East of Eden.

Adam, still devoted to his delusions, and Cathy, miserably attempts to lie about the gunshot wound. He tells the sheriff that he accidentally shot himself. However, given that most people aren’t as pathetically devoid of intelligence as he is, the sheriff sees right through his made up story. Given that Cathy was a prostitute, the sheriff and the deputy agree to not tell Adam about his wife/shooters prostitution profession. Apparently, there are three brothels in the area. Samuel, feeling bad, tells Adam to be strong. For the children. Cathy is found by the sheriff, but is allowed to run along as long as she doesn’t make contact with her kids.

What will Cathy do from here?

EAST Eden.

Samuel and Adam become friendly. Despite Liza’s protests that the Trasks are lazy and representative of wealth, Samuel agrees to help renovate the Trask home. While working on the home, Cathy gives birth. Twins. She is angered at this, resulting in an outburst at which Samuel responds by telling her that he dislikes her. Lee also loathes Cathy. And, in this atmosphere of loathing…Cathy shoots Adam in the shoulder.

How has contempt been brewing throughout the book?

East. Eden. Of.

Adam’s delusional life is perpetuated in California. He is comfortable. In the zeitgeist of the novel, he hires a Chinese-American, named Lee to serve as a housekeeper. And voila! You have another character with a desire for controlling other people. Lee tells Samuel that he likes having control over his master from the seemingly humble position of a servant. Lee pretends to be a foreigner, to throw off suspicion of him. The chunk ends with an awkward dinner with Adam, Cathy, and Samuel. Samuel leaves the dinner, having been largely ignored. Meanwhile, Cathy tells Adam that she didn’t want to come to California.

Why do you think characters with underlying desires for control are rampant in this book?

East. Of. E..d...e...n

Hamilton time. The reading essentially focuses on Olive Hamilton, a daughter of Samuel. She was a woman for whom life on the farm was not a very acceptable notion. She instead became a teacher, married a mill owner, and was sure to stay away from her agrarian roots. However, she did retain the rugged, strict, and loving character of an agrarian woman.
Olive sold war bonds during World War One and received an opportunity to fly in an airplane. She ended up sick and bed ridden.
With only a couple pages into the next chapter, it goes back to Adam and Cathy.

Will Olive play any significant role in the book?

East OF E...den

The Trask brothers' relationship is the archetypal sibling rivalry. Charles attacks Adam's tendency to criticize; while Adam insists that he must criticize Charles for working early in the morning. Adam, in return, goes on long international trips. And into this amalgam of argument and tension, comes Cathy. Long story short, Cathy is cared for, gets married to Adam, and sleeps with her fellow manipulator Charles.
Part TWO! It begins with a discussion on avarice, conflict, and the tendency of people to forget about past injustices and instead looking ahead. Adam and Cathy move to the Salinas Valley (finally...) where she is quick to stir something up and fails miserably in an attempted abortion. Charles drinks himself into impotence. Adam and Sam Hamilton meet and make plans for future dealings.

Will Cathy be able to make things go badly for Adam?

East Of Eden.

The saga of Cathy Ames is recounted in this 25 page chunk. Growing up sexually promiscuous, with a tendency to provoke violence. Her Latin teacher: dead. Ever the rebellious young woman, she burns down her house, killing her parents, and runs away. Obviously this aggression outdoes anything that Charles could possibly muster in his younger Becoming involved with Mr. Edwards, she too manages to manipulate him. This manipulation however, ends up with Mr. Edward beating her (seems to be a pattern of beatings...) and leaving her alone. She ends up on the verge of entering the already chaotic lives of the Trasks?

Will Cathy Ames seduce any of the Trasks?

East O' Eden 51-75

Adam is discharged from the military, and afterwards longs for his regiment. He ends up going back. His attachment to something that typically requires aggression is curious given his earlier beatings by Charles, which gave the impression that he was certainly deficient in much aggression.
The relation between Adam and Charles enters a new phase with the death of Cyrus. With the death came a large sum of money; a fortune that surprises them. It is worth noting that the impression by this point is that the hostility between Adam and Charles seems to have gone away.

Steinbeck decided to throw in another character. Cathy Ames. She is an odd character who uses her sexuality to get two boys in a barn severely beaten. Yup.


What could be expected from the introduction of Cathy into the story?