East of Eden LV -- chpt55: THE END

I've written about 30 questions for this final entry, but they're all redundant; if you've made it this far, you've answered them all already.  Here are three:

1. Describe Cal's guilt (a deliberately ambiguous usage), and in the context of his family and family's history.
2. Discuss the role of the idea of "the sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the heads of the children," especially considering the contextual fact of God as a father.
3. Is Caleb free?

East of Eden LIV -- chpt54: LATE AZALEAS

Happiness blooms late as the azaleas in the Trask residence and the tardy spring.  Interesting that as the inhabitants of the Salinas Valley find their superstitious way into blaming the war for the uncommon seasonality, so the Trasks' happiness might be considered late, though happy it is, and--well--is this happiness in spite of or because of the war?

Does the ultimately required resolution of the book's conflict depend on Aron's mortality (not morality, thank goodness)?

***

I think it's hilarious that both Cal and Abra ask, one after the other, Adam and Lee to come and join them on the picnic.  I wonder if for the maybe the first time in his life Adam catches on and claims necessary business at the ice house.  Lee, who's becoming both softer and more acerbic in his old age, just tells Cal he's a moron and refuses.

the very reason I wouldn't mind
living in California

East of Eden LIII -- chpt53: LOVE&TIMSHEL

Lee is quite the little homemaker.  His awaiting Abra reminds me a lot of my mother awaiting the return home of a loved one after a long time away, only Lee, quite unlike my mother, receives for the first time in his life a display of affection.  And "awaiting" is such a passive word.  My mom and Lee are anything but passive (speaking physically, at least; Lee's moral passivity still bothers me sometimes).

As Adam is progressively sickening, Lee's love radiates further and absorbs all his employer's ills, and Lee advances from his position of helpmeet (already an advancement from hired servant) to caregiver.  Why does he do it?  You might say that he does do it and doesn't do it because it's his job.  It is no longer because of his status as family employee that he tends Adam, the boys, and, as much as he is able, Abra, but because it is his job as a loved one--as a member of the family.  I believe that in this chapter, Lee has truly realized his ambition to have this family as his own.

Need additional evidence, watch how Lee speaks with Cal.  Watch how he observes Cal, Adam, Aron, and Abra.  There is so much tenderness and love in this man.  And though he might prefer it otherwise, he is utterly incapable of solving this family's troubles.  Not because he is not the father--the blood father.  Not because he is only the servant.  But because he is only a man.  I think this is a fascinating point, especially as I participate--as tenderly, lovingly, and attentively as I can--in my own family.  I can't solve my family's troubles, though I crave that ability.  This is the very definition of impotence; while in the context of this book and, I believe, in the context of real life, there is only One with any power--potency--at all.  What we can do--Lee, my wife and me together, Adam, Cal, my kids, whoever--is work with the situations we've got--to choose to do so--and choose to work on them together.  So we do have some power--some very limited (though not at all limiting, as this power has the thrust to elevate us into eternity) power--and that is in the choosing.

Think about it: How often can you hurdle a problem, once that problem's arisen?  How often do you have to slog through its mire?

Of course, there is a measure of difficulties we can avoid by simply making the correct anticipatory choices.  That's timshel.  What else is timshel is that very choosing that I mentioned just sentences ago to deal with your lot lovingly, tenderly, attentively.

Like Lee.  Like Cal and Abra.  Like me, hopefully, and my wife.  And we can only pray that those Arons and Adams out there might do the same--that and do all we can to teach and show and love.

East of Eden LI -- chpt51: "Am I supposed to look after [my brother]?"

Reading Questions
chapter 51.1

1. What part of Adam is it that cries, "Oh, my poor darling!"?  What does this lens into the man show us?
2. What are the two comforts for Lee taken from the little stolen book?
3. I have books that I've "stolen," much like Lee stole this book from Sam'l Hamilton.  What is the advantage to the thief from the quality of the acquisition that is theft?  How might the theft be justified, as my theft, like Lee's, is indeed known to the former owner?

