"The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck is a story of a woman named Elisa and her transformation and rebirth to a new person. Elisa lives in the Salinas Valley with her husband on their ranch. Elisa loves working in her garden and tending to her chrysanthemums like they are her own children. In "The Chrysanthemums," Elisa takes a bath after her long day of work in the garden as her rebirth and transformation from a masculine woman to a beautiful, elegant woman. This bath represents Elisa coming into a new life that is filled with beauty, unlike before.

 In the beginning, Elisa is out in the yard tending to her "children," the chrysanthemums. These flowers are Elisa's pride and joy and what she lives for every day. Elisa works very hard to ensure her chrysanthemums are the best around. However, when Elisa is performing this manly act of yard work, she is dressed like a man. Steinbeck writes,

Her face was lean and strong and her eyes were as clear as water. 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 (1). 

Elisa’s outfit shows how manly she dresses before her transformation. She wears a man's hat to cover her face and hair, an oversized apron over her dress, and leather gloves. Elisa's choice of clothing shows how manly she is and that she does not want to be on display or show her beauty. She covers her face and hides her hair with a man's hat, and wears an oversized apron over her gardening dress. When Elisa works in the garden and gets dirty from tending to her chrysanthemums, she does not care one bit that she is dirty and disgusting like a man would be if he was performing the same task. Steinbeck states, "She brushed a cloud of hair out of her eyes with the back of her gloves, and left smudge of earth on her cheek in doing it" (1). In that moment, Elisa has no care in the world as to what she looks like. Elisa does not care that she was wearing men's clothes, or has dirt all over her face, she just wants to be outside tending to her "children." In the end, Elisa is dressed in mens clothing and is covered in dirt from head to toe, which shows her masculinity.

 While completing yard work, Elisa’s husband tells her that he is going to take her to dinner to celebrate. After Elisa finishes her gardening for the day, she cleans up her tools and goes inside to get ready. While Elisa is bathing and getting ready, she is undergoing a rebirth and transformation to a new person. Steinbeck writes, "In the bathroom she tore off her soiled clothes and flung them into the corner. And then she scrubbed herself with a little block of pumice, legs and thighs, loins and chest and arms, until her skin was scratched and red" (6). Elisa starts getting ready by throwing her filthy clothes far away into a corner like she is ashamed and disgusted by them. Then comes Elisa's rebirth, which is represented by her scrubbing herself with a pumice, which is volcanic rock, until she is scratched and red all over her body. Elisa scrubbing herself vigorously resembles her wiping off the dirt and grime from when she was out gardening in the yard like a man while wearing a mans clothes. The pumice is ripping off the manliness she once had, to now show off her true self, which is a beautiful, elegant woman. Now that Elisa is cleansed from the manliness she once embodied, she is a confident, beautiful woman. Steinbeck writes, "she stood in front of a mirror in her bedroom and looked at her body. She tightened her stomach and threw out her chest. She turned and looked over her shoulder at her back" (6). Elisa looks at herself in the mirror and sees how beautiful of a person she really is. Elisa is confident in herself now that she is a more feminine woman than before. Elisa is now the person she wants to be after her transformation from a masculine woman to a beautiful woman.

 After Elisa's rebirth and transformation, it is time for her to get ready for dinner with her husband. Elisa has to look her absolute best because dinner with her husband is a rare occasion. Elisa now needs to find clothes that embrace her new found beauty. Steinbeck writes, "After a while she began to dress, slowly. She put on her newest underclothing and her nicest stockings and the dress which was the symbol of her prettiness. She worked carefully on her hair, pencilled her eyebrows and rouged her lips" (6). Elisa takes her time to prepare for this dinner. Elisa puts on her newest undergarments and a dress that symbolizes beauty. Her new undergarments represent a "new" Elisa. Elisa is a transformed person from the beginning of the story and feels rejuvenated from the bath. The dress Elisa puts on makes her feel charming and like a real woman. After dressing, Elisa pays close attention to and uses great detail to fix her hair, pencil her eyebrows, and put on lipstick. Elisa has to look like and feel like the beautiful woman she has become since the start of the story. 

In the end, the bath that Elisa took after gardening was a symbolic rebirth and transformation. From the beginning when Elisa dresses like a man and wears oversized clothes, and a man's hat, and performs a mans task such as gardening and working outside all day, to the end where Elisa was a confident, beautiful woman who wore her newest clothes and a dress that symbolized her prettiness, it was a total transformation. Elisa becomes the woman she wants to be after she scrubs herself until she was red and scratched all over. Steinbeck used the bath scene to give Elisa a new life, and show the beauty she secretly embodies.