Analysis and Commentary of Steinbeck's "The Chysanthemums

From the back of his Kia Sorento, Walter Bowne speaks about John
Steinbeck's amazing story of an isolated woman in an isolated
valley in December who so wants to compete in a world run by men.
Who is the only one who sees her children, her art? A con man who
symbolically "uses her" and her husband who only sees profit in
her "art." Her husband cannot even recognize her "as a woman."
Does he even know his own wife? Why does it a take a stranger for
her to remove her "costume" of "men's clothing"?