East of Eden

Chapter 26

John Steinbeck · Mountaineers 10th–12th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

I believe there are techniques of the human mind whereby, in its dark deep, problems are examined, rejected or accepted. Such activities sometimes concern facets a man does not know he has. How often one goes to sleep troubled and full of pain, not knowing what causes the travail, and in the morning a whole new direction and a clearness is there, maybe the result of the black reasoning. And again there are mornings when ecstasy bubbles in the blood, and the stomach and chest are tight and electric with joy, and nothing in the thoughts to justify it or cause it.

I made her up just as you did, only mine had no life outside my mind. She was good company in my little room. I would talk and she would listen, and then she would talk, would tell me all the happenings of a woman’s afternoon. She was very pretty and she made coquettish little jokes. But now I don’t know whether I would listen to her. And I wouldn’t want to make her sad or lonely.

Read Lee’s passage aloud. On the day Adam comes home from Kate, Lee tells him he made up a wife “just as you did.” Does that comfort Adam, or does it sting?

For the educator The two passages are the chapter’s two inward voices: the narrator, thinking about how a mind changes in the dark, and Lee, telling Adam the most private thing he has. The first passage is the narrator’s own voice, opening on “I believe”. Its first sentence ends on a list of three verbs, “examined, rejected or accepted.” The second is short and strange: the mind works on “facets a man does not know he has.” The third is a long periodic sentence that holds its turn until late: sleep, “troubled and full of pain,” then “in the morning a whole new direction and a clearness is there,” then a hedge, “maybe the result of the black reasoning.” Its key word, “travail”, is a vocabulary word. The fourth answers it with “And again”: a morning of joy, built on “and … and … and”, that closes on the claim that nothing in the thoughts can “justify it or cause it.” The second passage is Lee’s, said to Adam over tea. Its first sentence makes a comparison and then a distinction: “just as you did, only mine had no life outside my mind.” The second is short and warm, “good company in my little room.” The third turns on itself, “I would talk and she would listen, and then she would talk,” and runs on into “all the happenings of a woman’s afternoon.” The fourth gives her a manner, “coquettish little jokes”, a vocabulary word. The last two turn on “But now” and “And”: Lee no longer knows whether he would listen to her, and he will not leave even an imagined woman “sad or lonely.” Students copying practice a list of three verbs, a periodic sentence with a late turn, a run of clauses joined by and, a sentence that turns back on itself, and short sentences that open on But and And. For the talk prompt, some will say it comforts him: Lee shows Adam he is not the only one who loved a woman he made up. Some will say it stings, said on the day Adam has seen what Cathy really is. Some will say Lee is speaking for himself at last, a lonely man in a little room. Leave it open, and do not say whether Lee ever leaves for San Francisco.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back, from the train to the cup Adam knocks over. Then choose the one sentence you would keep if you could keep only one. What does that sentence show you about the whole chapter?

Will twice answers Adam’s talk of Samuel with “That’s true,” but the narrator tells us “To Will, Samuel was dead.” Why does Will agree at all? Character
Will praises his mother as “practical” for feeding the mourners, and Lee calls his people “a practical people” who put roast pigs on graves. What does the word mean to each man? Theme
Lee sets out one cup, by Adam’s big chair. Adam tells him, “Bring yourself a cup, Lee.” What changes between the two men when he says it? Character
When Lee describes ink that is black yet seems to be “all the colors in the world,” Adam asks, “Are you making this up?” What is Adam really asking? Inference
Adam could have kept this wish to himself: “I found myself wishing you were a slave so I could refuse you.” Does saying it out loud help Lee, or put more weight on him? Moral reasoning

Make a Connection Think of someone in a story, or in your own life, who stayed somewhere because they were needed. What did staying give them, and what did it take away?

Vocabulary

travail: How often one goes to sleep troubled and full of pain, not knowing what causes the travail, and in the morning a whole new direction and a clearness is there, maybe the result of the black reasoning. Hard, painful effort or suffering; a heavy trouble that wears a person down. It came into English from an old French word for toil and is close kin to travel, which once meant a hard journey. The narrator uses it for a pain whose cause a sleeper does not know, the kind the mind works on in the dark. Adam’s years after Cathy are that kind of travail.
coquettish: She was very pretty and she made coquettish little jokes. Playful and flirting, in a light, teasing way meant to charm. A coquette is a woman who flirts for the pleasure of it. Lee gives the word to the wife he made up, and it makes her real enough to miss: she teases him in his little room, a lonely man’s picture of company.

Critical thinking

The narrator says the mind works on its troubles “in its dark deep,” and Adam says, “I seemed to come out of a sleep.” Did Adam free himself, or did his freedom happen to him?
Lee guesses that he and Adam each carry a piece of Samuel: “Maybe that’s what immortality is.” In what way, if any, does Samuel live on in this chapter?
Adam lets Lee go but asks him to stay a while longer, and Lee pleads, “Please try not to need me.” Is it fair for Adam to ask Lee to wait?