Chapter 24 — Teaching Companion

This chapter's big question

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?

The tension Lee explains that “Thou shalt” promises and “Do thou” orders, but “Thou mayest” “throws it right back on a man”; that same night, by the lantern in the shed, Samuel says “I think for once I will not be careful”, and tells Adam that Cathy, “now called Kate,” runs a house in Salinas.

Today's focus

How one Hebrew verb, worked out by Lee and four old scholars, gives Samuel the push to tell Adam a hard truth that might heal him or break him.

The shape at a glance

The chapter has three sections. First, the narrator, Samuel’s grandson, sets Samuel and Liza side by side: Una’s death broke Samuel, who never really believed in death, while Liza, who accepted the world as she accepted the Bible, grieved and went on. Liza looks forward to the visit to Salinas, and to a Heaven with some work in it. Samuel makes farewell calls on his old neighbors and saves the Trask place for last. In the shed Lee shows that he has cut off his queue now that China is free, and says the twins, now eleven, are very different: Cal sharp, dark and watchful, Aron a boy you like before he speaks. On the road Samuel tells Adam he is wasting his land and himself, asks whether he takes pride in his hurt, and, when Adam mentions a rumor that Cathy is in Salinas, answers first with a question of his own. He describes the dream Cathy who comes to Adam at night until Adam shouts at him to stop, then confesses that a dream woman has come to him the same way for years, and that he has cheated Liza by it. He says he is leaving to visit his sons and daughters and has accepted that his life is over. Adam begs him to help make the garden they once talked of; Samuel, his eyes wet, refuses and sends him to Tom. Second, at dinner Samuel meets the twins, teases them about their names, and asks Cal whether he is a gardener, and Lee warns him off. Adam admits he kept the boys from learning Chinese out of plain jealousy. Over coffee and a dark Chinese liquor, Lee tells how nearly ten years of thinking about the Cain and Abel story led him, with four very old scholars of his family association who learned Hebrew for it, to the word timshel, “Thou mayest”: not a promise, as in the King James version, nor an order, as in the American Standard, but a choice. Third, in the shed by lantern light, Samuel lists everything wrong with his old horse Doxology and says he loves him, and Adam says he would shoot the horse. Samuel asks Adam whether he likes his life, offers him a medicine that might cure or kill, and, against Lee’s warning, tells him that Cathy, now called Kate, owns the most vicious brothel in that part of the country. Adam calls him a liar, hears Lee confirm it, and runs up the hill into the dark. Samuel explains with the story of a poisoned dog. Lee rides along in the cart, says he would have bet Samuel would never tell, and says Samuel does not mean to live much longer. Samuel says the word gave his ending a new melody, and that by telling Adam he exercised the choice. Lee gets down, says Samuel has gone beyond him, calls him by his first name, and watches the cart go under the stars.

A way in

This is Samuel’s farewell chapter, and it carries the book’s most quoted word, so give it time. The “I” of the opening is Samuel’s grandson. The two Bible readings Lee compares are Genesis 4:7, where God speaks to Cain: the King James has “thou shalt rule over him”, the American Standard “Do thou rule over him”. Lee’s timshel, “Thou mayest”, is his reading, reached with his scholars and argued in this chapter; scholars of Hebrew still debate the verb, and Samuel himself asks why it matters. Do not teach it as the book’s settled answer or as a slogan; keep the story of the old men, the two years of Hebrew and Lee’s own doubts beside it. The queue and the Dowager Empress belong to the fall of China’s last dynasty in 1911 and 1912. Lee’s pidgin at the table (“Chinee hatchet man”, “Dlinkee Chinee”) is Lee playing with the way Americans expect him to talk; it is not his own speech. The chapter speaks plainly of opium, of Samuel’s dream woman and of Kate’s brothel; read the shed and the road yourself first. Name the brothel plainly and do not linger on Samuel’s description of it. This edition has some printing slips: “hut” for “but”, “adifference”, “Ihad”, and stray spaces and marks around “Thou mayest”; read past them. “Here am I” is the answer given by men called by God in the Bible, the boy Samuel among them. Do not say what Adam does on the hill, when or how Samuel dies, what Cal’s secret is, or whether the boys know about their mother. Stop with Lee watching the cart.