chapter 51.2

1. It is impossible, not to mention irrational, for an author to plug a movie, author, song, or other artist without a specific purpose--metaphoric, allusionary, or something along those lines.  My favorite author for such plugs is Salinger, Cather in the Rye being the most significant, and maybe the best, example.  Here, Cal is remembering leaving Kate's and his singing of the words, "There's a rose that grows in no man's land and 'tis wonderful to see--"  Obviously there's a significance to it.  Is it had by just this line, or do you require the entire lyric (complete words at end of post)?
2. The benefit of burning the bills, like Lee's reading of Marcus Aurelius, is two-fold.  What are the benefits?
3. "Caleb whose suffering should have its own Homer."  (Hmm.  Doesn't it?  What is the ultimate conflict and its incarnation in this epic?)
4. Of the characters, Adam, Lee, Aron, Cal, Cathy, which is the most realistic--or, at least, the closest to a human average?
5. "In the old lands they say of us that we go from barbarism to decadence without an intervening culture."  Is there a practical difference between the two?

THE ROSE OF NO MAN'S LAND

(Jack Caddigan / James A. Brennan)

William Thomas - 1916

Henry Burr - 1918

Charles Hart - 1919

Hugh Donovan (a.k.a. Charles Harrison) - 1919

I've seen some beautiful flowers

Grow in life's garden fair

I've spent some wonderful hours

Lost in their fragrance rare

But I have found another

Wondrous beyond compare....

There's a rose that grows in no-man's land

And it's wonderful to see

Though its sprayed with tears, it will live for years

In my garden of memory

It's the one red rose the soldier knows

It's the work of the Master's hand

'Neath the War's great curse stands a Red Cross nurse

She's the rose of no-man's land

Out in the heavenly splendour

Down to the trail of woe

God in his mercy has sent her

Fearing the World below

We call her Rose of Heaven

We've longed to love her so....

There's a rose that grows in no-man's land

And it's wonderful to see

Though its sprayed with tears, it will live for years

In my garden of memory

It's the one red rose the soldier knows

It's the work of the Master's hand

'Neath the War's great curse stands a Red Cross nurse

She's the rose of no-man's land 

East of Eden L -- chpt50: ALICE IN EVIL-LAND, LOST THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Reading Questions
Chapter 50.1

by John Tenniel

1. Maybe Cathy could read when she was five, but she clearly missed the boat on what those words meant.  How is she like--short answer--and how is she really almost completely different than Alice in Wonderland?  (Obviously, this one's for those who've read AND UNDERSTOOD the Alice books.)
2. How does this misinterpretation shed light on her evil--and, I'm going to pursue it still, her humanity (I believe less and less that she is indeed so inhuman and without justification as we and others have claimed)?  After all, what else in the universe does to itself what she does at the end of this section?
3. Take a look at the very last sentence of the section;" and she had never been."  Not, "as if."  Unfortunately, it's just not true.  I think we're meant to hope so.  What legacy does she leave behind?  And regardless of how Aron responds to the news of the will (if he ever gets it), has Cathy won?  What will determine her victory?

chapter 50.2

1. I hate to ask it, but is all this death a cop-out--a great steamroller ending?  Is this whole book thing turning all Grady-Tripp on ol' Steinbeck?  (Sorry -- for anyone following along who hasn't read Wonder Boys, Grady Tripp is a fictional creative writing professor who's working on a mammoth book with absolutely no aim to it, and which just goes and goes and goes--and goes nowhere.)

East of Eden XLIX -- chpt49: MURDER

Reading Questions
Chapter 49.2

1. As I said for the previous chapter, trouble is brewing.  Though Cal may not recognize it, why is he all the more justified in being nervous because of Aron's disinterest in returning to college?
2. Why is giving a gift hard, but getting a gift harder?
3. What triggers Cal's shame after Aron's request to move back dinner--something between Aron taking his day, and the jealousy?
4. What evidence does Cal have against himself to indicate an enjoyment for this kind of self-inflicted torment?
5. Is it possible for Cal to give Adam the money and expect nothing--to give it lightly?
6. Why is Cal letting Aron buy the wine?  While I think he intends one reason, and a beneficent one, there is a darker motivation (think rabbits) present as well.

