In the story, "chrysanthemums" John Steinbeck uses the chrysanthemums as a symbol. Elisa is a hard working woman. She looks strong and masculine. She even wants to compete in the man's world. At the same time, she is a weak woman also, but she keeps it deep inside her. Instead, she puts great care to her chrysanthemums. This flower is very important to Elisa even though nobody cares about it in the men's world. Chrysanthemums represent Elisa's true identity as a woman that she wants to show and is repressed inside her.

The author uses chrysanthemums to show Elisa and her husband's relation and to explain how she became to show masculine figure and hide her femininity. Elisa's husband doesn't care much about her chrysanthemums, which makes her not very happy.

I can see how Elisa's chrysanthemums are important to her from the way she keeps her flower...