The short story for this themed reading assignment, The Chrysanthemums and a story from the previous reading assignment, Sweat presents the reader with two women whose both deal with their life that varies differently according to how they deal with their situation. In Sweat, Delia Jones is a poor black woman who works harder due to the fact that she washes clothes for white people for a living and is married to an abusive husband who is very unkind to her to the point it is almost sadistic. He makes it clear to the audience reading this story that he does not care for his wife and simply treats her like a slave. In The Chrysanthemums, Elisa Allen lives and works on a farm with her husband, however, she is less isolated from her husband