Lesson plan

Retell The student tells the chapter back from the narrator’s thoughts on Liza and Samuel to Lee watching the cart go. Look for the three sections in order: Samuel’s farewells and the walk with Adam; the dinner and Lee’s story of the verb; the shed and the ride. Look for the quieter strands kept: the cut queue, Adam’s confession of jealousy, the twins at eleven. Look for Kate’s house named plainly, and no claim about what Adam does on the hill or when Samuel dies. Then ask which sentence the student thinks the chapter turns on.

Imitate the author After copying, the student writes five sentences in the manner of the first passage, about two people meeting the same hard news: a sentence that opens on the writer’s own wondering and ends on a comparison; a sentence that gives one person three actions joined by “and”, built on one picture (a wall, a house, a ship); a sentence that turns with “On the other hand” and sets a clause off with commas; and two short, even sentences for the other person. Then six sentences in the manner of the second, about an idea someone loves: a sentence that sets a large thing against one small part of it; a plain sentence about a rival idea; a sentence that opens with “But” and repeats a word after a dash; a short line of what the speaker’s face does; a short claim; and a sentence that ends on three nouns joined by “and”. Read both aloud beside Steinbeck’s and ask which sentence does the most with the fewest words.

Debate Take sides on the last written question. One side argues that Samuel was right to give Adam the medicine. It gathers Adam’s “Of course not” about his life, his “give it to me”, the fallow years, the dog story, Lee’s “that’s only a matter of time”, and Samuel taking the blame before he knows the result. The other side argues that he was wrong. It gathers “Of course I’m not sure”, Lee’s “Be careful” and “how do you know this is the same?”, Adam running into the dark, “Your medicine acts like poison”, and Samuel driving away. Each side must answer the other’s strongest piece. Neither may say what Adam does beyond the brow of the hill or when Samuel dies, or treat timshel as the book’s settled answer.

Purpose Close on the chapter’s design. Steinbeck opens with the narrator wondering why some people are torn by the verities of life and death, and sets Samuel, who thought he could argue himself out of death, beside Liza, who expected it. He closes with that same Samuel driving into the dark, content with “an ending wonderful”. Between the road and the shed he puts Lee’s long story of the verb, so the word is heard just before it is used. He sends Adam over the hill and does not follow; the last sight is Samuel’s white hair in starlight, seen by Lee, who all chapter has said “Mr. Hamilton” and now calls him by his first name. Ask what the chapter gains by leaving Adam unseen. Name the habit the chapter practices: testing an idea by what a person does with it.

Three levels

Easier Read aloud the opening from “I have wondered why” to “She felt sorrow but she survived it.”, the queue from “There’s something changed about you, Lee.” to “It’s hard to get used to the convenience of it.”, the road from “Do you take pride in your hurt?” to “That’s what I have accepted.”, the dinner from “It’s a long time since I’ve seen you, boys.” to “Always you bring trouble for my mind, Mr. Hamilton,”, Lee’s story from “Do you remember when you read us the sixteen verses” to “It is always attacked and never destroyed”, the shed from “Doxology stood patiently in the stall” to “Your medicine acts like poison.”, and the ride from “Get on with it, Lee.” to the end. Talk through the five discussion questions, then answer the last written question aloud before writing it.

On level Talk through all five discussion questions in order, then write all three written questions as a thesis, the strongest objection and a revised thesis, each with lines from the chapter.

Harder Ask for one argued essay on Samuel’s two confessions. On the road he tells Adam that a dream woman has come to him for years, that he gave Liza “an untruth, a counterfeit”, and that he could wish she had had “some secret caller too”. In the shed he tells Adam the truth about Cathy. Weigh whether a man who never “double-bolted” his own mind against a dream has the right to break another man’s. Meet the strongest objection: perhaps only such a man knows what the dream costs, since he knows the “shoulds” because he never did them.

