He could outthink and outplan his brother.To plan better than someone else, so that you are always a move ahead of them. The prefix out- turns a plain verb into a contest, as in outrun and outwit. Steinbeck pairs it with outthink, and the pair tells us how Cal sees Aron in the shed: as someone to beat. The same planning, minutes later, “suddenly seemed mean and dirty to him.”
East of Eden
Chapter 30 — Teaching Companion
John Steinbeck · Mountaineers 10th–12th
Coaching, not a script — and not an answer key: every question here has more than one defensible answer.
This chapter's big question
Cal answers Aron’s questions with a story about a big wreath packed in ice. Is that story one more of Cal’s tricks, or is it a kindness?
The tension In the wagon shed Cal “felt his power, and it made him glad” over Aron, “a lump of soft mud in his hands”; by night he is weeping, praying “let me be like Aron. Don’t make me mean,” and telling Aron a story about a wreath packed in ice instead of what he heard.
Today's focus
Notice who hears the letter: everyone beside the car hears of the death, only Lee reads all of it under the lamp, and a shadow slips behind the hall door.
Two core ideas
- Charles’s will puts a choice in Adam’s hands, since his wife could not claim her share without his help; Adam insists he has not decided, and Lee insists the decision is already written in Adam’s character.
- Cal enjoys his power over Aron until Aron asks what his tricks are good for; after listening at the door, Cal keeps what he knows from his brother with a story about a wreath and prays not to be mean.
The shape at a glance
The chapter has three sections. First, a week after the driving lesson, Adam drives the new Ford into King City with Lee and the twins. The postmaster grumbles about cars and hands Adam a long envelope from Bellows and Harvey, lawyers in his old Connecticut town. Adam opens it slowly beside the car. The letter scolds him for being hard to find, then says that his brother Charles has died of a lung ailment and lies in an unmarked grave. Aron wishes he had known his uncle and plans to bring him flowers along with their mother’s. Cal asks whether Charles was rich, is scolded, and says he cannot be sad for a man he never saw; Lee hides a smile. Adam reads on in silence: Charles left more than a hundred thousand dollars, to be divided equally between Adam and his wife. Adam folds the letter away, tells Lee there are no complications, and cannot remember how to start the car. At home Cal takes Aron into the forbidden Ford in the wagon shed, says he bets Charles was rich, and bets Aron his taw against Aron’s deer’s-leg whistle that they will be sent to bed after supper, because he means to listen to their father and Lee. When Aron threatens to tell, Cal threatens to tell who stole their father’s knife, tomorrow. Cal is glad of his power, then feels a sudden love for Aron and puts an arm around him. Aron draws back and asks why Cal does his tricky, sneaky things, and what they are good for. Cal is stung. Aron walks out, and Cal’s pretend race is no good without him. Second, after supper Adam sends the boys to bed. Aron pays the bet; Cal refuses the whistle, and Aron leaves it on the table. Lee guesses a bet was made, and asks whether a person’s thoughts become important only at a certain age. Adam shows Lee the letter and a daguerreotype of Charles; opening the hall door, he does not see the shadow slip behind it. Lee sees “both the love and the murder” in Charles’s face. He lays out the case: Adam’s wife is alive and working as a prostitute in Salinas; she would inherit over fifty thousand dollars; Charles hated her; she has told Adam she would use money to ruin respectable men; and she could not claim it without Adam’s help. Then Lee says Adam has no real choice, that he will follow his training and that thinking will not change it. Adam angrily insists he has not made up his mind and accuses Lee of being insolent now that he has decided to go away. Lee says “Bull shit!” amiably and goes out. Third, Cal creeps back to bed, wishing that Aron had not walked away from him and that he had not listened at the door. In tears he prays silently to be like Aron and not to be mean, offering God anything if everybody will like him. Aron feels his chill and asks whether Uncle Charles had money; Cal says no. Asked what their father wanted, Cal turns his back and says Adam will send their mother a great big wreath of carnations, packed in ice on the train. Aron hopes it arrives fresh; Cal says it will, and in his mind cries, “Don’t let me be mean.”
