Chapter 48 — Teaching Companion

What it asks It asks the student to test one flat word against the scene around it. The will ordered “black austerity,” and the chapel had “no flowers, as ordered, no ceremony, no sermon, and no grief.” Townsmen “tiptoed to the chapel door and peered in and went away,” and her girls came “for decency and for luck and went away.” Yet her husband “crouched like a cat by her right shoulder, and for many hours he seemed as still as she.” At the cemetery the hearse leaves and “the husband filled the grave himself with a new shovel,” while a caretaker a hundred yards off hears “a whining carried on the wind.” The question keeps the funeral from being local color: it is what Kate asks about at the end, and the lone mourner is where she cuts Helen off. It feeds the hinge without asking it. The answer should not say whose whining it is; the chapter says only what the caretaker heard.

One reading

Yes, near enough. The bareness kept grief out of the room. The town came to look, not to mourn, and the girls came for luck. No one wept in the chapel. Whatever the husband felt, he kept still, and the only sound comes from a hundred yards off, on the wind. The will got the funeral it asked for.

• But a strange and catholic selection of citizens tiptoed to the chapel door and peered in and went away—lawyers and laborers and clerks and bank tellers, most of them past middle age.
• Her girls came in one at a time and looked at her for decency and for luck and went away.

Another reading

No. Grief came anyway, in one man. He sat by her for hours, and when the hearse drove off he stayed and filled the grave with his own hands. The will could strip the funeral bare, but it could not strip him. The narrator’s “no grief” is true of the chapel and not of the grave.

• Her little black husband crouched like a cat by her right shoulder, and for many hours he seemed as still as she.
• It was a gray day, and when Muller’s service had lowered the casket with oiled and silent winches the hearse drove away and the husband filled the grave himself with a new shovel.

Listen for

• Notices that “no grief” ends the list that begins “no flowers, as ordered”: does “as ordered” reach all the way to grief?
• Weighs “as still as she”: is the husband’s stillness grief, or obedience to her order?
• Notices the “new shovel”: he came ready to fill the grave himself.
• Does not say whose whining the caretaker heard; it is “carried on the wind.”

If stuck

• What did her will order for the funeral?
• Who stayed after the hearse drove away?
• Can a person decide, before they die, how others will feel about it?

A strong answer A strong response decides whether the will kept grief away and grounds it in the chapel and the grave. One reader says yes: the town peered in and left, the girls came for luck, and nothing breaks the silence but a sound far off on the wind. Another says no: the husband sat still beside her for hours and filled her grave himself, and no will could order that away. The best answers notice that the narrator’s list and the husband’s shovel pull against each other, and they leave the whining unclaimed.

What it asks It asks the student to hold together two things the narrator says of one place. He calls what ended with the old madam “dark and fatal sex, as hopeless and deeply hurtful as human sacrifice.” He sets two houses beside it: Jenny’s will “jangle with honky-tonk and rock with belching laughter,” and Kate’s will “rip the nerves to a sinful ecstasy and leave a man shaken and weak and frightened at himself.” Then he turns on “But”: “the somber mystery of connection that was like a voodoo offering was gone forever.” Both of his likenesses, a sacrifice and an offering, are rites. Just before this paragraph, every kind of citizen “tiptoed to the chapel door and peered in.” The question feeds the hinge: Kate’s house is the one left standing, and it leaves each man alone with himself; at the end Kate asks who went to the grave. The talk should stay in the narrator’s own terms and should not settle for the student what the old house was worth.

One reading

The town. Both of the narrator’s likenesses, “human sacrifice” and a “voodoo offering,” are rites, and a rite is something people share. The old house was dark, but it tied the men of the town to one thing together. That is why lawyers and laborers, clerks and bank tellers came to peer in at her chapel door. Kate’s house ties no one: it leaves each man alone, “frightened at himself.”

• But the somber mystery of connection that was like a voodoo offering was gone forever.
• Kate’s would rip the nerves to a sinful ecstasy and leave a man shaken and weak and frightened at himself.

Another reading

A man to something dark and older than himself. The narrator gives the tie no warmth: it was “dark and fatal,” “hopeless and deeply hurtful.” Jenny’s house offers noise and Kate’s offers nerves; the old house reached deeper, and it was worse. Something real is gone, and the narrator does not say it was good.

• An institution was gone from Salinas, dark and fatal sex, as hopeless and deeply hurtful as human sacrifice.
• Jenny’s place would still jangle with honky-tonk and rock with belching laughter.

