The Chrysanthemums -- The Long Valley As usual, Steinbeck takes the first part of the story depicting the environment. Way far outweighs the exterior description Steinbeck wrote for the beginning, the interpretation of the surroundings implicates the protagonist’s emotions. Covered by the fog, the mountain turns out the gloomy mood Elisa Allen has after knowing others’ ignore on her loved flowers. “The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the would. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot” (1)—A fog shed over the mountaintop is like a grief mood over Elisa’s head. Because it is the blossom time for the chrysanthemums, there is no reason to destroy them. Not far down the environmental illustrations comes the description of the main character in this story, Elisa Allen, a chrysanthemums gardener. She loves chrysanthemums. And she is a prolific gardener who is deeply proud of her products: “ Oh, those are chrysanthemums, giant whites and yellows. I raise them every year, bigger than anybody around here” (2)-- Once she works on her flowers, she cares little about anything else even not on her beauty: “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, the trowel and scratcher, the seeds and the knife she worked with. She wore heavy leather gloves to protect her hands while she worked” (2). Steinbeck truly used a long paragraph talking about what Elisa wears, because he wants to show the readers a figure that plants her life into her garden. Elisa is such a protector that there is no room for bugs to invade into her garden: “Her terrier fingers destroyed such pests before they could get started” (2); she is such a strong woman who is passionate to gardening that this work has never used up her energy: “The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy”(2); she is such a responsible planter that she never neglect any little care: “With her trowel she turned the soil over and over, and smoothed it and patted it firm” (3). Apart from talking about Elisa, Henry Allen, Elisa’s husband, a person who does not understand what Elisa’s passion on the flowers can bring them, plays a crucial role reflecting Elisa’s personality. By talking with her husband, Elisa’s another personality shows in their