Her gardening could be described as a cage to protect herself from anything harmful. Knowing that her husband does not show interest in her chrysanthemums, gives her the thought that he does not have interest in her. When her husband goes off with one of the cattle buyers, a mysterious man on a junky wagon approaches her. Although his appearance is not the greatest, she is interested in him. The reason being is that he shows interest in her chrysanthemums in order to persuade her to find something for him to fix. Again the connection there is that he was interested in her flowers, meaning herself. The man says, "Kind of a long-stemmed flower? Looks like a quick puff of colored smoke?" "That's it. What a nice way to describe them" (91). She now feels appreciated and attractive to the stranger. His compliment to her about her flowers leads her to feel forced to allow him to fix her pots. Right after the stranger leaves, she is full of confidence in her womanhood and goes to do a complete makeover. "After a while she began to dress, slowly. She put on her newest underclothing and her nicest stocking and the dress which was the symbol of her prettiness" (94). She then transforms from a gardener to model, and goes through a revelation of thoughts. Her excitement from the strangers interest in her chrysanthemums gives her the confidence to grow and blossom like her flower. When Elisa's husband got home and saw her he said, "why- why, Elisa. You look so nice!" With her boost of confidence now, she says "nice? You think I look nice? What do you mean by nice" (95)? Elisa obviously goes on the offense and wonders why she just looks nice. The last scene of symbolism , Elisa sees her precious chrysanthemums on the ground, but without the pot it was given in. With everything that happened between the stranger and Elisa this could be explained by simply saying, "used." Her hope is totally crushed when she sees the flowers on the ground.