Chapter 49.3

1. Why does Cal want--or need--the others to see the giving of his gift?
2. This seems like stretching a metaphor to breaking point and shooting well beyond the author's potentially verifiable intentions, but let's do it anyway: what might be the allegory of Lee's turkey?
3. What is deplorable, for Lee or Sam, about one man only possessing only one tiny wedge of the world, but having it entirely?  "...a specialist is only a coward."  If this is what Adam wants for Aron, what is Lee doing, intentionally or not, by this phrase?
4. Aside from Scrooge and other misers, how is it that nobody wants money?
5. "I hope he lives to a hundred." // "How do you know he's not a hundred now?"  --  It's almost as if Steinbeck is a prophet anticipating Yoda....
6. Is Cal wrong to give the gift at this moment?  What is the inherent trouble--and kicking back to Lee's statement above--with gift-giving, especially extravagant gifts?
7. Why is the gift repellent to Adam, and in a way that Cal couldn't have ever predicted?
8. One more time: What is Aron's gift to his father?  (And how does this seem to defy even the definition of "gift"?)
9. Why does Cal try to make the tears come?  Why are tears preferable to Cal?
10. How is it that Cal has a choice but Adam did not?

East of Eden XLVIII -- chpt48: **sneeze**

As a reader  you can generally tell when events are winding up--when the author's pushing things slowly toward the cliff.  Though you can't see it, but it's there.  The sensation is a little like knowing a sneeze is on its way, though perhaps you don't know how strong it will turn out or if it will fizzle to nothing (so disappointing!).  If you look closely at the writing, you can even identify the specific symptoms in the narration indicating the coming sneeze--itchy sinuses, watery eyes, sudden and involuntary snuffling up from your gut....  Here in chapter 48, I think we can begin to point out that, yes, we are about to sneeze--or East of Eden is.  How do we know?

When else has Cathy made such consistent appearances?  When else has she been so rattled for more than a paragraph at a time?  When else has someone worked directly against her?  When else has she remained so consistently agitated?

Better yet--if a mighty climax you desire--Aron's home from college, Cal's under-appreciated, and Thanksgiving is coming when Adam plans, though indirectly and with typical oblivion, to shunt Cain--I mean Cal.

Storm's a'brewin'!

Reading Questions

1. Why does Joe feel as though maybe somebody's come in to root through his stuff?  What's the devil over shoulder on about?
2. Is Joe's instinct against Cathy is correct, is someone--a higher power--assisting him, or is he just bumbling and lucky (unless it all turns to pot!)?
3. Is Cathy a "soup carrier?"
4. What's in the capsule in her necklace?
5. Why is she inquisitive after the goings-on of the funeral?

East of Eden XLVII -- chpt47: WHO IS TO BLAME?

Reading Questions
Chapter 47.1

1. I've noticed a version of Adam's sternness for "excuse and borderline disability" in myself and my teaching.  Though he is weak, though he hates the war and feels he's condemning the boys he sends off, why won't he accept the excuse (which is the same reason he wouldn't be able to hold back his boys)?

Chapter 47.2

1. There's an interesting question here, which could be answered pertly, tritely, but whose answer could be much more revelatory: If God puts together two boys in a family--Cain and Abel, Charles and Adam, Cal and Aron--and one of them kills the other, even if perhaps there was reasonable doubt that they'd live well together and build each other up, is God responsible?
2. "All great and precious things are lonely."  (I don't think I agree--or I do agree, but with exceptions.)

Chapter 47.3

1. Twice now, unless I'm missing one, Cain has remained in "Eden" and Abel has left the garden for the weedy world beyond--war and college.  What is Steinbeck saying by this, as it is not the only reversal from the Bible story?
2. Could Aron live on and work the farm?  It isn't a question regarding Cal.  Yes, he could.  But here we see the greatest similarity between Aron and Adam.  What is it?  (And if Aron has such distinct similarities to both his parents, what is there about Cal that is at similar to his father, if it is Adam at all, as we see clearly what his similarities are to Cathy?)

