man with harsh and garish colors, devoid of sympathy or shadows.
             Steinbeck definitely dislikes this woman; he has written her as humorless, self-satisfied, self-serving, and just plain bitchy. He implies that she should be fertile in that "the orchards were ploughed up to receive the rain deeply when it should come," but she prefers to look like a man in "a man's hat..., clod-hopper shoes, [her] print dress almost covered by a big corduroy apron to hold" (1463) her garden weapons. Her "gift with [growing] things" is a gift she keeps to herself (1463); she does not allow her husband in her garden, either literally or metaphorically. She's pretty but she covers her femininity to the point that Steinbeck describes her as "eager" and "mature" and "handsome" (1463). He has meticulously avoided those adjectives usually used to describe women, giving us, instead, a masculine portrait. We are left to wonder why Elisa chooses to be so manly given the presence of her protective husband Henry. We don't wonder long. Elisa likes control.
             Her world, not just the chrysanthemums, seems "too small and easy for h
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