Discussion

1. 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

What it asks It asks the student to stay with Lee’s first news of the chapter. In the shed Samuel sees “something changed”, and Lee explains: “It’s my queue, Mr. Hamilton. I’ve cut off my queue.” The Dowager Empress is gone, the Manchus “are not overlords and we do not wear queues. It was a proclamation of the new government.” Samuel asks if it makes a difference. “Not much. It’s easier. But there’s a kind of looseness on the scalp that makes me uneasy. It’s hard to get used to the convenience of it.” At dinner Lee reaches “to the side of his neck” and says, “I guess I used it more than I knew.” He also says he seems “to get more Chinese” as he gets older. The student decides what makes the convenience hard. Notice that the queue was worn by order and cut by order: even this freedom came as a proclamation. It feeds the hinge: the word Lee brings that night also takes an order away and leaves a man to choose, and Adam is about to lose the dream he has leaned on since the twins were born. The card must not say the queue stands for one thing only.

A strong answer A strong response finds the difficulty in Lee’s own words. One reader hears habit: Lee “used it more than I knew”, and his hand still goes to his neck, so even a thing worn by order becomes part of a man. Another hears the weight of choice: the queue decided something for him, and now he must decide, and he chooses to grow “more Chinese.” The best answers notice that Lee’s word later that night does the same work, taking an order away and leaving a man to choose.

2. 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

What it asks It asks the student to read Lee’s one sharp moment at the table. Samuel greets the twins: “But we named you well. You’re Caleb, aren’t you?” “I’m Cal.” He asks the other whether he has found “a way to rip the backbone out of your name”; Lee explains that Aron spells it “with one a.” Aron offers to show his Belgian hares. Samuel’s “mouth twitched.” He asks, “Cal, don’t tell me you’re a gardener?” Then “Lee’s head snapped around and he inspected Samuel.” “Don’t do that,” Lee said nervously. Cal answers, “Next year my father is going to let me have an acre in the flat.” A little later Lee says, “Always you bring trouble for my mind, Mr. Hamilton,” and when Samuel says he hopes he does not know Cal’s secret already, Lee “glared at Samuel.” Readers who remember the verses Samuel once read them will know that Cain worked the ground and Abel kept the flocks; the question needs no more than the names. The student decides what Lee hears. It feeds the hinge: Lee is the careful one at the table, as he will be in the shed (“Be careful, Mr. Hamilton”), and Samuel is the one who will not leave a thing alone. The card must not say what Cal’s secret is or whether the boys know about their mother.

A strong answer A strong response chooses and grounds the choice. One reader says Lee hears the Cain story laid on Cal as a fate, which is exactly what his long study of the verses will deny an hour later, and Cal’s answer about his acre makes the joke worse. Another says Lee hears Samuel walking near the truth about the boys’ mother, since he glares again at the talk of secrets. The best answers notice that Lee is the guard of this house, and that in the shed he will try to guard it again.

3. 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

What it asks It asks the student to set two kinds of old men side by side. Lee tells of the scholars of his family association, “the youngest is over ninety now,” who learned Hebrew with a rabbi, wrote it “in Chinese ink with a brush”, and after two years reached the verb. “The old gentlemen smiled and nodded and felt the years were well spent.” Lee adds that “those old gentlemen who were sliding gently down to death are too interested to die now”, and that they are now studying Greek. In the cart Samuel tells Lee his life has been “a kind of music”, lately “A single note only—and that note unchanging sorrow.” Then: “It took me by the throat and shook me.” “And my life which is ending seems to be going on to an ending wonderful. And my music has a new last melody like a bird song in the night.” Lee: “That’s what it did to those old men of my family.” The chapter opens with the narrator saying Samuel “did not really believe in” death. The student decides what the word did to each, and whether Lee is right that it did the same. It feeds the hinge: whatever the word gave Samuel is what sends him to the shed. The card must not say when or how Samuel dies.