East of Eden XLIV -- chpt44: HUMANS JUST SMELL BAD SOMETIMES

Reading Questions
Chapter 44.1

1. What's the clear difference between Aron's situation, in which he is creating the girl he loves to be something other than what she is, and his father's situation, when he did the same thing?
2. Those around him seem to believe that Aron needs to be pulled from the clouds.  There's one sure-fire way to do it, albeit extreme and likely to result in permanent damage.  Is there another way?  Remember, in order to maintain parallels Steinbeck may very well need to kill Abel, and Cain's probably gotta have something to do with it, whether it's a literal of figurative killing.  Regardless, why might a partial killing just not do?
3. Why doesn't Lee want tell Abra the truth (and how does she trick him) the way he told Cal?  He knows she can handle it.  What is his cowardice (and a cowardice perhaps redoubled for his giving in to her wiles)?
4. There's a sense in Lee already telling him what will happen regarding Cal's gift.  He can talk to Cal and Cal will listen, yet he doesn't say anything more than he "hopes."

Chapter 44.2

1. "You'r crazy," said Cal.  "Aron will knock that out you." // "Do you think he will?" // "Why, sure," said Cal.  "He's got to."  

East of Eden XLIII -- chpt43: ABEL'S SACRIFICE

Reading Questions
Chapter 43.1

1. Two chapters ago, we saw Cal's sacrifice to his father; now we see Aron's, and while we later see Aron's typically teenager "he wouldn't understand," why is it really that he doesn't want to tell his father?  Additionally, compare Aron's feelings for his father with Adam's feelings for his father (or Charles's for that matter).  There's an interestingly mirrored parallel there.
2. Is lack of ambition, like Lee's, a blessing or a curse?  (Consider this in and out of context.)  In Lee's case, how does it perfectly serve him as arbiter for this odd family?

Chapter 43.2

1. Would knowing Mary Magdalene were his mother make it any easier for Aron to forgive her?  What should this reveal to him about his ambition for the Cloth, and why will he not--at least not now--recognize such a revelation?

Chapter 43.3

1. Interestingly, Cal's "sacrifice" is as vegetable as was Cain's.  How might Aron's be indeed considered the animal sacrifice of the Old Testament, especially considering Abel's sacrifice was of the firstlings and of the fat, or the best, thereof?
2. Why does Lee keep bringing up von Clausewitz?
3. Aron is guilty of the greatest misconception of all of humanity, regarding the color of grass and fences.  I'm surprised Lee doesn't spend more than a sentence pointing this out, instead he opens up a pontificating #10 can of the extremes of youth.  Why doesn't he know--or chooses to ignore that--this won't do a lick of good?

East of Eden XLI -- chpt41: PREP FOR A BEAN BASH

Reading Questions
Chapter 41.1

1. Interesting the final sentence of this first, short section that claims the Salinas Valley, while a part of the Nation frightened by its "imperceptible" slide toward war, is either oblivious or willfully despondent.  Sound like anyone you know?

Chapter 41.2

1. I think we get the direct parallel to the previous question in just the first three inches or so of text here, when Aron, in utterly willful black-and-white obtuseness, says, "But he lost it."
2. In the conversation between the brothers, there's an amplified sense of Aron's personality.  What's going on in the moment of these lines that emphasizes his character: "I'll help you though college."  "You will?"  "Sure I will."  "Why, I'll go and see the principal right away."  Compare this quickness to that of his judgment on his father.
3. Justify Abra: "I try to talk him out of [his attitude about the lettuce].  Maybe he's enjoying it."  Enjoying it?  Really?
4. Is Lee missing something, or is he content?  (Having finished the chapter, this smacks a bit of Deus Ex Machina; can you show that it's not?)

Chapter 41.3

1. The first paragraph of this section reminds me, perhaps strangely, of Life of Pi.  Will, an animal so unlike that of his perhaps-wilder siblings, enjoys his cage in his little self-crafted zoo.  Why is it (if you thoroughly remember Life of Pi) that he's so content in his "square glass cage," especially (and back to EoE from LoP) in view of the next paragraph contrasting Will to Joe?
2. If Will sees and respects Cal, he sees something of himself in the boy.  What does he see?  Are they so similar?  (This is a much bigger question--especially in view of the next--than it seems.)
3. Why does Will's "fleshy face" contort with memory when Cal admits his fondness for his father?
4. Where is God in this chapter?  Consider the source story.  Is it Adam?  Big, doltish, even simpleton Adam?  Wouldn't that be even a sort of blasphemy?  Cal is winding up to offer his sacrifice.  What is Aron's gift?