Listen for

• Hears that both likenesses, a sacrifice and an offering, are rites, things people do together or before others.
• Ties the paragraph to the chapel door, where every kind of citizen came to look.
• Notices how the narrator ranks the three houses, and that Kate’s leaves a man alone with himself.
• Stays in the narrator’s terms and does not decide the moral question for the student.

If stuck

• What does the narrator compare the old house to in his first sentence?
• Who came to the chapel door to look at the old madam?
• What does Kate’s house leave a man feeling, as the narrator tells it?

A strong answer A strong response says who or what the old house joined, and grounds it in the paragraph’s first and last sentences. One reader says it joined the town: the narrator’s likenesses are both rites, and every kind of citizen came to her chapel door. Another says it joined a man to something dark and harmful, a tie the narrator names without praising. The best answers notice that Kate’s house, the one left standing, leaves each man alone, and they leave the worth of the old house to the student.

What it asks It asks the student to follow one line of Alf’s through the rest of Joe’s day. After two hours in which Joe “had traded nothing,” Alf is angry and “put in a needle”: if Kate offered him “a drink or even a cupcake,” he would say, “No thank you, ma’am.” Joe answers, “Me and her get along just fine,” and leaves. In his room he is “uneasy,” searches his suitcase and drawers, and thinks someone has been through his things, though “There was nothing to find.” That evening Kate softly asks him to find Ethel and offers money. In the hall Joe wants “to hug himself,” recalls his father’s warning about a “soup carrier,” and says, “I thought she was smarter than that.” Section 2 ends as he thinks of Alf’s cupcake, broken off by a dash. The question keeps Alf from being a comic aside; his line is what Joe reaches for when he weighs Kate’s offer. It feeds the hinge: Joe and Kate each read the other’s game. The answer should not decide whether Kate’s offer is real or a trap.

One reading

Deep. Joe brushes Alf off, but he goes to his room uneasy and checks his things for no reason. At the height of his joy the cupcake comes back to him unasked, and the section stops on it. The warning has lodged, even while he tells himself he has won.

• Joe went to his room to think. He was uneasy.
• And he thought of Alf saying, “If she was to offer a drink or even a cupcake—”

Another reading

Not far. Joe hears Alf’s story as one more proof of what he already believes: Kate wants something, and he thinks he has caught her at it. He is glad, not afraid. He even begins to believe he planned the whole thing. The cupcake sits beside the “soup carrier” as a joke on her, not a fear for himself.

• He wanted to hug himself.
• And he began to believe he had planned the whole thing.

Listen for

• Notices why Alf tells the story: he is angry that Joe has traded nothing.
• Notices Joe’s unease in his room, where “There was nothing to find,” and weighs where it comes from: Alf’s needle, or what he heard about Faye and Adam Trask.
• Weighs the order at the end of section 2: the soup carrier first, then the cupcake, then the dash.
• Does not say whether Kate means what she tells Joe.

If stuck

• Why is Alf angry with Joe?
• What does Joe do when he gets back to his room?
• Can a warning stay with you even when you think you have laughed it off?

A strong answer A strong response judges how much Alf’s line works on Joe and grounds it in what Joe does next. One reader says it goes deep: Joe is uneasy in his room, and the cupcake returns at his moment of joy, where the section breaks off. Another says it barely pricks him: he hugs himself, thinks Kate a soup carrier, and begins to believe he planned the whole thing. The best answers notice that the chapter leaves Joe holding both thoughts, and they do not decide what Kate intends.

What it asks It asks the student to listen to Helen as closely as Kate does. Asked “how it was,” Helen says it was “kind of awful and—kind of beautiful.” She reaches again: “No flowers, no nothing, but there was—there was a—well, a kind of—dignity.” Then she gives up: “Made you feel—I can’t say it. I don’t know how to say it.” Kate answers, “Maybe you said it,” and goes straight on to ask what the dead woman wore. The dashes show Helen hunting for words. The question feeds the hinge: what Kate hears here comes just before her questions about the clothes and the grave. It does not ask what Kate wants from Helen; that is the last written question.

One reading

She said “dignity.” It is the one word she lands on after three tries, and Kate takes it as the answer. The bareness the will ordered had a dignity that even a frightened girl could feel. “Maybe you said it” means: that word will do.

• No flowers, no nothing, but there was—there was a—well, a kind of—dignity.
• Maybe you said it. What did she wear?