A strong answer A strong response says what the word did to each and then judges Lee’s claim. One reader says it did the same: the scholars are “too interested to die”, and Samuel’s eyes light up when Lee wonders about the original word. Another says it did something else to Samuel: he, who once believed in no ending, now finds his “wonderful” rather than a defeat. The best answers notice that one gift keeps men going and the other lets a man go gladly, and ask why Lee calls them one.

4. Adam says of Doxology, “His lifespan is long over.” Who else do those words fit?Moral reasoning

What it asks It asks the student to hear Adam’s verdict on the horse and look around the shed for whom else those words might fit. Doxology is thirty-three; his teeth are worn off; “he has bad dreams.” Samuel lists every fault and ends, “And I love him.” He adds, “He hasn’t very long now.” Adam says, “Maybe you should put him out of his misery.” Samuel: “What misery?” “He’s one of the few happy and consistent beings I’ve ever met.” “Would you shoot him, Adam?” Adam says yes. “You’d take the responsibility?” “Yes, I think I would. He’s thirty-three. His lifespan is long over.” Samuel squats by the lantern and turns the talk at once: “You would really shoot my horse because death might be more comfortable?” “Do you like your life, Adam?” “Of course not.” Then comes the medicine. Earlier, on the road, Samuel said he had accepted that his life was over: “When you say I deserve a rest, you are saying that my life is over.” In the shed with Lee he called Adam’s life before “a short flowering”, and on the road he told Adam, “You’re too young a man to be panning memories, Adam.” The student decides whom else the words fit, if anyone. It feeds the hinge: if Adam’s life is already “long over”, the medicine risks less; if the words fit Samuel, his own end may be what frees him to give it. The card must not say when or how Samuel dies, or what Adam does after he runs.

A strong answer A strong response names someone and holds to the chapter. One reader says Samuel: he and the horse have aged together, he has said his own life is over, and he still says “What misery?” Another says Adam: he is the one who would end a spent life for comfort, Samuel turns that question on him at once, and Adam admits he does not like his life. The best answers notice that the horse talk is how Samuel reaches the medicine, and that Adam has just agreed that a long-over life may be ended.

5. 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

What it asks It asks the student to set Samuel’s two pictures side by side. On the road he draws the dream: “When you go to bed and blow out the lamp—then she stands in the doorway with a little light behind her, and you can see her nightgown stir.” Adam shouts at him to stop. In the shed he draws the other picture. Cathy, “now called Kate,” owns a brothel in Salinas, “the most vicious and depraved in this whole end of the country”, and he goes on in hard words about what is sold there and what she does to the young women. Name the house plainly and do not linger on the description. He ends, “Now, there’s your medicine. Let’s see what it does to you.” Adam answers, “You’re a liar!” and turns to Lee: “Is this true?” Lee says, “I’m no antidote,” and “Yes. It’s true.” Samuel later explains with the poisoned dog: “The shock of pain can counteract the poison.” The student decides why Samuel tells it in those words. It feeds the hinge: the hard words are part of what makes the medicine dangerous. The card must not say what Adam does after he runs.

A strong answer A strong response reads both pictures and takes a side. One reader says the dream is so vivid that only something as strong can fight it, as Samuel explains with the dog. Another notices that Adam refuses Samuel’s words and turns to Lee, whose “Yes. It’s true.” does what the long speech did not, and hears in the hard words Samuel’s own resolve not to be careful. The best answers notice that Samuel is the author of both pictures.

Critical thinking

1. 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?

What it asks It asks the student to test Samuel’s own account of his act. In the cart Samuel tells Lee, “If you had only told me about your studies earlier it might have made a great difference, Lee.” He says the word “took me by the throat and shook me”, and: “I had never understood it or accepted it before. Do you see now why I told Adam tonight? I exercised the choice.” Lee had thought Samuel’s kindness came “from not wanting any trouble”; “you did a thing that tears down my whole picture of you.” Samuel answers, “I guess it surprised me as much as it did you,” and goes on. But the road, hours earlier, shows a sharper man. Samuel asks, “Do you take pride in your hurt?” and says he came “To see whether I can raise a little anger in you.” He draws the dream Cathy until Adam shouts. Yet when Adam asks outright, “Did you ever hear that Cathy was in Salinas?”, Samuel answers only, “Did you?” He says, “I know the ‘shoulds,’ although I never do them, Adam.” The student writes a thesis on how much the word changed what Samuel did, meets the strongest objection, and revises. It feeds the hinge: if the word decided the act, the act is partly a test of the word. The card must not treat timshel as the book’s settled answer.

