The Chrysanthemums Isolation Quotes

Now there's an image. With Steinbeck's sweeping, wide-angle opener, we're immediately placed in a rural valley where the residents don't have much exchange with the outside world. When you add to that the fact that Elisa spends most of her days alone at her ranch house, it makes for a pretty strong sense of solitude.

Elisa's big entrance. It's not the most exciting of character introductions, but the key here is that Steinbeck swiftly and immediately creates the understanding that Elisa is alone. Not only is she physically alone, she's also separate from the workings of the ranch, which are solely a male domain.

There seem to be a lot of eyes in this story. We know what Elisa's eyes look like, and their expressions. And now we get a glimpse at the tinker's eyes. Are they dark because he, like teamster and sailors, lives a lonely existence? Is there something more sinister going on?

There are those eyes again. This is simultaneously a moment of intense connection between Elisa and the tinker, and a moment of frustrating alienation. What we have here is a failure to communicate.

Here's a failure of a different sort, as Elisa attempts to physically communicate with the tinker. One thing to note here is the vulnerable position in which she's placed herself. She's kneeling at the feet of a tall, strong stranger.

Finally! The real reason the tinker thinks Elisa can't hack it on the road. But the jokes on him, because Elisa's quite familiar with what it means to be lonely.

Once again, Elisa finds herself alone, and once again, the narrator associates her with dogs (geez, can the girl catch a break?). Here, as in other places in the story, Elisa has something profound to say. But unlike other places in the story, where men struggle to understand her, in this case, there's simply no one listening at all.

Elisa sits alone on the porch, waiting for her husband to get ready for town, and the reader realizes she hasn't actually seen him since he left to round up some cattle. Henry hasn't seen her transformation from a dowdily dressed gardener to a beautiful woman. This creates a tiny moment of suspense: what will Henry's reaction to her appearance be?

Elisa's headed to town for a fun night out with her husband. She should be in good spirits, and excited to spend some time with her husband, right? Instead, this is one of the loneliest moments in the story. Although she sits less than a foot away from her husband, he has no idea what's happening in her head and heart.

This moment feels like a deepening and intensification of the similar moment in the previous quote. She's mere inches from her husband, but emotionally, she couldn't possibly be further away.