The Chrysanthemums

I found this story interesting because it's not like the typical farm life/western story where the woman is completely content being the perfect housewife raising ten children, cooking 5 pounds of potatoes a day to feed everyone!(A little exaggeration here, but you see my point!) I get the impression that Elisa is bored with her life. There is no mention of children, just the two dogs. She loves her flowers, this is obvious. When the man riding the wagon comes and asks about the chrysanthemums, her faces brightens and she is more than willing to give details about them and even share them. It seems to be hinting throughout the whole story that she has interests in "men" things, which makes me wonder if in some ways she wishes she'd been born a man. An example could be when she is looking at her body in the mirror after she bathed(638), wondering if it's worth it being a woman...what are the pluses and negatives? She was very proud to tell the man that she could mend pots and sharpen scissors, she also all the sudden shows interest to her husband about the fights, what they are about and if women ever attend. I see two possible ways of interpreting the last line: "She turned up her coat collar so he could not see that she was crying weakly-like an old woman." Because she loves her chrysanthemums so much, seeing the black pile of dirt on the side of road so carelessly dumped out could have saddened her deeply, making her cry. It could have been that the man used the flowers as a reason to warm up to Elisa so he could get some work out from her, it is very possible that he made up the story about the lady wanting chrysanthemums and Elisa is now realising that she "took the bait" so to speak. The other possibility to why she was crying is she was thinking about all it means to be a woman, and maybe considering the fun men might have. Or at least she is wishing that women might be allowed to do men things.