East of Eden

Chapter 24

John Steinbeck · Mountaineers 10th–12th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

I have wondered why it is that some people are less affected and torn by the verities of life and death than others. Una’s death cut the earth from under Samuel’s feet and opened his defended keep and let in old age. On the other hand Liza, who surely loved her family as deeply as did her husband, was not destroyed or warped. Her life continued evenly. She felt sorrow but she survived it.

They do not believe a man writes fifteen and three-quarter verses of truth and tells a lie with one verb. Confucius tells men how they should live to have good and successful lives. But this—this is a ladder to climb to the stars. Lee’s eyes shone. You can never lose that. It cuts the feet from under weakness and cowardliness and laziness.

Read the second passage aloud. The old men will not believe that a writer “tells a lie with one verb.” Yet two English Bibles already translate that verb two different ways. Did Lee and the old men find the true word, or choose it?

For the educator The two passages open and turn the chapter. The first is the narrator’s, on the opening page. Its first sentence begins with his own wondering, “I have wondered why it is”, and ends on a comparison, “than others”; its key word, “verities”, is a vocabulary word. The second sentence gives Samuel one subject and three actions joined by “and”: Una’s death “cut the earth from under Samuel’s feet and opened his defended keep and let in old age.” A keep is the strongest tower of a castle, so the picture is of a wall breached. The third turns with “On the other hand”, sets a clause off with commas (“who surely loved her family as deeply as did her husband”), and ends on a plain pair, “destroyed or warped.” Then come two short, even sentences for Liza: “Her life continued evenly. She felt sorrow but she survived it.” Samuel’s ruin comes in one long sentence; Liza’s steadiness ends in two short ones. Let the student hear that before anyone names it. The second passage is Lee’s, at the table, about the four old scholars. Its first sentence sets a long, exact claim against the smallest unit of it: “fifteen and three-quarter verses of truth” against “one verb.” The second is a plain statement about Confucius, and the third answers it with “But” and a dash that repeats a word: “But this—this is a ladder to climb to the stars.” A line of narration, “Lee’s eyes shone.”, breaks the speech, and then two sentences close it, one short and one built on three nouns joined by “and”: “weakness and cowardliness and laziness.” Its key word, “cowardliness”, is a vocabulary word. A close reader may hear an echo: Una’s death “cut the earth from under Samuel’s feet”, and the word “cuts the feet from under weakness”. Leave it for the student to find. Students copying practice a sentence that opens on the writer’s own wondering, a run of three actions joined by “and”, a turn with “On the other hand” and a clause set off by commas, short sentences after a long one, a dash that repeats a word, and a closing run of three nouns. For the talk prompt, some will say the old men found the word: they learned Hebrew for two years and “went to the root of the matter.” Some will say they chose it, since their rule (no lie in one verb) decides in advance that the verse must make sense, and Lee came to it wanting an answer. Some will say both. Leave it open: timshel is Lee’s reading, argued in this chapter, not the book’s settled answer.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back, from the narrator’s thoughts on Liza and Samuel to Lee watching the cart go. Then choose the one sentence you think the chapter turns on. What changes after it?

Lee cut off his queue because the new government ordered it. He says, “It’s hard to get used to the convenience of it.” What makes it hard? Inference
At dinner Samuel teases the twins about their names, then asks, “Cal, don’t tell me you’re a gardener?” Lee’s head snaps around, and he tells Samuel to stop. What does Lee hear in that joke? Character
Lee says the word made four old scholars “too interested to die now”. Samuel says it gives his ending “a new last melody”. Lee answers, “That’s what it did to those old men of my family.” What did it do to each? Theme
Adam says of Doxology, “His lifespan is long over.” Who else do those words fit? Moral reasoning
On the road Samuel describes the dream Cathy coming sweetly to Adam’s bed. In the shed he describes Kate’s house in the worst words he has. Why does he tell the truth that way? Tone

Make a Connection Think of a rule or a law, from your own life, from history or from a story, that says “you must”. What would change for the people who live by it if it said “you may”?

Vocabulary

verities: I have wondered why it is that some people are less affected and torn by the verities of life and death than others. Truths, especially the large, lasting ones that do not change. It comes from the Latin veritas, truth, the root of “verify”. The narrator pairs it with “life and death”: the verities here are the hard facts everyone must meet, above all that people die. The chapter opens on how differently two people bear the same verities. Samuel is “torn” by them; Liza, who expected death, is not.
cowardliness: It cuts the feet from under weakness and cowardliness and laziness. The habit of giving way to fear; a lack of courage to face what is hard. It is built from “coward” with two endings, -ly and -ness, and means much the same as the more common “cowardice”. Lee sets it in a row with “weakness” and “laziness”, the excuses he says “Thou mayest” takes away from a man. Earlier that day Adam told Samuel, “Maybe I haven’t the energy or the courage.”
unseemly: “You’re going to make me cry,” Samuel said, “and that would be an unseemly thing in an old man.” Not fitting or proper for the person or the moment. It is “seemly”, an old word for fitting or proper, with un- in front. Samuel says it of his own tears when Adam asks him to help make the garden. He thinks crying does not suit an old man, but “his eyes were wet” anyway: a proud man trying, and failing, to keep his feelings in their place.
tranquillity: And then Lee laughed. “You’ve given me great trouble, Mr. Hamilton, and you’ve disturbed the tranquillity of China.” Calm and quiet; a peace that nothing stirs up. It comes from the Latin tranquillus, calm, and American spelling often drops one l. Lee says it as a joke: Samuel’s old reading of Cain and Abel set Lee wondering, and four old scholars ended up learning Hebrew. The joke has a true side. Samuel disturbs the peace on purpose, and before the night is over he disturbs Adam’s.

Critical thinking

In the cart, Samuel asks Lee, “Do you see now why I told Adam tonight?” He gives the credit to Lee’s word. How much did “Thou mayest” really change what Samuel did?
Lee knew about Kate and never told Adam. Samuel heard the word over coffee and told him that same night. Which of them took “Thou mayest” more seriously?
Samuel tells Adam the truth about Cathy, knowing it might cure him or might kill him, and Lee warns, “Your medicine acts like poison.” Was Samuel right to give Adam that medicine?