A way in
Read the chapter yourself first, and slow down twice: in the wagon shed, and in the dark at the end. Some background the chapter assumes. Adam’s wife, the twins’ mother, shot him and left soon after the boys were born; she now runs a brothel in Salinas under another name, and the boys believe she is dead, which is why Aron speaks of taking flowers to her. Charles is Adam’s brother back East, who once nearly beat him to death when they were young; Adam wrote to him in the last chapters. Lee is the Chinese man who has kept Adam’s house and raised the twins; he is learned and blunt in private, and he has spoken before of wanting to leave and keep a bookstore. Abra is a girl the boys know, and the rabbit and the box are tricks of Cal’s from earlier chapters. The language is rough in places (“goddam,” “hell,” “whore,” “Bull shit!”); read it as written, and talk about what it shows about the speaker and the moment. Four things the chapter does not settle, and the guide does not either: what Adam will do about his wife’s share; exactly what Cal heard at the door, since the chapter shows only the shadow and what Cal does afterward; whether Lee really leaves; and whether Cal’s prayer changes him. Keep Cal from being simply the bad twin and Aron simply the good one. Stop on Cal’s silent cry.
Lesson plan
Retell The student tells the chapter back from the Ford stopping at the post office to Cal’s last silent cry. Look for the three sections in order: the post office and the drive home, with the boys in the wagon shed; the evening in the living room; and the bedroom in the dark. Look for the turns that carry the chapter: the letter’s changing moods, Aron “growing rich in dead relatives” and Cal’s “How can I be sad?”, Adam folding the letter away and forgetting how to start the car, the bet and the threat about the knife, “a lump of soft mud”, Aron’s “what’s it good for”, the refused whistle, the shadow behind the door, the daguerreotype, Lee’s case and “Your course is drawn”, “Bull shit!”, the prayer, Cal’s “No”, and the wreath. Look for restraint about what Cal heard. Then ask which sentence matters most to the student, and why.
Imitate the author After copying, the student writes six sentences in the manner of the first passage, about a person who has power over someone weaker: a short sentence of pride with a paired verb; a sentence that reaches one step further; a long sentence about the one person the power does not work on, with a series of three that lands on that person’s own words; a short sentence of respect; a sentence that turns on But and gives the weaker person an image; and a sentence that turns on suddenly to a feeling that cuts the other way. Then five sentences in the manner of the second, about the same person alone at night: a long sentence strung on and, about something small that moves; a short sentence with one strange adjective for a mood; two sentences that open with the same words and name two different regrets; and a sentence that ends on a small paradox. Read both aloud beside Steinbeck’s and ask where the feeling shows without being named.
Debate Take sides on the last written question. One side argues that Cal’s wreath story is a kindness. It gathers the tears and the prayer, “let me be like Aron. Don’t make me mean”; Aron’s plan outside the post office, “When we take flowers to our mother”; Cal turning his back as if to hide his crying; “Go to sleep now”; and Aron’s “I hope it gets there fresh and nice.” The other side argues that it is one more trick. It gathers the shed, where Cal “could outthink and outplan his brother”; Cal’s “No” about the money; the story invented detail by detail, the train and the ice; the back turned so his face is hidden; and the silent cry, “Don’t let me be mean,” just after he says “It will.” Each side must answer the other’s strongest piece. Neither may say what Cal heard, or that the prayer changes him.
Purpose Close on the chapter’s design. Steinbeck opens with a letter that changes its mood paragraph by paragraph and ends with a story Cal tells his brother in the dark. He lets the letter be read twice, once beside the car with three people waiting on Adam, and once under the lamp by Lee alone, with a shadow at the door. He has Adam tell his sons that Charles was his only brother, “just like Cal is your only brother,” and then has Lee read “both the love and the murder” in Charles’s face, on the same day that Cal holds power and love for Aron in one paragraph. He sets Lee’s claim that Adam will follow his training, whatever he calls thinking, beside a boy in the back bedroom praying to be someone else. Ask why the chapter ends on the prayer and not on what follows it. Name the habit the chapter practices: watching how people in one house keep the truth from each other, and asking what the keeping costs.
Easier Read aloud the post office scene, from “Adam drew a deep full breath” to “He couldn’t remember a single procedure.”; the wagon shed, from “Cal had led his brother outside” to “soon he followed Aron back toward the house.”; Lee’s case, from “Lee took a pipe from his pocket” to the end of the second section; and the whole third section. Talk through the first, second, third and sixth discussion questions, then answer the last written question aloud before writing it.
