East of Eden

Chapter 48

John Steinbeck · Mountaineers 10th–12th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

In the past, in the period of his success, two kinds of people had access to all homes and all gossip—the seamstress and the handy man. Alf could tell you about everybody on both sides of Main Street. He was a vicious male gossip, insatiably curious and vindictive without malice.

She went into the lean-to, the gray room, and closed the door and sat in the darkness, listening to the pain creep back into her fingers. Her temples beat with pounding blood. She felt for the capsule hanging in its tube on the chain around her neck, she rubbed the metal tube, warm from her breast, against her cheek, and her courage came back. She washed her face and put on make-up, combed and puffed her hair in a loose pompadour. She moved into the hall and at the door of the parlor she paused, as always, listening.

Read both passages aloud. If Alf could watch Kate in her gray room, what would he think he was seeing?

For the educator The first passage is the paragraph in section 1 that follows Joe’s falling in step with Alf, whole; the second is the second paragraph of section 3, whole. The first is three sentences. The opening sentence begins with two phrases, each followed by a comma, the second narrowing the first (“In the past, in the period of his success”). It says “all” twice in “all homes and all gossip,” and after a dash names the two kinds of people as a balanced pair joined by “and.” The second sentence is plain and speaks to the reader as “you”; “Main Street” takes capitals because it is a name. The third gives Alf a label, then after a comma two descriptions joined by “and.” The second of them is a paradox: “vindictive” means eager to hurt back, and “malice” is the wish to hurt, so Alf hurts people without meaning them harm. The second passage is five sentences. The first renames the lean-to between two commas, “the gray room,” joins three verbs with “and,” and ends after a comma on a phrase built on “listening.” The second is six words. The third joins two complete sentences with only a comma (“around her neck, she rubbed”); that is Steinbeck’s choice, and in their own writing students would use a semicolon or “and.” It strings four short phrases after “felt” (the capsule, its tube, the chain, her neck), sets “warm from her breast” between commas, and ends after a comma and “and” on “her courage came back.” The fourth lists her actions and lets two verbs share one object, “combed and puffed her hair.” The fifth sets “as always” between commas and ends, like the first, on “listening.” Students can practise the commas after opening phrases, the paired commas around an aside, the dash before a pair, the capitals of a street name, and the hyphens in “lean-to” and “make-up.” For the talk prompt, some will say Alf would see a secret: a shut door, a dark room, something held to her cheek, and a story to carry up and down Main Street. Others will say he would see a sick woman in pain and still not believe it, because he “hardly ever believed anything simple or good about anybody.” Let them argue; there is no single answer.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back, from the candles at the casket to Kate’s hand on her chain. If you could keep only one of Steinbeck’s sentences, which would you keep, and what does the chapter need it for?

The old madam’s will ordered a bare funeral, and the narrator says there was “no grief.” Can grief be ordered away? Theme
The narrator compares the old madam’s house to “human sacrifice” and yet says a “mystery of connection” was lost with it. Who or what did that house connect? Author's choice
Alf tells his cupcake story to “put in a needle.” How far into Joe does that needle go? Character
When Helen says she cannot find the words for what the funeral made her feel, Kate answers, “Maybe you said it.” What did Helen say? Character

Make a Connection Think of a character in another book who trusts no one. What does that character lean on instead of people?

Vocabulary

insatiably: He was a vicious male gossip, insatiably curious and vindictive without malice. In a way that can never be filled up, however much is fed to it. Alf’s curiosity is like that: the more he knows about everybody, the more he wants. It is why he will not let Joe go, and why Joe’s silence makes him angry.
pompadour: She washed her face and put on make-up, combed and puffed her hair in a loose pompadour. A way of wearing the hair swept up and puffed high off the forehead. Kate puts hers up straight after sitting in the dark with her pain. With the washed face and the make-up, it is the public face she puts on before she walks to the parlor door.
restive: At the end of a couple of hours Alf was restive. Restless and impatient, like a horse that will not stand still. Alf has poured out every story he has and got nothing back. The word marks the moment the trade turns sour, just before he puts in his needle.
palaver: Probably nothing to all the palaver about her. Long, idle talk that may not be worth much. Alf uses the word for the town’s gossip about Kate just after two hours of adding to it. Calling it palaver lets him pass the stories on while seeming to wave them away.

Critical thinking

Kate tells Joe, “I shouldn’t have let you work in the dark.” When Joe walks out of her room, which of the two is more in the dark?
Kate’s hand goes to the chain at her neck before she sends for Helen, and again after Helen goes. Does it give her the same thing both times?
Kate asks Helen how the funeral looked, what the dead woman wore, and who went to the grave. What is Kate trying to learn from her?