With lots of family drama, "The Odour of Chrysanthemums" focuses heavily on feelings of alienation—and those emotions only get more intense when Walter, the family patriarch, turns up dead. Elizabeth and Walter seem to have had a kind of contentious relationship prior to the events in the story, and his death touches off some crazy intense feelings of disconnectedness for Elizabeth. It's not just that she feels dislocated or separate from her late husband and the people around her; she also feels that the fetus growing inside of her is foreign to her. If you feel totally separated from something living inside you, you know you're feeling some intense alienation . . .
Questions About Alienation
- At the end of the story, when Elizabeth has her epiphany about having been mistaken about her husband/his qualities, do you get the sense that her "mistake" was preventable? Or is the message that everyone is necessarily separate and unknowable to others?
- Prior to Walter's death, do you think Elizabeth feels connected to her other family members? Why or why not?
- What do you make of Elizabeth's epiphany that everyone/everything is hopelessly separate? Does it seem like that's the grief talking, or does it ring true with the feelings of alienation we've been getting throughout the entire story?
Chew on This
Elizabeth's epiphany at the end is that her alienation from her husband/family was not a product of particular circumstances/her husband's tomfoolery, but just an inescapable part of the human condition.
Elizabeth's epiphany is just a product of grief—clearly she's not thinking straight, since she's now feeling guilty for being too hard Walter's ridiculously irresponsible and inconsiderate behavior.