On level Talk through all six discussion questions in order, then write both 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 the brothers in this chapter. Set Adam’s “just like Cal is your only brother” and Lee’s reading of Charles, “both the love and the murder,” beside Cal in the shed and Cal in the dark, and judge how far the chapter invites us to see Adam and Charles in Cal and Aron. Meet the strongest objection: the chapter gives Cal shame, tears and a prayer that Charles is never shown to have, and Aron a mind of his own, so perhaps the likeness is one the book raises only to test.
Discussion
- Cal says he can’t be sad about an uncle he never met. Aron never met him either. Yet Aron plans flowers for his grave, and feels he is growing “rich in dead relatives.” Which brother is more honest about a man neither of them knew?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to set two boys side by side on one piece of news. When Adam says his brother is dead, Aron says, “I didn’t know we had him,” and plans flowers for the grave. Then, “a little sadly,” he says, “I wish’t I knew I had him before he was dead.” The narrator adds, “He felt that he was growing rich in dead relatives.” Aron asks, “Was he nice?” Cal asks, “Was he rich?” and “Well, if he was rich we’d get it, wouldn’t we?” Adam answers sternly, “We’re sad because he died.” Cal says, “How can I be sad?” and “I never even saw him.” “Lee covered his mouth with his hand to conceal his smile.”
One reading
Cal. He says plainly what he feels, which is nothing, and what he wants to know, which is the money. Aron is sorry to have missed a man he cannot miss, and the narrator’s word “rich” shows him enjoying something new, the way Cal hopes for a fortune. Lee’s hidden smile seems to side with the boy who will not pretend, and the next paragraph of the letter shows that money was the news.
How can I be sad?
He felt that he was growing rich in dead relatives.
Another reading
Aron. He does not claim to grieve a man he knew. He grieves not knowing him, and says exactly that. His flowers for Charles go with the flowers for their mother: a real wish for family. Cal is honest about his feelings, but he turns them to money at once, and Adam’s stern answer hears it that way.
I wish’t I knew I had him before he was dead.
When we take flowers to our mother we’ll take some to our Uncle Charles.
Listen for
- Hears “rich” twice: the narrator’s “rich in dead relatives” and Cal’s “Was he rich?” a few lines later.
- Gives each boy his own kind of honesty, without making one of them simply good.
- Asks whom Lee hides his smile from, and what he is smiling at.
- Notices that the letter turns to money right after Adam says money is not nice to talk about.
If stuck
- What does Aron want to do for Uncle Charles, and what does Cal want to know about him?
- Why does Lee cover his mouth?
- Can you be honestly sorry about someone you never met?
A strong answer A strong response chooses a brother and grounds the choice. One reader says Cal is more honest: he will not pretend to grieve, he asks the question the letter is about to answer, and the narrator’s “rich” shows that Aron is gaining something too. Another says Aron is: he grieves only what he can, the not knowing, and his flowers for Charles go with the flowers for their mother. The best answers give each boy his own honesty, and remember this plain-spoken Cal when, in the dark, he answers a question about money with “No.”
- In the wagon shed, Cal puts his arm around Aron. Aron does not flinch or respond. He draws back a little “to see Cal’s face.” What is Aron looking for there?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to read one look. Just before Cal whispers his threat, “Cal’s eyes turned cold and his face darkened.” The threat is “I’ll tell who stole his knife.” Then he adds, “I mean tomorrow.” He feels “his power, and it made him glad,” and then “a deep love for his brother.” He puts his arm around Aron. “Aron did not flinch or respond. He drew back a little to see Cal’s face.” Cal says, “See any green grass growing out of my head?” Aron answers, “I don’t know why you go for to do it.”
One reading
Which Cal is reaching for him. A moment ago this brother’s eyes went cold over a threat; now he has an arm around him. Aron has learned that Cal’s kindness can be one more move, so he checks the face before he trusts the arm. Cal’s joke about green grass is a way of not being looked at.
Cal’s eyes turned cold and his face darkened.
See any green grass growing out of my head?
Another reading
The reason. Aron is not afraid of the arm; he does not flinch. He is looking for why his brother does these things, and he says so as soon as Cal jokes. He wants to understand Cal, not to judge him. When Cal has no answer, he leaves.
Aron did not flinch or respond.
I just wonder why you do it.
Listen for
- Notices that Aron neither flinches nor leans in, and weighs what that stillness means.
- Reads Cal’s “green grass” joke as his answer to being looked at.
- Keeps both of Cal’s feelings in view, the gladness at his power and the sudden love, without deciding which one the arm carries.