East of Eden XXXIX -- chpt39: Caleb Trask, SUPER HERO

Reading Questions
Chapter 39.1

1. "It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it."  While this quotation is in reference to the collective consciousness of the community, which individual of the story triumphs in a similar way?
2. The revelation of Cal's humanity in this and the previous chapter is startling and heart-warming.  Steinbeck appears to be requiring a balance in this character, such that he that is most capable of bad is also the most capable of good, a balance that so many of the other characters lack.  Cathy, for example, is imbalanced in nearly an equal, opposite manner as Adam, as if the two of them make one whole.  Aron is similar, and seems to require a doppelganger, though it seems unlikely to be Cal (true definition of doppelganger, here).  Are there other characters, like Cal, who are their own and complete without the balance of another?
3. What tremendous reason does Cal have for being glad that he was in jail overnight?
4. This moment of sharing between Cal and Adam is along the same lines of an earlier discussion regarding the falling of giants.  How does a giant's fall make him more human, approachable, and, in Cal's case for his father, loveable?
5. Maybe it's not possible to imagine this moment without being a father; if you're not, project yourself into Adam.  Empathize.  When Cal goes into the kitchen to make coffe, what is Adam thinking and, more importantly--infinitely more importantly--what is he feeling?

Chapter 39.2

1. What about Kate's (Cathy's) hands?
2. Who is the father of the twins?  The answer, any one of three possible choices, can strengthen, weaken, or disregard (only one) the point of Timshel.  I vouch for strengthen.
3. Cal, as heroic and brave as his father--while just as cowardly and afraid--says it: "I don't think the light hurts your eyes.  I think you're afraid."
4. What is her fear, now Cal has seen and known her?

East of Eden XXXVIII -- chpt38: CAL TRASK, SOFTER THAN HE SEEMS

1. Why does Cal walk at night?
2. What makes Cal more capable of dealing with the information about his mother than Aron?
3. Discuss Cal's fear compared to his brother's or his father's.
4. Did Cal "indulge" in the activities of Kate's place?
5. Why does Lee answer Cal's questions?  Would Adam have approved?  Is Lee contradicting his employer?
6. Why does Lee get so upset with Cal as he's leaving his room?  Which characteristics of his father's does Cal have, and what of his mother's?  Is there a naturally dominant side?
7. Consider the second line of the chapter, "If he had been an only child or if Aron had been a different kind of boy...," in tandem with the previous question regarding Lee's action.  The idea is that if things had been different early in Cal's life, Cal wouldn't be who he is right now.  Apply this concept to Cathy.  What if she had had a sibling like Aron, or a mentor like Lee, or even a father more like Adam?  Is it possible that, once upon a time, she possessed the necessary traits, and had they been fostered differently, to be a less evil person?

East of Eden XXXVII -- chpt37: LETTUCE-HEAD

Reading Questions
Chapter 37.1

1. Why did Lee never fully unpack before now?
2. Notice, via Adam's obsession with ice, that Sam Hamilton yet lives, and will likely live eternally.
3. There is great potential irony in a business plan regarding refrigeration, especially in the context of a book that has one family of immortals and another family recently resurrected.
4. It comes out: how does Will really feel about his father?  Also, it is very easy and natural for a reader to highly idealize both Sam and Tom; look at it from the other side, and instead of villainizing Will, defend him.
5. Is Will right?  When people ask advice, do the really only want the advisor to agree with them?

Chapter 37.2

1. Adam's smile here after the news of the lettuce reminds me an awful lot of the smile he wore after gaining freedom from his wife.
2. The whole episode of the lettuce makes me uncomfortable the way a situational comedy makes me uncomfortable.  In such a comedy, I know what's going to happen, and there's nothing I can do about it, and if the victim only followed sound advice to begin with, wasn't quite so stubborn, and possessed an only slightly greater portion of intelligence--which intelligence every reader of this book believes he/she possesses--it wouldn't happen!  But there's an issue of fate going on here.  Was Adam fated to lose this investment?  Whether yes or no, how does this play with the themes of the book, especially that of Timshel?
3. As Adam is deemed a fool, how might he feel about being a "fool like Sam Hamilton?"

Chapter 37.3

1. Dad fails and Aron moans and groans, and the trouble leads him to second guess everything about his father, including his love.  Dad fails, and what will Cal do, if his personality indeed dictates his actions?

