East of Eden

Chapter 50

John Steinbeck · Mountaineers 10th–12th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

Kate shook her head sadly, remembering the cut-off little girl. She wondered why she had forgotten that wonderful trick. It had saved her from so many disasters. The light filtering down at one through a clover-leaf was glorious. Cathy and Alice walked among towering grass, arms around each other—best friends. And Cathy never had to drink all of “Drink me” because she had Alice.

Whatever she had done, she had been driven to do. She was different—she had something more than other people. She raised her head and made no move to wipe her streaming eyes. That was true. She was smarter and stronger than other people. She had something they lacked.

Read both passages aloud. The first calls the trick “wonderful,” and the second says, “That was true.” Is Kate saying these things, or the narrator?

For the educator Both passages come from section 1, at the moment Kate’s memory of the small girl gives way to the present. The first is the whole paragraph that begins “Kate shook her head sadly”. The second follows it directly: the paragraph that begins “Kate put her head down on the blotter”, from its third sentence to its end. The first passage is six sentences. The first ends on a phrase set off by a comma, and its hyphened adjective, “cut-off”, makes being apart sound like a fact about the girl. The second and third are plain statements in the past perfect, “had forgotten” and “had saved”, and the third ends on a stock phrase, “so many disasters.” The fourth saves its strongest word, “glorious”, for the end of a sentence about light through a clover-leaf. The fifth names two friends, then adds a phrase after a comma and another after a dash, “arms around each other—best friends.” The sixth opens on “And”, sets the bottle’s label in quotation marks inside the sentence, and closes on a reason: “because she had Alice.” The second passage is six sentences. The first opens on its object, “Whatever she had done”, and holds its verb to the end. The second makes a claim, then restates it after a dash. The third is a long, plain sentence of action. The fourth is three words. The fifth and sixth repeat the claim in two new forms, “smarter and stronger” and then “something they lacked.” Students can practise the comma before a closing phrase, the hyphened adjective before a noun, a quotation set inside a sentence, the dash that restates, and a short sentence after a long one. The talk prompt asks who calls the trick “wonderful” and who says “That was true”. Some will hear Kate, fond of the trick and insisting to herself through tears. Some will hear the narrator, stating facts about her. Some will hear both at once: the narrator speaks in her voice, and the reader cannot be sure whose judgment it is. Some will split the two, hearing Kate in “wonderful” and the narrator in “That was true”. Let them argue; there is no single answer.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back, from Joe watching Kate stare at the wall to the crowd in the street.

When Joe slips up about Faye, Kate responds “to the challenge with something like pleasure.” What is she enjoying? Character
Kate tells her girls, “Good night, then. It’s afternoon but I mean good night.” Who is that line meant for? Inference
Kate signs her letter “Mrs. Kate” and her will “Catherine Trask”, and beside Alice she is Cathy. Which of them dies in the gray room? Author's choice
In the gray room Kate thinks, or says, “Alice doesn’t know. I’m going right on past.” Why doesn’t she stop where Alice is waiting? Character
Joe finds the photographs in Kate’s desk and laughs aloud. He thinks, “This was the real breaks.” What does a break mean to Joe? Character

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when a game or book from childhood came back to someone years later. Why might it come back at that moment?

Vocabulary

cut-off: Kate shook her head sadly, remembering the cut-off little girl. Separated and shut off from others, like a town cut off by a flood. Kate remembers herself as a little girl apart from everyone. The word names how the girl was, and leaves open who or what did the cutting.
driven: Whatever she had done, she had been driven to do. Pushed or forced by something stronger than yourself, so that a choice hardly feels like your own. Kate tells herself she was driven to whatever she did. The word moves the weight of her acts onto whatever did the driving, and the chapter never names what that was.
self-protection: Kate had laughed too—the quickest and best self-protection. Guarding yourself from harm, especially from being hurt or seen through. The narrator calls Kate’s laugh at her sons the quickest and best self-protection. The word turns the laugh into a shield, and leaves the reader to ask what she was shielding.
outpointed: He wanted to get out of this room where he was outpointed and outfought. Beaten on points, the way a boxer loses a match without being knocked down. Kate has scored on every exchange, and Joe leaves still standing but beaten. The boxing word suits a man who sees life as a contest of breaks.
crabwise: Kate turned and walked crabwise back to her room. Sideways, the way a crab moves. With her hip and hands in pain, Kate cannot walk straight back to her room. The word shows her crooked body, and fits a woman whose goodbye to the girls also comes sideways: “It’s afternoon but I mean good night.”
dwelt: Her fingers dwelt on the page, and then she got up and left her will face upward on the desk. Stayed or lingered on something. Kate’s crippled fingers rest on her two-line will for a moment before she leaves it. The word marks a pause the chapter does not explain.

Critical thinking

Kate remembers herself as “the cut-off little girl.” Who cut that girl off?
Kate’s part of the chapter ends on the small girl’s old wish: “and she had never been.” How far does the rest of the chapter let that wish come true?
At the end Kate imagines Cal’s eyes saying, “They had something and you missed it.” What does she believe she missed?