- May notice that in bed Cal turns his back to Aron to tell his story, and leave the judging of that story to the last question.
If stuck
- What has Cal just threatened Aron with?
- What does Cal do next, and what does Aron do?
- When you are not sure what someone means, where do you look?
A strong answer A strong response says what Aron is looking for and grounds it in the paragraph. One reader says he is checking which Cal is reaching for him, the cold-eyed one of a moment ago or the loving one, and that Cal’s joke dodges the look. Another says he is looking for the reason behind the tricks, which he asks for at once. The best answers keep both of Cal’s feelings in view, give Aron a mind of his own, and notice how Cal answers being looked at.
- Aron wonders what Cal’s tricks are “good for.” Then he walks out of the shed. Alone, Cal tries to imagine he is racing down the road, but “it wasn’t any good.” What did Aron’s question take from Cal?Author's choice
What it asks It asks the student to hear an echo and judge what it means. Aron does not call Cal bad. He lists “the rabbit”, “sneaking here in the car”, and whatever made Abra “throw the box away”, and then says, “I’d like to know why you do it. You’re always at something. I just wonder why you do it. I wonder what’s it good for.” “A pain pierced Cal’s heart. His planning suddenly seemed mean and dirty to him.” He feels “a longing for Aron to love him” and feels “lost and hungry.” Aron leaves the shed. “For a few moments Cal twisted the steering wheel and tried to imagine he was racing down the road. But it wasn’t any good, and soon he followed Aron back toward the house.”
One reading
The pleasure of winning. Until now Cal’s planning has felt like power, and power made him glad. Aron’s plain question makes it look “mean and dirty”, and the game in the car goes dead with it. Cal has lost the thing he got from his tricks.
His planning suddenly seemed mean and dirty to him.
He knew that his brother had found him out.
Another reading
Aron. The pretend race was never much fun alone. What Cal wants is not the game but his brother, “a longing for Aron to love him”, and with Aron gone the shed is empty. He does not stay to sulk; he follows Aron home.
And he felt a longing for Aron to love him.
soon he followed Aron back toward the house
Listen for
- Hears “good for” in Aron’s question answered by “any good” in the narrator’s line.
- Notices that Aron asks a question instead of scolding, and weighs why that hurts more.
- Connects this to that night, when Cal wishes “with all his heart” that Aron had not walked away.
If stuck
- What does Aron ask Cal, in his own words?
- What does Cal try to do after Aron leaves, and how does it go?
- Why can a plain question hurt more than an angry one?
A strong answer A strong response names what was lost and grounds it in the two lines that echo each other. One reader says Aron took the pleasure of winning: once the planning looks “mean and dirty”, the game in the car is dead too. Another says he took himself: what Cal wants is Aron’s love, and the pretend race is empty without him. The best answers notice that the narrator answers Aron’s question for him: Cal’s tricks, for the moment, are not any good.
- Aron lost the bet, so after supper he gets out his deer’s-leg whistle to pay Cal. Cal won’t take it. Aron lays it on the table and says, “It’ll be here for you.” Why doesn’t Aron just put it back in his pocket?Character
What it asks It asks the student to stand inside Aron for one line. The bet was Cal’s idea, made in the shed: “I bet you this-here taw against that deer’s-leg whistle that we get sent to bed right after supper.” Aron agreed “vaguely”: “I don’t see why.” Cal already planned to listen to their father. When Adam sends them to bed, “Aron looked quickly at Cal and slowly took his deer’s-leg whistle out of his pocket.” Cal: “I don’t want it.” Aron: “It’s yours now.” Cal: “Well, I don’t want it. I won’t have it.” “Aron laid the bone whistle on the table. ‘It’ll be here for you,’ he said.” Later Lee picks it up and guesses that “some bet was made before supper.”
One reading
That a bet is a bet. Aron pays because he agreed, even to a bet he did not understand. Leaving the whistle on the table is not a rebuke; it is patience. The whistle will wait until Cal can take it, the way Aron seems ready to wait for Cal.
It’s yours now.
It’ll be here for you,
Another reading
That Aron knows how the bet was won. Cal knew they would be sent to bed, because their father would want to talk to Lee, and Cal meant to listen. By paying anyway and leaving the prize in plain sight, Aron makes Cal look at what his trick got him. Honest payment is the one answer to a trick that a trickster cannot argue with.
Aron looked quickly at Cal and slowly took his deer’s-leg whistle out of his pocket.