East of Eden XXXVI -- chpt36: LIARS

I believe there is a great interest in children to both expose lies and try them out for themselves.  Cal is a master, and uses his lies to greatest possible advantage.  Abra is a liar, but a casual liar, and not dependent upon them.  Adam is a liar, but only delivering those designed to protect, despite the high risk of backfire.  Lee is a liar, inasmuch as he is required to protect his employer.  Aron is not a liar.

Few questions:

1. Why does Aron cry, his head in Abra's lap?
2. Is it possible to say why Abra loves Aron?  My thinking is this: Aron recognizes that Abra is different from all the other girls, and indeed so she seems, and more so than just his wish that she be different.  If she is indeed different, might she love Aron for reason different than the rest of everyone else who loves him?
3. Aron has a superpower, demonstrated in pt3.  What is it, and how does he wield it?  

East of Eden XXXV -- chpts34-35: BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Chapter 34

129,864,880

that's a pretty big number

I have heard a university professor of literature claim that there are but three types of stories: The Coming of Age, The Quest, and The Battle.  But if you take Scheherazade as any indication of count, then you might say there are as many as 1001 stories.  According to Google, on the other hand, there are (and I'm writing this out just for the weight of it) one hundred twenty-nine million, eight hundred sixty-four thousand, eight hundred eighty books "in the world."  It's likely that the majority of these are non-fiction, but even if, say, twenty percent represents fiction, that still leaves more than twenty-five million books, many of which will be collections of stories, not to mention all the non-fiction narratives out there.  Let's round up to fifty million stories, just to be safe, in the world.  That's a lot more than three.  That's a lot more than one, which, according to Steinbeck, is all there is.  Of course, he says that all stories boil down to a battle against evil.  Do we trust him?  We do tend to venerate the man here at the Wall.  Is his claim not true?  (...which is another way to request examples of stories that transcend the labels.)


If we look again at the three stories brought up once by that university professor, they are actually three types of stories, as is good versus evil a type of story, or narrative.  The Coming of Age is man vs. self, The Quest is man vs. nature or other natural and supernatural forces, and The Battle is man vs. man.  When it comes right down to it, any one of those twenty-five million plus stories represents one or more of these three narrative types.  Look again, and you'll see that each of these three story types is a battle against evil.

1. "Do you not consider me lucky?"  "How can I tell?  You aren't dead yet."
2. What are the categories for the life stories of the three deaths the narrator "remember[s] clearly"?
3. "It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember or dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world," and I might add: "yet pleasure to ourselves."

***

Chapter 35

There and Back Again

• Lee is right, as he usually is.  "It's my observation that children always surprise us."  However, not all boys--children--surprise in the same way.  This, however, is not my point of contention (yes, point of contention!).  My issue is Steinbeck's portrayal of these boys as their surrogate father walks out on them (BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT HE DOES).  I know kids who would have been crushed--and I don't think I know a kid who wouldn't be--by his departure, crushed exactly as if it had been a parent who left.  I think this may be one of the only places I disagree with Steinbeck in his various philosophies of life.  In the first moments of Lee's departure, I agree with the depiction.  Yes, I can see Cal asking about tickets to the game and Aron talking about hot dogs, but in the days that follow, the loss would begin to set in, and they would feel abandoned.  Knowing what little I do about Steinbeck's life, I wonder if this is perhaps beyond his realm of experience or understanding.  Thoughts?

• When I first read East of Eden, laying on my hide-a-bed in my realtor's basement, my family across the country waiting for the house to finalize so we could move in, I cried twice in this chapter.  I was--and it surprised me, the superlative of emotion the book brought, likely particularly so for the context of my read-- "incomparably, incredibly, overwhelmingly glad to [have Lee] home."

East of Eden XXXII -- chpt31: ADAM to CATHY to LIZA to WILL; next Dessie and Tom; and there was the parrot, Polly, too

Chapter 31 is more of a passing chapter, than full of crucial plot points.  There's not a great deal here more than some helpful exposition, besides the mild conflict between Adam and Cathy.  Cathy's fear, however, is significant.  Think of wild animals and how they respond to the emotion.

