An Essay for Questions #3 and #4, on page 228
             John Steinbeck wrote The Chrysanthemums in 1938. Steinbeck, as in many of his novels and short stories, depicts the life of poor, hard working people. In The Chrysanthemums, Steinbeck writes about a farmer's wife living in California. The couple lives on a farm, as many individuals did in that time. Steinbeck describes the physical and mental hardships of families living off the land. In the short story, The Chrysanthemums, Elisa is constantly with held from life because she is a woman.
             "On every side it (the valley) sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot." Under the lid was Salinas Valley, the home of Henry and Elisa Allen. Henry was a farmer who made a fair amount of money from his crops and stock. Elisa was Henry's wife; she had the hobby of taking care of her Chrysanthemums and the chore of being Henry's wife. In Elisa's garden, the Chrysanthemums grew with the work of her hands and the care of her heart. She seems to enjoy her garden immensely, but actually was trapped in it. She was trapped, because she felt that the only thing she could do was tend her garden.
             Henry tells Elisa that her flowers were very good last year and some of the yellow flowers were 10 inches across. Henry told Elisa, "I wish you'd work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big." Elisa said, "Maybe I could do it, too. I've a gift with things, all right." Henry changes the subject and starts talking about his livestock that he sold. Henry would not let her try her green thumb on the orchard, because of this, Elisa started to feel the pain of being a woman
             One day as Elisa was tending her garden, a wagon was passing on the road. Elisa looked up expecting the wagon to pass, but it did not. The wagon pulled up the driveway. Painted on the side of the wagon in sloppy w
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