Well, I don’t want it. I won’t have it.
Listen for
- Notices “quickly” and “slowly” in the line where Aron takes out the whistle.
- Gives Aron a mind of his own, not just goodness.
- Uses Cal’s refusal as part of the evidence: what does the whistle mean to Cal now?
If stuck
- What was the bet, and who made it?
- What does Cal do when Aron hands him the whistle?
- Can paying a debt honestly also be a way of saying something?
A strong answer A strong response hears the line in Aron’s voice and grounds it. One reader says Aron is simply fair and patient: a bet is a bet, and the whistle will wait. Another says Aron knows how the bet was won, and that paying in plain sight is his reply to the trick. The best answers keep Aron from being only the good twin, and notice that Cal turns down what he won soon after Aron asked what his tricks are good for.
- Lee says he will listen to Adam first. Then he will know “whether I can offer an honest opinion or whether it is better to reassure you in your own.” By the end, he gives the honest opinion. What makes him choose it?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to find the reason behind one choice. Lee has read the letter and will not speak first: “I would prefer to know your opinion before I offered mine.” Adam asks, “Are you speaking sharply to me?” Lee: “Yes, I am… I’ll lay aside my Oriental manner. I’m getting old and cantankerous. I am growing impatient.” Then: “Then talk, and I will know from your talk whether I can offer an honest opinion or whether it is better to reassure you in your own.” Adam talks. He agrees that his brother would not want his wife to have the money, that she has said she would use it to “destroy many reputable men in Salinas,” and that “she might not be able to claim it without my help.” Lee: “But you don’t have any choice, do you?… Do you know yourself so much less than I do?” Adam: “I don’t know what to do… I’ll have to give it a lot of thought.” “Lee said angrily, ‘I guess I’ve been wasting my time. Are you lying to yourself or only to me?’” Then: “I have always disliked deception. Your course is drawn… Faced with two sets of morals, you’ll follow your training. What you call thinking won’t change it.” Adam says he has not made up his mind. Lee says “Bull shit!” “amiably” and goes out.
One reading
Adam’s talk. Adam agrees with every point Lee lays out, then says he will have to give it a lot of thought. To Lee that is a man pretending to himself, and he will not help him do it. He says so: he has “always disliked deception.” The honest opinion is the friendlier act, and the last word is said “amiably.”
Are you lying to yourself or only to me?
I have always disliked deception.
Another reading
Lee himself. He lays aside his polite manner before Adam has said a word, because he is “old and cantankerous” and “growing impatient.” Later he says, “I’m crotchety. I feel sand under my skin.” The choice may say as much about Lee’s restlessness tonight as about anything Adam says. Adam hears it that way, and calls him “insolent.”
I’m getting old and cantankerous. I am growing impatient.
I’ll speak any way I want to. I’m crotchety.
Listen for
- Notices that Lee names the choice out loud before he makes it.
- Reads Lee’s “Bull shit!” as a charge against Adam’s indecision, not only as a joke.
- Does not say what Adam decides, or that Lee leaves; the chapter shows neither.
- May hear that Cal faces the same choice in the dark with Aron, and leave his answer to the last question.
If stuck
- What two things does Lee say he might do once he hears Adam talk?
- What does Adam say right before Lee speaks “angrily”?
- When is the honest answer the kind one, and when is it not?
A strong answer A strong response names what tips Lee and grounds it in the scene. One reader says Adam’s own talk does it: he agrees with every point and then claims he still has to think, and Lee will not join a lie Adam tells himself. Another says the choice is Lee’s own mood: he drops his polite manner before Adam speaks, and calls himself impatient and crotchety. The best answers quote both men, read “Bull shit!” as a charge and not only a joke, and notice that Lee says out loud the same choice Cal will face that night, between the truth and a comfort.
- In bed, Cal prays, “let me be like Aron.” Then he offers God a deal: “If you will let everybody like me,” he will give anything in the world. What does the deal tell you about the first wish?Theme
What it asks It asks the student to weigh two wishes inside one prayer. In the shed, after Aron’s question, Cal “felt a longing for Aron to love him.” In bed he prays silently: “let me be like Aron. Don’t make me mean. I don’t want to be. If you will let everybody like me, why, I’ll give you anything in the world,” and “I don’t want to be mean. I don’t want to be lonely.” The prayer uses “like” twice: once for being like someone, once for being liked.
