Answer:
a description of the setting
Step-by-step explanation:
John Steinbeck's short story "The Chrysanthemums" begins with a description of the setting. It starts with a detailed portrayal of the Salinas Valley in California during a foggy, gray autumn. The story opens with the following lines:
"The high gray-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot."
These lines set the mood of the story and introduce the sense of isolation and containment that becomes a recurring theme throughout the narrative. The initial description of the landscape serves as a backdrop against which the characters and events of the story unfold.