Steinbeck uses pots as a contextual symbol to give the reader a hopeful tone at the beginning of the story. A pot contains and stores something inside of it. In “The Chrysanthemums”, Steinbeck uses repetition when referring to pots. First, by describing the farmland as a “closed pot”, then the pots that the stranger mends for money, and finally the flower pot that Mrs. Allen gives her chrysanthemum in and later finds out that he had kept. The farmland being referred to as a “closed pot” may symbolize how Mrs. Allen feels about being closed off from other parts of the world. The pots that the stranger mends are only fixed temporarily, and he mentions how he saves people money. This could also symbolize how Mrs. Allen feels; temporarily strong