One reading
That the old Cal is still in it. To be like Aron is to be good: no tricks, nothing to hide. To be liked is a prize, and Cal tries to win it the way he does everything, with a deal. He offered Aron a bet in the shed; now he offers God “anything in the world.” Even while he prays to change, he bargains.
let me be like Aron.
why, I’ll give you anything in the world
Another reading
What the first wish really means. What Cal wanted in the shed was not to be good but to be loved: “a longing for Aron to love him.” To be like Aron would be to be liked. The prayer ends on the fear under both wishes, and it names that fear beside meanness. For Cal, mean is what leaves a person alone.
And he felt a longing for Aron to love him.
I don’t want to be mean. I don’t want to be lonely.
Listen for
- Hears the two senses of “like” in one prayer: to be like someone, and to be liked.
- Notices that the prayer offers God a deal, the way Cal offered Aron a bet.
- Asks whether not being mean and not being lonely are one fear or two.
- Does not say that the prayer changes Cal; the chapter ends on it.
If stuck
- What does Cal ask God for, in his own words?
- What does he promise to give, and for what?
- Can wanting to be good and wanting to be liked feel like the same wish?
A strong answer A strong response says what the deal shows and grounds it in the prayer. One reader says it shows the old Cal inside the new wish: to be like Aron is to be good, to be liked is a prize, and Cal tries to win it with a deal, the way he made his bet with Aron. Another says the deal explains the wish: what Cal wanted in the shed was Aron’s love, and the prayer ends on loneliness, the fear under both. The best answers hear both senses of “like”, and leave the story Cal tells next for the last question.
Critical thinking
- Outside the post office, Lee asks Adam, “Any complications?” Adam says, “No.” That night, Aron asks if Uncle Charles had any money. Cal says, “No.” How much of his father is in Cal’s answer?
What it asks It asks the student to measure how far a son answers the way his father did. Adam reads the money paragraph in silence while “All three were waiting for him to continue.” “Adam’s mouth shut to a line. He folded the letter, put it in its envelope, and placed the envelope carefully in his inside pocket.” Lee: “Any complications?” “No.” “I just thought you looked concerned.” “I’m not. I’m sad about my brother.” “He felt that he would have to be alone to absorb it.” The will names “your wife”, and Aron speaks of taking flowers to their mother. After supper Adam gives Lee the whole letter to read. Cal, who has listened at the hall door, lies in bed wishing “with all his heart” that he had not, and prays in tears not to be mean. Aron asks, “Did Uncle Charles have any money?” “No,” said Cal. The chapter does not show what Cal heard.
One reading
A great deal. Adam hides news that names “your wife”; Cal hides whatever he heard at the door. Each closes it off with one flat word to the person nearest him. Each then holds it in: Adam goes blank at the wheel, and Cal lies still in the dark, trying to control his breathing. The boy who asked “Was he rich?” outside the post office ends the day answering the way his father did.
He felt that he would have to be alone to absorb it.
Cal lay still, trying to control his breathing.
Another reading
Very little. Adam’s “No” buys time with a secret that is his to decide, and that same evening he lays the whole letter before Lee. Cal’s “No” covers something he took by listening, the act he most wishes undone, and the chapter ends without his telling anyone. Adam says he is not concerned; Cal cries and prays not to be mean. The word is his father’s, but the shame is Cal’s own.
I want you to read this, to read it carefully, and then—I want to talk about it.
He wished with all his heart that he had not crouched listening at the hall door.
Listen for
- States a thesis about the father and the son together, not about one alone.
- Meets the strongest objection with a line from the chapter and revises the claim, not only restates it.
- Claims nothing about exactly what Cal heard; uses only what he does afterward.
- May bring in Lee’s claim that Adam will “follow your training,” and ask whether Cal has been trained too.
If stuck
- What does Adam do with the letter after he reads the money part?
- What does Aron ask Cal in bed, and what does Cal answer?
- Can a son learn a way of answering without being taught it?
A strong answer A strong response builds a thesis, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis says there is a great deal of Adam in Cal’s answer: each hides what he learned behind one flat word, then holds it in, and the boy who asked the honest question outside the post office ends the day answering like his father. The strongest objection is that the likeness is only on the surface: Adam shows Lee the letter that same evening, while Cal’s “No” covers his own listening, the act he most wishes undone, and he weeps over it. A good revision might say that Cal answers with his father’s word but carries it differently: Adam goes blank, and Cal weeps. The best answers claim nothing about what Cal heard.
