People in the 1930s were fighting a losing battle with themselves. They were approaching depression, facing the eyes of war and trying to stay on their feet with the few resources they had. Most were farmers and earned their living by manual labor. Most of what they owned, they produced themselves. This is the setting of John Steinbeck's critically acclaimed short story “The Chrysanthemums.” In this story, Steinbeck decided to paint a portrait of what people's conditions were really like, but in a different light. Instead of focusing on the technical aspects, he focused on what was going through the heart of America: the struggles between what social standards expected and what individuals desired. In “The Chrysanthemums,” Steinbeck uses the characters Elisa Allen, the Tinker, and Henry Allen to exemplify the different characters of the time and to reveal certain societal truths associated with each. Elisa Allen lives a peaceful life, but is fighting a constant battle with the prejudiced and parental society against her as a woman. As Kenneth Kempton, author of Short Stories for Study, observes, “whether it is the freedom suggested by the tinker's nomadic life, or the children symbolized by the care of young plants, or the virility, indicated by the pleasure he takes in his strength and her masochistic washing of her body in the bathtub, or a normal sexual life suggested by her tension with her perhaps impotent husband, or simply her lost youth as she implies at the end,” Elisa struggles internally. Starting with a detailed description of the Salinas River Valley, encased in fog like a vase, the surrounding physical environment echoes Elisa's lifestyle. In fact, “the stems of the chrysanthemum seemed too small and easy for her… in the middle of the paper… in the “light direction” of the Caldellino. If the Tinker had been better able to support himself, perhaps he wouldn't have had to throw Elisa's chrysanthemums on the side of the road. The opportunity, although presented to each of the characters, was never fully seized, and so it remained that "fog and rain did not go together". Works Cited Kempton, Kenneth Payson. "Objectivity as an approach." Short stories for study. Cambridge [Mass.: Harvard UP, 1953. 120-24. Print.Palmerino, Gregory J. "Steinbeck's CHRYSANTHEMUMS." Rev. of "The Chrysanthemums" Explicator 62.3 (2004): 164-67. Literary reference center. Web.Prezzo, Vittoria. "The chrysanthemums." Main plots. 4th ed. Pasadena, California: Salem, 2011. 1-3. Print.Fogli-Nesbitt, Anna, ed. "The chrysanthemums." Criticism of short stories. Ed. Anja Barnard. vol. 37. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. 320-63. Press.