"The Chrysanthemums  is about a strong, young woman, Elisa Allen, who is disappointed with her life because the lack of admiration she gets from her husband and the absence of children she could have bore. It shows how women are ignored in a patriarchal society; not that they are just thrown out, but rather not given enough credit for which they deserved. The chrysanthemums themselves represent Elisa's children, and eventually herself. The place in which she lives, the Salinas Valley, is a symbol of her containment; a symbol of how she will never get out of the grip of men. Elisa's flowers and the Salinas Valley show how women were unequal to men because of the gender roles of the two sexes. The chrysanthemums that Elisa cares for so greatly are symbols of her children. She does not actually have children but rather treats the flowers like they are her offspring. Elisa protects her flowers as she would protect her children. She has a wire fence around them and makes sure there are "no aphids, no sowbugs or snails or cutworms ¦ Her terrier fingers [destroy] such pests before they [can] get started. These pests can hurt her flowers, so she does as a mother would do and gets rid of them before any harm can come to her children. The chrysanthemums are also a symbol of Elisa and her love and life. When her husband Henry, sees her great work, all he has to say is "I wish you'd work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big.  His lack of interest leaves her susceptible to the Tinkerer, a traveling man who fixes things like dented pots and dull scissors. "Looks like a quick puff of yellow smoke. The Tinkerer gives this description of Elisa's prized flowers, and she comes back to say that it is a nice way to describe them. As the Tinkerers interest in the flowers grows, her "irritation and resistance [melts]  away. She tries to embrace her sexuality by "[tearing] off the battered hat and [shaking] out her dark pretty hair." S