East of Eden

Chapter 20

John Steinbeck · Mountaineers 10th–12th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

Her fear evaporated, her fear of anything disappeared. This was what she had been afraid of, and now it was too late. The wine had forced a passage through all the carefully built barriers and defenses and deceptions, and she didn’t care. The thing she had learned to cover and control was lost. Her voice became chill and her mouth was thin. Her wide-set eyes slitted and grew watchful and sardonic.

Kate moved quietly. She drank two glasses of water and filled the glass again and carried it back to Faye’s room and closed the door. She lifted Faye’s right eyelid, and the eye looked rakishly up at her but it was not rolled back in her head. Kate acted slowly and precisely. She picked up the handkerchief and smelled it. Some of the ammonia had evaporated but the smell was still sharp.

Read the first passage aloud. In the second sentence the narrator says “now it was too late.” Too late for what?

For the educator The passage is the chapter’s turn, the moment after the second glass. Its six sentences move from the inside of Kate to the outside. The first sentence joins two clauses with only a comma, and the second clause widens the first: not just her fear, but “her fear of anything.” The second sentence is a paradox stated plainly: losing her fear is the very thing she feared. The third is the long sentence. Its list is joined by a repeated “and” (“barriers and defenses and deceptions”), and the list moves from walls to lies, so the last item tells the reader what the walls were made of. Then a short clause drops the whole weight: “and she didn’t care.” The fourth pairs two words that begin alike, “cover and control,” and ends on a flat passive, “was lost,” as if no one did the losing. The fifth and sixth leave her mind for her face: voice, mouth, eyes. The passage ends on the vocabulary word “sardonic,” paired with “watchful,” so she is enjoying Faye and studying her at once. The second passage comes from the dawn, after Kate has brought up the wine, and it is built to be the first one’s opposite. It opens on three words, “Kate moved quietly.” Its long sentence again strings its parts on “and,” four actions this time (drank, filled, carried, closed), but here the “and” lines up tasks in order instead of piling up walls that fall. The third sentence turns on “but”: the eye looks up “rakishly,” the second vocabulary word, a cold joke from the narrator, and the clause after “but” is the fact Kate is checking. Then the narrator’s one-line verdict, “Kate acted slowly and precisely,” and two plain sentences, the last turning on “but” again. The ammonia is named once; do not stop on it. Students copying practice two clauses joined by a comma, a plain paradox, a list held together by repeated “and,” a short closing clause after a long one, an alliterating pair, a run of short sentences, and, in the second passage, a series of actions in strict order and a sentence balanced on “but.” Set the two side by side if there is time: one is control lost and the other is control rebuilt, and the sentences show it before the words say it. For the talk prompt, some will say too late to stop drinking; some, too late to keep Faye from seeing; some will hear the narrator, who knows how the night goes. Leave it open, and do not let anyone say what happens to Faye after the chapter ends. Whether the woman revealed here is the real Kate is what the last written question asks.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back, from the setting sun on Frémont’s Peak to Kate by Faye’s bed, “studying her.” Then choose the one sentence you think matters most. Why does the chapter need it?

In the afternoon Kate warns Faye, “Someday if you don’t watch, or I don’t watch for you, someone will steal the roof.” Look at Faye by morning. Has anyone stolen from her? Character
Late that night Kate tells the girls that Faye “fainted dead away” at tea that afternoon. We were in Faye’s room that afternoon, and nobody fainted. When did Kate make up that story? Inference
Faye asks, “Do you think I use the name I was born with?” Kate gives her a long, level look. A moment later she is sitting on the floor with her cheek on Faye’s knee. What has Kate just learned? Character
Before she pours cold water in Faye’s ear, Kate opens the door to the hall. Who is the open door for? Inference
In the morning Faye says of the dreams, “They weren’t like my dreams.” How much of her believes it was only a dream? Character

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in history, when someone was told that what they saw was only a dream or a mistake. What does it take to trust your own memory against everyone around you?

Vocabulary

sardonic: Her wide-set eyes slitted and grew watchful and sardonic. Mocking in a cold, bitter way; amused by someone else’s foolishness or pain. The word comes through Latin from Greek, and an old story ties it to a Sardinian plant that twisted the faces of those who ate it into a grin, so a sardonic smile has no warmth in it. The narrator puts the word on Kate’s eyes at the moment the wine takes hold, and pairs it with “watchful”: she is enjoying Faye and studying her at the same time. Set it beside dusk in Faye’s room, when “Kate’s face was a glow of lightness,” to hear how far the face has moved.
rakishly: She lifted Faye’s right eyelid, and the eye looked rakishly up at her but it was not rolled back in her head. In a cocky, careless way, like a hat tipped to one side. A rake was a man about town with loose habits, and “rakish” keeps his swagger. Here the word lands on the eye of a drugged woman, tilted up under a lid that Kate has lifted, so for a moment Faye looks almost cheeky while she is helpless. The joke is the narrator’s, and it is cold. Kate is checking that the eye is not rolled back, and the next sentence says she “acted slowly and precisely.”

Critical thinking

As Kate turns on Faye, the narrator stops to show her teeth. The canines are “longer and more pointed than the others.” Does that picture help you understand Kate, or does it let you stop trying?
Just before the wine takes hold, Kate “remembered, and she was afraid.” Should a reader feel any pity for her here?
When the wine breaks down Kate's “barriers and defenses”, Faye sees a woman she does not know. Is that sneering woman the real Kate, or is the careful, loving daughter just as real?