East of Eden

Chapter 23

John Steinbeck · Mountaineers 10th–12th

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Copywork

Samuel said that Tom was quavering over greatness, trying to decide whether he could take the cold responsibility. Samuel knew his son’s quality and felt the potential of violence, and it frightened him, for Samuel had no violence—even when he hit Adam Trask with his fist he had no violence. And the books that came into the house, some of them secretly—well, Samuel rode lightly on top of a book and he balanced happily among ideas the way a man rides white rapids in a canoe. But Tom got into a book, crawled and groveled between the covers, tunneled like a mole among the thoughts, and came up with the book all over his face and hands.

There was the sardonic look on his face his family knew so well—the joke on himself that made him laugh inwardly. He walked by the sad little garden and all around the house—not a new house any more. Even the last added lean-to bedrooms were old and weathered and the putty around the windowpanes had shrunk away from the glass. At the porch he turned and surveyed the whole home cup of the ranch before he went inside.

Read the second passage aloud. Samuel has just read the letter twice and walked up the hill and back. Now he wears “the joke on himself”. What is the joke?

For the educator The two passages set father and son side by side and then leave the father alone with his news. In the first, the opening sentence reports Samuel’s judgment of Tom and trails a long phrase built on an -ing verb: “trying to decide whether he could take the cold responsibility.” Its key word, “quavering”, is a vocabulary word. The second sentence joins three clauses, the last with “for”, and then a dash adds a turn that repeats the clause before it: “he had no violence.” The third sentence starts down one road (“And the books that came into the house, some of them secretly”), breaks off at a dash with “well,” and starts again; it ends on a simile, “the way a man rides white rapids in a canoe.” The fourth answers it with “But” and a run of four actions, the second a pair (“crawled and groveled”) and the third a simile (“tunneled like a mole”), closing on a plain, comic picture: “the book all over his face and hands.” The second passage comes just after Samuel tells Tom, “Why, you’re a grown-up man”. Its first sentence names a look and, after a dash, renames it: “the joke on himself that made him laugh inwardly.” Its key word, “sardonic”, is a vocabulary word. The second sentence adds an afterthought after a dash: “not a new house any more.” The third opens with “Even” and ends on one small sign of age, putty that “had shrunk away from the glass.” The fourth opens with a place, “At the porch”, and widens to “the whole home cup of the ranch”. The house is never said to stand for Samuel; the student can hear it. Students copying practice a reported judgment with a trailing -ing phrase, a dash that adds a turn, a sentence that breaks off and starts again, a contrast opened by “But” with a run of actions, a dash that renames, an afterthought after a dash, and a sentence that widens from one spot to a whole view. For the talk prompt, some will say the joke is that the man who laughed at time has been caught by it; some that his sons and daughters think they are fooling him. Leave it open, since the first written question comes back to this walk, and do not explain what Samuel later means by “I know where I’m going”.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back, from Una and Anderson to Samuel and Tom at the forge door. Then pick the one moment you would keep if you could keep only one. What would the chapter lose without it?

Una’s death “struck Samuel like a silent earthquake”, and he sits alone and rocks himself. What does Samuel lose that Liza never had to lose? Theme
Tom will not tell Mary a pleasing lie. Still, he tells her, “I don’t think you really want to change.” The narrator says Tom was wrong. Why does Tom get her wrong? Character
In the Thanksgiving kitchen, the family lists what they have seen: the slump, the old eyes, the limp. The narrator says, “They said these things in outrage.” Why outrage, and not sorrow? Author's choice
Tom once crawled home drunk, and in the morning he tried to say he was sorry. Samuel told him, “Why, Tom, you were just jolly.” What did that word do to Tom’s apology? Moral reasoning
At the forge door Samuel looks out at the land. He repeats an old saying: a mother loves the ugly one best. Then he shakes his head sharply. Who or what is the ugly one? Inference

Make a Connection Think of a story, a film, or a time you know of, when someone first saw that a mother, a father or a grandparent had grown old. What changes between two people once one of them sees that?

Vocabulary

quavering: Samuel said that Tom was quavering over greatness, trying to decide whether he could take the cold responsibility. Shaking or trembling, the way a frightened or very old voice shakes; so, wavering back and forth, unable to hold steady. Samuel uses it of a choice, not a voice: Tom trembles between going after greatness and backing away from it. Earlier Samuel says Tom “was arguing with greatness”, and the narrator speaks of “the advance and the retreat”. The word points to fear more than laziness, for what holds Tom back is “the cold responsibility.”
sardonic: There was the sardonic look on his face his family knew so well—the joke on himself that made him laugh inwardly. Mocking in a dry, knowing way, often with a bitter edge. It comes through Latin and French from a Greek word for scornful laughter. Sardonic humor is usually aimed at others; here the narrator turns it inward and defines the look as “the joke on himself”. The word comes three times in the chapter: Samuel’s “sardonic mind” at Thanksgiving, this look after the hill, and his “jeweled, sardonic eyes” as he reads Tom’s face. Each time it marks Samuel seeing through something, himself included.
diffidence: There was always a little diffidence between us at first. Shyness that comes from a lack of confidence; a holding back. It comes from the Latin diffidere, to distrust, and is the opposite of confidence, from confidere, to trust fully. The narrator says it of the first moments with Uncle Tom, and then explains it: “I think Uncle Tom was as shy as we were.” The diffidence is not coldness, since Tom wanted “to come running out and toss us in the air”. The word fits the chapter’s picture of Tom, strong but with “a shy shrinking” under the strength.
ostracized: To write it was to be suspected and ostracized. Shut out from a group on purpose; ignored and excluded. It comes from the Greek ostrakon, a piece of broken pottery: in ancient Athens, citizens scratched a man’s name on such pieces to vote him into exile. The narrator uses it for what Western men did to poets in Tom’s day, which is why Tom’s poetry was secret: “in those days it was only sensible to keep it secret.” Tom, who will not hide the truth from his father, hides his poems from nearly everyone, a reminder that honest people keep secrets too.

Critical thinking

Samuel comes down the hill and looks at Tom as if for the first time. He says, “Why, you’re a grown-up man”. Tom asks, “Didn’t you know?” Samuel answers, “I guess I did—I guess I did.” If he knew, why does he say it now?
Tom would not join the plan to fool his father. Now Samuel asks him to keep a secret from his brothers and sisters. How far has Tom become part of the plan?
Will's plan spares Samuel's pride with a cheerful invitation, while Tom will not join in, saying of his father, “He’d know.” Which is the greater kindness here, the gentle trick or the plain truth?