Elisa Allen (The Chrysanthemums)
Thirty-something woman whose craving for attention and understanding from her simple but honest and loving husband leads to tragedy with a small “t” when an itinerant tinker seems to make an honest emotional connection with her in her garden. The title flowers left to rot on the side of the road symbolize how life continues to disappoint her.
Harry Teller (The White Quail)
Harry is married to another woman with another garden who feels the pangs of believing that she cannot make an emotional connection with her spouse. Unlike Elisa, however, Mary Teller’s garden is more of an illusion than a place to actually connect with the earth. Inside the artfully constructed simulation of a garden is the title bird; a living symbol of Mary living inside her illusion. She fears the cat will kill the bird and one of her many domineering commands to Harry is to kill the cat. It is not the cat that Harry shoots, however.
The Woman in Black (The Snake)
Three major characters play out some sort of Freudian nightmare in this bizarre story, Dr. Philips, a laboratory snake and an unnamed woman the doctor has never seen before nor will ever again. Her very appearance is described by Steinbeck in language that situates her as far less a character than an archetype and everything that occurs exists on the same ambiguous level of symbol and metaphor:
“She was dressed in a severe dark suit, her straight black hair, growing low on a flat forehead, was mussed as though the wind had been blowing it. Her black eyes glittered in the strong light.”
Johnny Bear (Johnny Bear)
Like the woman in black, Johnny Bear is also physically described in terms placing him quite outside the realm of simple reality. In fact, Johnny Bear’s entire physical manifestation bears a remarkable resemblance to that of the Creature as delineated by Mary Shelley. In addition to his somewhat monstrous appearance, Johnny also possesses what might be described by some as a monstrous ability: an ability to replicate an entire conversation not just word-for-word, but with perfect mimicry of tonal nuances such as inflection and accentuation.
Saint Katy (Saint Katy the Virgin)
Katy is actually a pig, part of a litter of pigs owned by the malevolent Mr. Roark. She literally feasts upon her own kind and other animals on the farm. When two monks show up to ask for tithes, Roark gives them Katy with wicked intent and the devilish little porker chases them up a tree. At that a point, a true miracle seems to take place and Katy becomes a Christian healer and, ultimately, attains sainthood.