Another reading

She said it by failing to say it. Helen felt two things at once, awful and beautiful, and could not name them. Kate hears that the funeral moved a girl who has no words for why. The broken sentences are the answer, not any one word in them.

• Well, it was kind of awful and—kind of beautiful.
• Made you feel—I can’t say it. I don’t know how to say it.

Listen for

• Counts Helen’s tries before “dignity,” and the dashes between them.
• Weighs “awful and—kind of beautiful”: two feelings held together.
• Notices that Kate does not stop on Helen’s answer but goes at once to the clothes.
• Leaves the question of what Kate is after for the last written question.

If stuck

• What two words does Helen use first for the funeral?
• What word does she find after the dashes?
• Have you ever felt something you could not put into words, and had someone tell you that you had?

A strong answer A strong response says what Kate heard in Helen’s answer and grounds it in Helen’s halting lines. One reader points to “dignity,” the word Helen finds after three tries and Kate seems to accept. Another points to the failure itself: “awful and—kind of beautiful” and “I can’t say it” show a feeling too big for Helen’s words. The best answers notice how fast Kate moves on, and leave what she is after for later.

What it asks It asks the student to weigh two people who each think they have read the other. Joe comes to Kate’s desk having heard from Alf “everything true and untrue, founded and unfounded,” including the idea that “Kate might be the wife of Adam Trask,” which he hides. Caught slipping, he says a man told him he had seen Ethel; it “came without his expecting it.” Kate gives “the rigid ten seconds of silence,” turns her chair, says she was wrong to have Ethel sent away, asks him to find her, and offers money and leave to go out. Joe decides she is a “soup carrier.” Then the chapter stays with Kate: “the wind and the darkness were full of Ethel—fat, sloppy Ethel oozing near like a jellyfish.” The chapter lets each believe he or she has won. The answer should not decide whether Kate’s regret is real or a trap, should not treat Alf’s stories as true, and should not say what Joe will do with the idea about Adam Trask.

One reading

Joe. He takes Kate’s soft voice for weakness and congratulates himself on it. He does not see what the reader sees after he leaves: Kate alone at her desk, with the wind and the darkness “full of Ethel.” Whatever she feels about Ethel, it is not as simple as the soup Joe thinks she is carrying. Joe even begins to believe he planned the whole thing, though the sighting slipped out of him.

• Joe said under his breath, “A soup carrier. I thought she was smarter than that.”
• She could hear the wind in the tall privet in the yard, and the wind and the darkness were full of Ethel—fat, sloppy Ethel oozing near like a jellyfish.

Another reading

Kate. Nothing shows that she knows Joe spent two hours with Alf, what he heard there, or that the sighting came out of nowhere. Now she offers him money and gives him leave to be out of the house. Joe has a new idea about who she is; nothing shows she knows he has it. Her ten seconds of silence told Joe something; nothing shows she knows it did.

• If Joe had not known her he would not have given the little pause, the rigid ten seconds of silence, its due.
• Kate might be the wife of Adam Trask.

Listen for

• States a thesis about who knows less, and builds it from both Alf’s table and Kate’s desk.
• Notices the word “dark” in Kate’s apology, and the dark room she goes to next.
• Uses section 3 as evidence without deciding what Kate means to do about Ethel.
• Meets the strongest objection and revises; does not say what Joe will do.

If stuck

• What did Joe hear from Alf that Kate may not know he heard?
• Where did the story about Ethel come from?
• What does the chapter show us of Kate after Joe leaves?

A strong answer A strong response names who is more in the dark, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis says Joe: he reads Kate as a soft “soup carrier,” while section 3 shows her alone with an Ethel who oozes near “like a jellyfish.” The strongest objection is that nothing shows Kate knows what Joe heard from Alf, or that the sighting was a slip, and she now offers him money and leave to roam. A good revision might say each is blind to the other in a different place. The best answers do not decide whether her regret is real or say what Joe will do.

What it asks It asks the student to compare two touches of one object. The first comes after Kate sits at her desk with the wind and the darkness “full of Ethel,” and “A dull weariness came over her.” She goes into the lean-to Alf built with no window, the room Joe told him was dark because her eyes bother her. There, pain creeps into her fingers and her temples pound. She “felt for the capsule hanging in its tube,” rubbed the tube against her cheek, “and her courage came back”; she makes herself up and goes to the parlor. The second comes after Helen says “Her man” and Kate changes the subject “almost too quickly.” She moves “restlessly back to her desk,” and over a plumbing bill “her left hand strayed to her neck and touched the chain. It was comfort and reassurance.” Those are the chapter’s last words. The answer should not say what is in the tube; the chapter calls it a capsule and says no more. Nothing in this chapter states a plan, so the answer should not supply one.

