East of Eden

Chapter 19

John Steinbeck · Mountaineers 10th–12th

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Copywork

And each for all its bumptiousness brought with it the same thing: the Scripture on which our ethics, our art and poetry, and our relationships are built. It took a smart man to know where the difference lay between the sects, but anyone could see what they had in common. And they brought music—maybe not the best, but the form and sense of it. And they brought conscience, or, rather, nudged the dozing conscience. They were not pure, but they had a potential of purity, like a soiled white shirt. And any man could make something pretty fine of it within himself.

Kate put herself out to be pleasant. She helped the other girls keep their rooms clean. She served them when they were sick, listened to their troubles, answered them in matters of love, and as soon as she had some, loaned them money. You couldn’t want a better girl. She became best friend to everyone in the house. There was no trouble Kate would not take, no drudgery she was afraid of, and, in addition, she brought business.

Read the second passage aloud and stop at “You couldn’t want a better girl.” Whose words do those sound like?

For the educator Two passages: the narrator on what the quarrelling sects brought to the valley, and the narrator on Kate’s first months in Faye’s house. The first sentence of the sects passage grants a fault and refuses to let it cancel the gift: “for all its bumptiousness” each sect brought “the same thing,” and a colon opens a list held together by a repeated “our.” The second is balanced on “but”: it took a smart man to see the difference, “but anyone could see what they had in common.” The third and fourth both open on “And they brought.” The third uses a dash to take back half its praise (“maybe not the best”), and the fourth corrects itself in mid-sentence with “or, rather,” so that conscience is only “nudged.” The fifth is an antithesis with a simile: “not pure, but” holding “a potential of purity, like a soiled white shirt.” The sixth opens on “And” and ends “within himself,” so the good is finished inside the hearer, not by the preacher. The Kate passage is plainer on purpose. A short sentence of summary, a plain deed, then a long sentence with four verbs (served, listened, answered, loaned) and a phrase set off by commas, “and as soon as she had some,” before the fourth verb. Then the voice shifts: “You couldn’t want a better girl.” The passage closes on the first sentence of the next paragraph: two matched negatives, “no trouble Kate would not take, no drudgery she was afraid of,” and then a turn set off by commas, “and, in addition,” to the business she brought. Students copying practise a colon before a list, a balanced sentence, a dash, a self-correction set off by commas, an antithesis with a simile, a long list of verbs with an interrupting phrase, and a pair of matched negatives. For the talk prompt, some will hear Faye: it is how a pleased madam would talk about a new girl, and the next paragraph ends “Faye realized she had a treasure.” Others will hear the narrator, who speaks in the town’s voice elsewhere (“People who don’t know think it is easy to be a madam”), and some will hear a dry edge in it. Leave it open; who is judging Kate’s goodness, and from where, is what the last written question turns on. Set the two passages side by side if there is time: the first argues that good can come through impure hands, and the second is the chapter’s plainest list of Kate’s good deeds.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back, from the way a new country fills up to Faye’s bottle of Pinkham. Then choose the one sentence you think matters most. Why does the chapter need it?

The churches come into the valley “prancing” like brewery horses. The brothel creeps in “with its head bowed and its face covered.” Which of the two does the narrator respect more? Tone
Faye asks Kate why she has come. Kate says only that the happiness of “someone very near and dear” is involved. It is Faye who brings up a baby. Whose story is Faye believing, Kate’s or her own? Character
The sheriff tells Kate what he wants from her. Then she asks him, “Isn’t there a threat?” What is she listening for? Inference
Faye asks what the sheriff said to Kate a year ago. Kate says, “He told me I should go home.” Then the chapter goes back and lets us hear him. What does he really say about her going back? Why does the chapter give us Kate’s version first? Author's choice

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in history, when people learned the worst about someone who had brought them something good. Did the good last? What kept it alive?

Vocabulary

drudgery: There was no trouble Kate would not take, no drudgery she was afraid of, and, in addition, she brought business. Hard, dull work that has to be done again and again and that no one thanks you for: scrubbing, laundry, keeping accounts. The narrator says there was “no drudgery she was afraid of,” and the chapter’s list of Kate’s work is full of it: rooms cleaned, the sick served, and later the marketing, the meals and the bills. Drudgery rarely wins praise. Kate is afraid of none of it, and the same sentence turns at once to “in addition, she brought business.” A reader may weigh what a newcomer gains by taking on the work no one else wants.
bumptiousness: And each for all its bumptiousness brought with it the same thing: the Scripture on which our ethics, our art and poetry, and our relationships are built. Loud, pushy self-importance; the manner of someone who takes up more room than they need and is sure they are right. The narrator uses it for the sects, which came in “cocky and loud and confident” and fought each other “with a fine lustiness.” Then he turns the sentence: “for all its bumptiousness” each one brought the same Scripture. The phrase “for all” grants the fault and refuses to let it cancel the gift. That is the argument the chapter goes on to test, first on Billing and then on Kate.
immutable: If you wanted a good laugh and a poke in the ribs, you went to Jenny’s and got your money’s worth; but if the sweet world-sadness close to tears crept out of your immutable loneliness, the Long Green was your place. Unable to change; fixed for good. It comes from Latin: im-, meaning not, and mutare, to change, the root of mutate. The narrator speaks of a “sweet world-sadness” that creeps out of a man’s “immutable loneliness.” The word marks the limit of the essay’s two ministries: each takes a man out of his bleakness “for a time,” and the loneliness underneath does not change. A reader may ask what kind of help it is that eases what it cannot cure.
tragedian: She combines the brains of a businessman, the toughness of a prize fighter, the warmth of a companion, the humor of a tragedian. An actor who plays tragic parts, or a writer of tragedies. The narrator lists what a madam combines, and the last item is the strangest: “the humor of a tragedian,” the dry humor of someone who knows how the story ends. The word also makes the madam a performer, a woman playing many parts at once. The next section brings in a young woman who plays every part the house needs, and plays them well.

Critical thinking

The Reverend Billing turns out to be a thief and worse. Still, the narrator says, “He used good material and some of it stuck,” so his impure motive “doesn’t matter much.” Then he calls Billing “an outrageous example.” Does that extreme case make his point stronger or weaker?
Kate nurses the sick girls, lends them money and remembers every birthday, then wipes Faye's kiss off her cheek. Does her help count as kindness if her heart is not in it?