemums end?

She asks her husband if they can have wine with their dinner, and then enquires about the boxing fights and whether the man who take part really hurt each other. The story ends with her crying like an old woman.

What is the relationship between Elisa and Henry like?



Elisa’s husband, Henry, is a good, solid man who’s unable to please his wife. By the standards of his society, Henry is everything a woman should want in a husband: he provides for her, treats her with respect, and even takes her out every now and then. At the same time, however, Henry is also stolid and unimaginative.

What is the mood of the chrysanthemum?

Neutral, Distant, Wistful.

What does Elisa see at the end of the chrysanthemums?

Answers 1. They drive to town together, and Elisa notices a dark speck on the road in the distance. She realizes it’s the chrysanthemum sprouts that the tinker has dumped by the side of the road, keeping the pot.