with a woman, named Elisa, who is trying to gain power in a man's world.

Elisa Allen tries to define her role as a woman in a very close society. Her

environment portrays the social depression, while the garden shows her power and masculine. Elisa has trouble extending this power outside the fence that surrounds her garden. Finally, she learns but not accepts, that she possesses a weak feminine power, not the masculine one she had tried to achieve.

The symbols in setting and characters show us the scope and nature of this empty society, and the chrysanthemums portray Elisa's existence and emptiness of her life. We can find those symbols almost everywhere in this story, which takes place around the same time it was written, in Salinas Valley, California, during the wintertime.

The fog, in the beginning of the story, can be interpreted as something that can

inhibit movement and sight, "sat like a lid on the mountains" (1-5). Moreover, the fog, like the close society, keeps things in step and restrained, like "a close pot". (1-5) Not only the fog, but also the orchards, "plowed up to receive the rain…when it should come", symbolize the way ou

Some topics in this essay:
Valley California, Elisa Allen, History Commonly, Crest Japan, Chinese Army, Color Messages, Sentiment Symbolism, Flower October, , North America, power masculine, man's world, control care, close society, masculine image, elisa trying, chinese noble,