A strong answer A strong response builds a thesis, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis says the word changed everything: on the road Samuel dodges Adam’s direct question with “Did you?”, and only after Lee’s story does he tell, as he says himself. The strongest objection is the road’s own bluntness: Samuel came to raise anger and drew the dream until Adam shouted. A good revision might hold that Samuel was ready to wound but not yet to tell, and that the word moved him across that one line.

2. 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?

What it asks It asks the student to set the man who found the word beside the man who used it. Lee has worked on the verses for “Ten years nearly”, and he gives the word its fullest form: “That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’” In the cart Samuel asks, “Did you know about her?” “Of course,” said Lee. He thinks the boys do not know, “but that’s only a matter of time.” In the shed Lee warned, “Be careful, Mr. Hamilton. Be careful.” He asked, “Are you sure you’re right?” When Adam turns to him, Lee answers, “Yes. It’s true.” Lee says he “would have taken any bet” that Samuel “of all men would not have told Adam.” Samuel tells him to “look into yourself”, then says, “If you had only told me about your studies earlier it might have made a great difference, Lee.” When Lee called him brave, Samuel had said, “No, I’m an old man.” As Lee gets down from the cart he says, “Samuel, you’ve gone beyond me.” The student writes a thesis on which man took the word more seriously, meets the strongest objection, and revises. It feeds the hinge: if keeping silent was also a choice, Samuel’s telling is one choice set against another, not courage set against nothing. The card must not treat timshel as the book’s settled answer, or say whether the boys know.

A strong answer A strong response builds a thesis, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis says Samuel: he acted on the word within hours, while Lee kept his silence and tried to stop him, and Lee himself says Samuel has “gone beyond” him. The strongest objection is Lee’s own reading: “Thou mayest not” is also a choice, Lee made it as the one who must stay, and he told the truth when asked. A good revision might hold that Samuel took the word more boldly and Lee more carefully, and say which the chapter seems to honor more.

3. 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?

What it asks It asks the chapter’s whole question. Adam has let his land and himself lie fallow; Samuel asks, “Is it a good feeling to let life lie fallow?” and Adam says he is afraid to try. He has “never let her go.” In the shed Samuel asks, “Do you like your life, Adam?” “Of course not.” He offers a medicine that “might cure you and also might kill you”, and Lee says, “Be careful, Mr. Hamilton. Be careful.” Samuel: “I think for once I will not be careful.” “Are you sure you’re right?” “Of course I’m not sure. Adam, do you want the medicine?” “Yes. I don’t know what it is but give it to me.” Samuel tells him that Cathy, “now called Kate,” owns a brothel in Salinas. Adam runs and claws his way up the slope; “The sound of him stopped only when he had gone over the brow of the hill.” Lee: “Your medicine acts like poison.” Samuel tells of the dog and admits he cannot know it is the same, “But without it he would surely die.” In the cart he says, “I exercised the choice. Maybe I was wrong, but by telling him I also forced him to live or get off the pot.” The student writes a thesis on whether Samuel was right, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not say what Adam does after the brow of the hill, when or how Samuel dies, or that timshel is the book’s settled answer.

A strong answer A strong response builds a thesis, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis says Samuel was right: Adam dislikes his life, asks for the medicine, and would hear the truth one day anyway, so it is better told by a friend who takes the blame. The strongest objection is Samuel’s own “Of course I’m not sure”, his dog story that he admits may not fit, and Lee’s verdict as Adam vanishes over the hill. A good revision might hold that Samuel was right to tell but cannot yet be called right about the cure, or weigh whether forcing a man “to live or get off the pot” gives him a choice or takes one.

Vocabulary definitions