However, by giving into her husband's ways, she in part loses a sense of her identity, which can clearly be seen with the description of her physical self. Steinbeck uses his description of Eliza to give the reader a glimpse of what she has become or the person she hides behind. Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man's black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clodhopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big pockets to hold the snips-(2). From the get go, one can come to the conclusion that this is a typical farmers wife; and strength and hard work is a clear prerequisite in this field of work. Her description seem to lack feminine aspects, to the contrary, she is described with the use of masculine words such as "heavy", and "man's black hat". .
The chrysanthemums themselves represent a large symbolic aspect of the entire story. The reader is given a sense from the beginning that these chrysanthemums are in fact an embodiment of Eliza repressed feelings, which gives way to eternal struggles with her identity. When the stranger shows interest in her chrysanthemums, one can clearly see a change in her attitude. When the stranger begins to inquire about her flowers, "The irritation and resistance melted from Elisa's face. "Oh those are chrysanthemums, giant whites and yellows. I raise them every year, bigger than anybody around her."(6) This gives readers a sense of her willingness to open up to someone who might in fact care about her flowers or emotions. And as the stranger slowly leads her out of her shell, she seems to completely change and take on more feministic qualities; this can be see with the use of words like, "beautiful" and "pretty hair". As the stranger continues to show interest in her flowers, she feels comfortable enough to "take off her mask" and reveal her true self: "She tore off the battered hat and shook out her dark pretty hair"(7).