One reading

The same. Each time something presses on Kate, first Ethel and the pain, then Helen’s answer, and each time she turns to the chain. It is the one thing she leans on, in a chapter where the talk stops when she walks in. Courage and comfort are two names for the same help.

• A dull weariness came over her.
• It was comfort and reassurance.

Another reading

Different. The first time she “felt for” it on purpose, to gather courage for what she was about to do. The second time her hand “strayed,” without her choosing, after the talk was over. Courage is for what lies ahead; comfort is for something that has already hurt. Helen’s answers have opened something the chain must now soothe.

• And as she looked at an itemized bill for plumbing her left hand strayed to her neck and touched the chain.
• She watched the girl out of the room and moved restlessly back to her desk.

Listen for

• States a thesis on whether the two touches match, and grounds it in the verbs, “felt for” and “strayed.”
• Weighs “courage” against “comfort and reassurance.”
• Notices where each touch happens: the first behind a closed door in the windowless lean-to Alf built, the last over a plumbing bill, as the chapter ends.
• Meets the strongest objection; does not say what is in the tube or claim a plan.

If stuck

• Where does Kate go just before she touches the chain the first time, and what is happening to her there?
• What has Helen just said before the second time?
• Do you reach for the same comfort when you are afraid as when you are hurt?

A strong answer A strong response takes a position on the two touches, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis says they are the same: each time something presses on Kate, she turns to the one thing she trusts. The strongest objection is in the verbs: she “felt for” it the first time and her hand “strayed” the second, and courage before is not comfort after. A good revision might say the chain is one help that she uses in two ways. The best answers do not say what the tube holds.

What it asks It asks the chapter’s own question. Kate brushes off whether she wanted Helen to go (“I don’t care about that. You went.”) and asks her to “Tell me what you remember—how it was.” She hears “dignity,” says “Maybe you said it,” and asks at once what the dead woman wore: “They didn’t bury her naked, did they?” Helen cannot remember. Kate asks, “Did you go to the cemetery?” Helen: “Nobody did—except him.” “Who?” “Her man.” Kate says “quickly—almost too quickly,” “Have you got any regulars tonight?” and sends her out. Set the questions beside section 1: the bare funeral “as her will demanded,” the girls who came “for decency and for luck,” and the husband who “filled the grave himself.” The answer should not say what is in the tube on Kate’s chain, and should not say that Kate is planning her death; nothing in this chapter states a plan.

One reading

She is trying to learn how such a death looks to the people who see it. The old madam ran a house as Kate does, and ordered a bare end. Kate wants the picture, the coffin and the clothes, and wants to know if it had dignity in a girl’s eyes. Her questions are about the show, and Helen gives her what she can of it.

• Tell me what you remember—how it was.
• Yes—wear. They didn’t bury her naked, did they?

Another reading

She is trying to learn who stood by her at the end. The clothes question goes nowhere, but the cemetery question finds a man, and Kate cannot stay with that answer. She cuts Helen off almost too quickly. The one thing the dead woman had that the bare will could not order away is the thing Kate seems to have no one to give her.

• No, ma’am. Nobody did—except him.
• Kate said quickly—almost too quickly, “Have you got any regulars tonight?”

Listen for

• States a thesis about what Kate is after, and builds it from her questions in order: how it was, what she wore, who went.
• Sets the questions beside section 1: the bare will, the girls, the husband and his shovel.
• Weighs “almost too quickly”: the narrator lets us see what Kate does not say.
• Meets the strongest objection; does not say what is in the tube or that Kate is planning her death.

If stuck

• What three things does Kate ask Helen?
• Which answer does Kate stop on, and how fast does she change the subject?
• Who went to the old madam’s grave, and what did he do there?

A strong answer A strong response states what Kate is trying to learn, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis says she wants the picture of a madam’s death, the coffin, the clothes and the dignity Helen felt. The strongest objection is that the clothes question goes nowhere and the cemetery question finds “Her man,” and Kate changes the subject “almost too quickly.” A good revision might say she asks about the funeral and learns about the mourner, which is more than she asked. The best answers keep section 1 in view and claim no plan for Kate.