Character Analysis: Elisa Allen

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John Steinbeck has a very engaging mind. He not only makes people think when they read his work; he makes them think through a number of scenarios with his tales. I believe that looking at this story, you sense this woman, Elisa Allen, is a woman who is very unhappy with her life. The only satisfaction Elisa gets out of life is being in her garden with her "family" of chrysanthemums. Elisa is very unsettled with her life as a whole. She does not like being stuck on the farm, away from the world and people outside her valley. She does not have any children so she treats her chrysanthemums as if they were her only allowed talent, gift, and special accomplishment, since they are a childless couple.

Elisa lives in the valley with her husband, Henry Allen on a farm in California. Farm life is a hard life, with few distractions, or entertainments that would take her away from the drudgery of her life. Elisa's only personal real passion on the farm is to tend to her garden which is full of her beloved chrysanthemums. Elisa Allen does not have any offspring of her own so she tends to and treats her chrysanthemums as if they were her precious children. Elisa loves to work in her garden so much that it consumes most of her spare time each day. Elisa’s garden is her private escape, where she is free to daydream, yearn, and wonder about life outside of her valley. Her little fenced in garden not only keeps the dogs and cattle out, but her husband does not trespass in it either. It is hers and hers alone. Elisa begins to show signs that she is miserable in her marriage and her life. Elisa is very rude and angry with certain comments she makes towards the man from the wagon. Elisa's life is very isolatory, limited, frustrating, a...

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...ot what he wanted: money and sexual relations. After it was all said and done I believe a great amount of shame and guilt crept over Elisa's body. She was very distraught over the fact that she had laid down with another man outside her marriage. After the man in the wagon left she ran inside and immediately took a bath which further proves my point of the inappropriate behavior that had taken place. Elisa becomes very uncomfortable when she and her husband are driving their car to town and they see the man’s wagon creeping slowly down the road in front of them. When they get closer Elisa sees that the man has thrown her chrysanthemums out of the wagon keeping the pot that she had put them in. I believe it was as if the man spit in her face. He took advantage of her and played her for a fool. Once again he got what he wanted and threw away what he did not need.

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