It is important to focus on the presentation of the
central character in this story, Elisa, is presented. From the very beginning of this
excellent tale Steinbeck is quick to focus on the limitations of her life and the way in
which she is trapped--even by the weather. Note how the story begins by creating a very
strong image of restriction and incarceration:
The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off
the Salinas Valley from teh sky and from all the rest of the world. On every side it sat
like a lid on the mountains and made of teh great valley a closed
pot.
The way in which the
story begins, coupled with the descriptive detail that "there was no sunshine in the
valley no in December," does much to reveal the kind of life that Elisa lives. She is
trapped and restricted, physically, emotionally and spiritually. We can see how she
suffers from loneliness by the way that she desperately shares her passion with the only
person who shows any interest whatsoever in what is important to her. Elisa has to
physically restrain herself from reaching out and clinging onto his leg. Her need turns
her into a "fawning dog." It is clear that her marriage and her position as a farmer's
wife is not fulfilling her and is not creating the necessary conditions for her to
thrive in her own self. Her attempts to reach out and communicate with her husband, who
is not a bad man in himself, reduce her to "crying weakly--like an old woman," as she
realises that the man she had talked to was not interested in her or what she said at
all, as the discarded chrysanthemum shoots illustrate.
Thus
throughout this story Steinbeck presents the way in which marriage and society has
reduced Elisa to a state of unfulfilled, desperate loneliness, where she is not able to
truly connect to anyone. Women are shown to live a bleak life in the world of this short
story, where they are misunderstood by the menfolk that surround
them.
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