Reading Questions
Chapter 31

1. Lee says that Adam can be "dishonest in a lot of ways, but not in that way."  What does he mean?  When has Adam been dishonest?
2. What does Cathy think Adam is trying to do when he comes with the letter to her ... er ... establishment?
3. Why is Cathy afraid of Adam?  (an answer much like that of Cal's fear of Lee in the last chapter)
4. "...her body shook with something that felt like rage and also felt like sorrow."  Again, Adam does the Cathy what Aron did to Cal.  Contrast the instances.

East of Eden XXXI -- chpt30: SHOT THROUGH THE HEART

Synopsis:
I

1. Family drives into town to pick up mail and get meat for dinner.
2. Adam gets a letter from a law firm back East.
3. Letter announces death of Charles and further inheritance for Adam, to be split with his wife, if she is yet alive.
4. Cal and Aron bet on an early bed time.
5. Cal's feelings are significantly hurt--nearly mortally so.

II

1. Aron wonder's why Cal kicks down anthills--not which anthills, but why.
2. Cal's heart is pierced anew.
3. Adam and Lee discuss letter and what to do about Cathy's rightful portion (rightful by which morality?).
4. Lee stands up to Adam, who is surprised but not bothered.
5. Lee practices perfectly timed and inflected sarcasm.

III

1. Cal perfectly demonstrates what it really means to choose.  Timshel.

Questions
Chapter 30.1

1. The last few chapters have illustrated Adam's tremendous changes.  If his past sins are more visible, remember these moments of triumph and glory, if not, perhaps, as significant as that of Lee's family history.  Here in part 1, what do we see as proof of his embracing the new life he's chosen and the family eagerly accepting?  (more than one)
2. What does Aron manage to do, though there no way he intended it, that will have eternal significance--recorded by the angels of heaven--for his brother?
3. Notice the rapidity of sway in Cal's emotions.  Cal fears, a little (and he recognizes it), Lee.  He believes he has power over his brother and potential power over his father.  What or who is Cal really scared of, and why?

Chapter 30.2

1. What in the world could "the elders" accomplish that Lee hasn't already in this discussion of inheritance?  Why does Lee get so angry with Adam?  What is the truth in Adam that he refuses to admit of himself and why?
2. What would be required for Cathy to expand into Lee's offering: "What your wife is doing is neither good nor bad.  Saints can spring from any soil.  Maybe with this money she would do some fine thing.  There's no springboard to philanthropy like a bad conscience"?

Chapter 30.3

1. List all of the possible motivations for Cal's prayer to be like Aron.
2. What is he really willing to sacrifice--or how far is he willing to go--to buy this miracle?
3. What is his first step in the "right" direction?

Finally, if the rabbit symbolizes either of the boys, at this point has the significance of the member changed or reversed polarization, or gained an additional object?

East of Eden XXX -- chpt29: JUST CALL ME JOE!

Is it so wrong to over-read a passage--to look too deeply?  I don't think so, and this is why:  as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't always matter what an author intended.  It matters much more what is there, rather than why it's there.  There are such things as accidental and incidental works of art.  So take this together with the notion that even if Steinbeck didn't intend metaphor by the carved head as cage for a fly, or the rabbit shot through the heart, or, here in chapter 29, the car, it doesn't change the fact that metaphor may be found, and metaphor pertinent to the conflict and characters.  I think the ends--the presence of metaphor or allegory or art--justify the means and/or the author's lack of intent. 

That said...

Reading Questions
Chapter 29.1

1. Will brings Adam's car, and it's a mess of complications.  Now as long as you can at least partially separate yourself from Tolkein's antagonism toward the Industrial Age, you should be able to recognize Adam's purchase of a car as a sign of progress--he's stepping, rather blindly of course, into the new age.  In order to make the analytic leap I'm looking for though, let's look at this in terms of analogy (THIS kind of analogy: apple is to fruit as herring is to fish, or apple : fruit :: herring : fish).  So here's my analogy, with its requisite blank.  Please fill in the blank and explain your answer.  Adam's advancement into technology : car :: Adam's new life and finally-assumed fatherhood : ______________.  (Okay, so yeah, I know this is WAY abstract.)

