Chrysanthemums are the central symbol of life, vital energies, sexuality in the story. Just like Elisa herself, they need nurturing and attendance. She lives a boring and unfulfilled life in a dull, loveless marriage, and she has never had a chance of finding her true self, except in the garden. That is why she commits to gardening so eagerly: because she couldn't bear to see those flowers withered. At the end of the story, she sees her chrysanthemums on the road, thrown away, "a dark speck" as Steinbeck says. They are wasted, just like Elisa's life, love, and happiness.
Its being explained in the sentence
"Those two old brothers had been having a pretty hot argument a couple of days before, and had ended by agreeing to decide it by a bet, which is the English way of settling everything."
- This sentence in this excerpt from Mark Twain's "The €1,000,000 Bank-Note" is an example of satire.
- Satire is a literary device used in exposing and criticising people's foolishness or vices through humour, exaggeration, irony, or ridicule, especially in relation to current politics and other controversial topics.
- Here, the author describes how not just trivial but even important issues related to Bank of England are decided by "a bet". So, the author cricisizes the English way of settling important issues without great consideration.
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