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East of Eden
Mountaineers · 10th–12th
As her hands and her mind grew more crooked, Kate began to rely more and more on Joe Valery as her assistant in chief, as her go-between, and as her executioner. She had a basic fear of the girls in the house—not that they were more untrustworthy than Joe but that the hysteria which lay very close to the surface might at any time crack through their caution and shatter their sense of self-preservation and tear down not only themselves but their surroundings. Kate had always been able to handle this ever-present danger, but now the slow-depositing calcium and the slow growth of apprehension caused her to need help and to look for it from Joe. Men, she knew, had a little stronger wall against self-destruction than the kind of women she knew.
Well, had anything or anybody ever really touched Kate—really got through and soiled her? Certainly not. Only the hard outside had been brushed by contacts. Inside she was intact—as clean and bright as this boy Alec—was that his name?
Read both passages aloud: the narrator on Kate, then Kate on herself. Which one tells the truth about her?
Narration Tell the chapter back in a few sentences, from Joe’s rules to the locked door of the gray room. Then pick the one sentence you think matters most, and say why Steinbeck needs it there.
1. In the night, Kate’s own mind asks her, “Isn’t it because you made a mistake?” Which frightens her more, Ethel or the mistake?Character
2. Kate has kept the name Venuta to herself. She was saving it for a day when Joe “got out of hand.” What makes her use it this morning?Inference
3. In Monterey, Joe throws a pen to scare a woman, and he enjoys her fear. Then he cries himself to sleep, and the narrator calls that “another pleasure.” How do the two pleasures fit together?Theme
4. The narrator breaks into Hal’s dinner talk with a detail about Ethel’s body that “would have bothered” her. Then the narrator says, “She would have liked more dignity.” Why tell us the detail at all?Author's choice
5. Joe’s caution tells him to go in, tell Kate, and get his five hundred. Which of his seven rules wins the argument?Character
6. In the night Kate can call up the word on Mr. Edwards’ suspenders, a word she never even noticed. Why does she have to hunt for her own son’s name?Inference
Make a Connection Think of a time you saw something on a person’s face that they did not mean to show. What did you do with what you saw?
As her hands and her mind grew more crooked, Kate began to rely more and more on Joe Valery as her assistant in chief, as her go-between, and as her executioner.
She had a basic fear of the girls in the house—not that they were more untrustworthy than Joe but that the hysteria which lay very close to the surface might at any time crack through their caution and shatter their sense of self-preservation and tear down not only themselves but their surroundings.
He felt fine even though her eyes were suited and inspective again.
Maybe Ethel might be a hole-card.
Joe breathed shallowly, afraid that any sound might drag her out of her self-absorption.
1. The narrator says hate “must have love as a trigger,” and in Joe that love is for Joe himself. What love, if any, sets off Kate’s hates?
2. The chapter’s last sentence says Joe “would have laughed out loud” if he had known what Kate did. She went into the gray room, locked the door, and sat with her eyes closed. Would he have been right to laugh?
3. Kate has always seen straight through Joe, yet his lie about Ethel works on her completely. Why does it work this time?