The Chrysanthemums Summary & Analysis

A “high grey-flannel fog” has isolated the Salinas Valley like a “closed pot.” The cut yellow hay fields look as though they are “bathed in sunshine,” though there is none in December in the valley, and a slight southwestern breeze suggests rain despite the heavy fog. The valley is home to Henry and Elisa Allen’s farm, which has entered a period of “quiet and waiting.” 

While Henry is across the field talking to two men in business suits, Elisa busies herself in her small chrysanthemum garden. At thirty-five, her appearance is strong and masculine, and she aggressively cuts down the old year’s chrysanthemum stalks with pair of powerful scissors. Her garden and her nearby home are both meticulously kept, and Elisa approaches her gardening with enthusiasm.  

As Henry approaches the garden, Elisa is startled by his sudden appearance. He compliments Elisa’s ability to grow such large chrysanthemums and suggests that she apply her gardening skills in the orchard, growing apples instead. Elisa is convinced of her skills—thanks to her “planters’ hands”—and is confident in her ability to grow anything, including apples. However, Henry doesn’t seem to have been serious in his invitation to work in the orchard. Henry informs Elisa of his successful business transaction and suggests they celebrate with a night on the town.

Henry suggests dinner in Salinas and perhaps a picture show. He even suggests that they attend the fights afterward. Elisa quickly becomes irritated, reminding Henry that she doesn’t enjoy the fights. Henry insists he is only fooling around and promises her dinner at the Cominos Hotel. Elisa agrees, and as Henry departs to bring the cattle down from the mountain, she continues working in her chrysanthemum garden.

As Elisa continues her meticulous work, a strange covered wagon approaches her farm drawn by a haggard horse and donkey and driven by an unkept man, advertising “Pots, pans, knives, scissors, lawn mores, Fixed.” As the tinker, a big man with a “worn black suit,” stops his wagon, he informs Elisa that he is off his usual route and is lost. Each year, the tinker drives his wagon from Seattle to San Diego fixing household items along the way, and he is happy to offer Elisa his services.

Elisa is pleasant and warmly welcomes the tinker. She expresses an interest in his nomadic lifestyle—deeming it “a nice kind of a way to live”—and makes jokes about the state of his pulling team. Despite her friendliness, Elisa appears irritated with the tinker’s continued attempts to secure some sort of work from her, and firmly insists that she does not require his services. The tinker makes one last effort to sharpen Elisa’s scissors, claiming they are his specialty, even though she makes clear that she could do this work herself. 

As the tinker searches for another way to secure work from Elisa, his eyes fall on the chrysanthemum garden where she has been working and he engages her in a conversation about her flowers. Seeing Elisa’s resolve softening, the tinker continues to ask her questions about the flowers. He claims to have an established customer who is looking for good chrysanthemum seeds and asks Elisa if she is willing to part with some. Elisa happily agrees, informing him that chrysanthemums are best grown with sprouts, not seeds. 

Elisa runs excitedly to the back of her house and returns with a brand-new pot. She kneels in the garden and, forgetting her gloves, begins to unearth fresh chrysanthemum sprouts to give to the tinker. As she digs, Elisa tells the tinker how his customer should care for the sprouts. She informs him that if he keeps the sprouts moist in sand, his customer can later transplant them. The chrysanthemums should take root in about a month, but the most important thing that he must remember to tell his customer is to cut the chrysanthemums about eight inches from the ground in July, before they bloom in late September.

The tinker is confused as Elisa explains her “planters’ hands” and her ability to grow anything in the dirt. Elisa tries to describe how she can “feel how it is” when working with plants, and how her hands “never make a mistake” in the garden. Her hands “can’t do anything wrong” where plants are concerned, and as Elisa continues to kneel and dig in the garden, her breasts “swell passionately” and her voice becomes “husky.”

The tinker becomes uncomfortable and tells Elisa that her “planters’ hands” are similar to how he feels at night in his wagon. Elisa quickly interrupts the tinker, insisting she knows how he feels, even though she has never lived the way he does. Elisa begins to describe the quiet night sky and stars, exclaiming, “Why, you rise up and up! Every pointed star gets driven into your body. It’s like that. Hot and sharp and—lovely.” As Elisa kneels before the tinker, she nearly touches him, but quickly drops her hands to the ground, crouching “low like a fawning dog.”

