John Stienbeck's short story, "The Chrysanthemums" tells of the isolation that Elisa Allen, and on a larger scale women in general, struggle through. This short story provides many indications of this with the use of the setting, and detailed descriptions of Elisa Allen. The inability to voice their own opinions causes Elisa to divulge in another means of expression, her chrysanthemums. There are a variety of tactics that Steinbeck utilizes in order to allow the reader to come to this very conclusion that Eliza and her emotions are isolated from the real world, and that it takes a stranger's interest in her chrysanthemums or emotions for her to open up; however only to be let down soon after.
The first indication of isolation comes with the opening sentence: "The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world" (1). This fog that closes off the Salinas Valley in essence represents the barrier and oppression of Eliza feelings and emotions; not being allowed to voice her own thoughts and opinions, she conforms to her husbands ways. Another descriptive tool that Steinbeck utilizes is the wire fence: "He had come near quietly, and he leaned over the wire fence that protected her flower garden from the cattle and dogs and chickens"(2). Like the flannel-fog, the wire fence is a barrier, however it is not a barrier in the same sense as the flannel-fog: the wire fence is a barricade that separates Elisa's two worlds. An analogy can certainly be made from the flowers and the "cattle and dogs and chickens". On one side is the world where her husband shapes and molds her, and on the other is the woman she wants and yearns to be; someone with her own voice and opinions. The fence may also symbolize the confines placed on women during this particular era. .
There is clearly a struggle within Elisa and she does not want to expose her true self for fear of being hurt or let down.