Chapter 29.2

1. Lee: "I wonder whether I'll ever get used to it."  I've heard it said that one can get used to anything--generally in context of extreme crimes, as some reporter or analyst attempts to explain away the astounding lengths to which humanity manages to push its actions and psyche.  Are there things that an individual--specifically you or someone you know perhaps--will indeed never get used to?
2. I love Joe, or Roy--or, rather, I Just-Call-Me-Joe.  I love that Steinbeck so totally throws in a hackneyed stereotype.  There's been so much heaviness lately that we need it, I think.  (And Lee's sarcasm...!)

East of Eden XXIX -- chpt28: LOVE. PERIOD. (not that kind of love)

I am always deconstructing authors' goals and intentions as I read.  What makes them tick, and how are they trying to accomplish exactly what they're trying to accomplish, and why did they do this that way or this way or how, and--in the case of Steinbeck and others whose work I'm always burrowing through and panning--why is it assembled as it is?  I mentioned quite some time ago the impression I get that this book was not planned out beyond a potential list of characters, general plot motivation, and a setting.  One of the reasons I feel this way is my inability (nearly always absent from a reading) of why a chapter was put together in such-and-such a way.  So many of these chapters with their mini-chapters stump me.  And perhaps this is one of the reasons Grapes of Wrath won all the awards and this is merely everyone else's favorite.  Yes, it is less polished, but I don't think it suffers from the lack of sheen; rather, I think its rustic quality enhances it.  But I look at chapter 28 specifically, and I can't figure out the assembly of these three parts--the thematic line drawn through them.  Shouldn't there be?  Such thematic drawstrings bind up all his paragraphs, bind up his sub-chapters, bind up the book as a whole.  Why not his chapters?  Or am I missing something--looking tooo hard?  I hate to say it, because it just seems to darn easy, but could it really be something as simple as time?  I don't want it to be; I want there to be more.  Why isn't it enough?

And yet, reading it again for the sake of writing these questions--and as I come up with a title for this entry--what about love?  Do we not see three distinct, and perhaps more fully demonstrated than the typical examinations, forms or manifestations of love?  Fatherly, communal, fraternal?  Perhaps this is the most Christian of chapters in the book, which book is profoundly Christian.  (And I hope I'm not overstepping myself by saying it.  Maybe "Christian" is a pigeonhole of the broader topic--just what I'm titling this entry....)

Reading Questions
Chapter 28.1

1. Hail the valient and hopelessly flawed father!  Every father is, and especially those who won't admit it or are totally oblivious to their ineptitude.
2. What about Cal's search for anthills?  I picture myself driving home in the fall back in my high school days and seeing mountains of leaves piled up along the side of the street.  Impulsively I swerve the car and splash up a great rooster tail and make it home a little more invigorated than I would have had I been just that much more conservative.  Then I hear on the news (later that very season in fact) about homeowners planting bricks, rocks, or cinder blocks under their leaves to get even with the careless drivers wrecking the fruits of their labors.  Needless to say, I don't go barelling through piles of leaves anymore.  But does Cal think ahead at all, and mean further than, "Hey, let's wreck something and if I kick it this way I know I'll really wreck it," or is his wrecking of anthills heedless and impulsive?

Chapter 28.2

1. Lee's story.  Who needs the telling of it more, Lee or Adam?  (Trick question.  The answer is neither.  Read my mind!  What am I talking about?) 
2. I will say no more; this story--and maybe I am satisfactorily like Samuel in this regard--is sacred and doesn't need my defense or pathetic disections, so I will leave it to you.  Regarding Samuel, consider Lee's words after Adam asks if he ever told the great man: "No.  I didn't.  I wish I had.  He loved a celebration of the human soul.  Such things were like a personal triumph to him."  What triumph's of the human soul have you recently witnessed and/or celebrated?

Chapter 28.3

1. Why is the re-newed impulse to write Charles suddenly strong enough--or Adam finally subjectible enough--to actually bring about a letter?  (And I love how obviously self-conscious the writing is, which writing doesn't even feel forced by Steinbeck.  That's talent, my friends.  Talent!  (Don't believe me?  Try it!))
2. Adam's PS is apropos.  Up to that point in the letter, ask yourself, why does Adam so love Charles?  A love that is clear--now, if it wasn't over the past ten years.  The answer is simple: "...because you were my brother."