The tinker quickly interjects that while the night sky may be lovely, it is difficult to enjoy on an empty stomach. Elisa, feeling ashamed, hands him the pot of chrysanthemum sprouts and goes to find something for him to fix. She returns with a broken saucepan and offers it to the tinker. 

As the tinker begins to mend Elisa’s old saucepan, his demeanor instantly changes. He becomes “professional,” and as he assembles his tools and pounds out the dents in the pan, his mouth grows “sure and knowing.” When his work becomes difficult, he begins to suck on his lower lip.

Elisa chats with the tinker as he works. She asks him if he sleeps in the wagon at night, and when he reports that he does, Elisa is openly jealous of his life, stating that she wishes “women could do such things.” The tinker responds, “It ain’t the right kind of life for a woman.” When Elisa asks the tinker how he could know that, the tinker says, “Of course I don’t know.” Elisa pays him fifty cents for his work and states that he may soon have a rival in the tinkering business, since she can easily mend pans and sharpen scissors too. As the tinker readies his wagon to depart, he tells her that it would be “a lonely life for a woman.” 

Elisa reminds the tinker to keep the sand moist in the pot of chrysanthemums. The tinker responds, “Sand, ma’am?” and drives his wagon away from Elisa’s farm. As Elisa stands and watches the tinker leave, she audibly whispers good-bye, startling herself with the sound of her voice. Elisa says, “That’s a bright direction. There’s a glowing there.” 

Elisa runs hurriedly into the house to ready herself for her date with Henry. She checks the water tank for hot water and scrubs herself clean with a pumice stone until she is “scratched and red.” After her bath, Elisa examines her naked body in a mirror and carefully applies makeup and does her hair. Elisa selects her nicest underwear and dress which is the “symbol of her prettiness.” As she dresses, she hears Henry return from rounding up the cattle. Elisa sets “herself for Henry’s arrival.”

As Henry takes a bath, Elisa sets his dark suit out on the bed, including his shirt, tie, and socks. She stands his polished shoes on the floor near the bed and goes to the porch to wait. Elisa sits “primly and stiffly” as she waits for Henry, and she notices the beauty of the willows in the foggy grey of the Salinas Valley afternoon. She does not move for a long time, and even her eyes rarely blink. When Henry appears on the porch, Elisa’s face grows “stiff” and “tight.”

As Henry loudly exits the house, he is caught off-guard by Elisa’s appearance, remarking, “Why—why, Elisa. You look so nice!” When Elisa puts him on the spot and questions what he means by “nice,” Henry stutters and stammers before stating that she looks “different,” and then finally, “strong and happy.” She continues to question his meaning and he grows increasingly uncomfortable, making a joke to compensate. Henry states, “You look strong enough to break a calf over your knee, happy enough to eat it like a watermelon.” Elisa finds herself laughing, but not before she boasts about how strong she truly is. Henry goes to fetch the car and Elisa returns to the house to find her coat. 

Elisa hears Henry drive to the gate, yet she takes a long time putting on her hat. She spends extra time fussing with it, “pulling it here” and “pressing it there.” She does not put on her coat and leave the house until she hears Henry turn the car off.

As Elisa and Henry drive into Salinas, Elisa notices a small speck in the road and instantly knows what it is. She tries to ignore the sight of her chrysanthemum sprouts discarded on the side of the road, “but her eyes would not obey.” As the road bends, the tinker’s caravan comes into view, and Elisa turns and looks at Henry so that she is unable to see the tinker’s wagon as they pass. Elisa does not look back.  

Elisa loudly tells Henry that it will be nice to have a good dinner out. Noticing the change in her demeanor, Henry states that they should get out more often. Elisa asks if they can have wine with dinner, and after a moment of silence, she further asks Henry if the men at the prize fights hurt each other very much. Elisa reveals that she has read about the violent and bloody fights, which surprises Henry. Elisa asks Henry if women ever go to the fights, and he states that while some do, “I don’t think you’d like it.”

Elisa sits listlessly in her seat. She claims she really doesn’t want to go to the fights and turns her face away from Henry. Hiding behind her coat collar so that he cannot see her, Elisa cries “weakly—like an old woman.”