- Cal answers Aron’s questions with a story about a big wreath packed in ice. Is that story one more of Cal’s tricks, or is it a kindness?
What it asks It asks the chapter’s whole question about Cal’s answer in the dark. Cal lies in bed after listening at the door. “A gray, quilted melancholy descended on him.” He prays, “let me be like Aron. Don’t make me mean,” and “Slow warm tears were running down his cheeks.” Aron feels his chill and asks what their father wanted. “Don’t you want to tell me?… I don’t care if you don’t tell me.” “I’ll tell,” Cal whispers. “He turned on his side so that his back was toward his brother.” “Father is going to send a wreath to our mother. A great big goddam wreath of carnations.” He answers each of Aron’s questions: the train, the ice, “A whole hell of a lot of ice.” Aron: “I hope it gets there fresh and nice.” “It will,” said Cal. “And in his mind he cried, ‘Don’t let me be mean.’”
One reading
A kindness. Cal is crying and praying not to be mean, and the story he tells gives Aron exactly what Aron wanted outside the post office: flowers for their mother. He turns his back so Aron will not see his tears. He says “Go to sleep now,” like a guardian. Whatever he heard, he chose not to put it on his brother.
Slow warm tears were running down his cheeks.
I hope it gets there fresh and nice.
Another reading
One more trick. The story is made up on the spot, with the same quick skill Cal used in the shed: a detail for every question, the train, the ice. He turns his back so his face won’t give him away. And right after he promises “It will,” he cries silently, “Don’t let me be mean,” as if he knows that this, too, is the thing he prayed against.
He turned on his side so that his back was toward his brother.
And in his mind he cried, “Don’t let me be mean.”
Listen for
- States a thesis and meets the strongest objection from the other reading.
- Uses the wreath’s link to Aron’s plan to take flowers to their mother.
- May set Cal’s story beside Adam’s “Very nice” about the brother who once tried to kill him.
- Does not say what Cal heard, or that the prayer changes him; the chapter ends on the prayer.
If stuck
- What does Cal pray for, and what is he doing while he prays?
- What does Cal tell Aron, and what does Aron say back?
- Can the same lie be a trick and a kindness?
A strong answer A strong response builds a thesis, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis says the story is a kindness: Cal, in tears and praying not to be mean, gives Aron the flowers he wanted for their mother and keeps a weight off him. The strongest objection is that it is one more trick: a story invented detail by detail, told with his back turned, and followed by a silent cry against meanness, as if Cal knows. A good revision might say that Cal can only be kind with the tools he has, and that the skill of the trick is what makes the kindness possible; his father did the same when he told the boys Charles was “Very nice.” The chapter ends on the prayer and does not say which Cal wins.
Vocabulary definitions
- outplan
- bellied
The window shade bellied slowly in and then the night wind fell and the worn shade flapped quietly against the window.
Swelled out in a curve, the way a sail fills with wind. The verb comes from the noun belly. Here the night wind pushes the worn shade into the dark room and lets it fall back, slowly, as if the room were breathing. It is the one moving thing Cal watches as he lies awake, just before the sadness descends on him.- testily
“Mr. Adam Trask, King City, California, Dear Sir,” it began testily, “For the last six months we have exhausted every means of locating you.
In an irritated, short-tempered way, the way someone speaks when their patience is worn thin. From testy, which comes from an old French word for head, as in headstrong. Steinbeck gives the mood to the letter itself, not to the lawyers: it “began testily”, and Adam “could feel their impatience with him.” It is the first of the letter’s moods, and the narrator wants us to feel each change, from testy to sad to pleasant.- daguerreotype
He went to his room and returned and put a faded brown daguerreotype on the table in front of Lee.
An early kind of photograph, made on a sheet of polished, silvered metal, named for Louis Daguerre, who invented it. Its shiny surface is why Lee must shift it “this way and that to overcome the highlights.” Here it is the only way Charles enters the room: Lee reads a dead man’s character from an old picture, and finds “both the love and the murder” in his face.- amiably
“Bull shit!” he said amiably, and he went out and closed the door behind him.
In a friendly, good-natured way. From the Latin amicabilis, friendly, the same root as amicable and amity. The word is surprising beside what Lee says. A moment earlier he spoke “angrily”; now he turns back, smiles at Adam, and says two rough words in a friendly voice. The line turns on the gap between the words and the tone, and the reader has to hold both.