1. Warming up with three good things
2. Experimenting with two sample close readings:
- As a class: What's up with the flowers? (page 75 and 85, end of Chapter 22)
- On your own: What and how does Cathy eat? (page 170)
- Identify significant diction, imagery, figurative language, symbols, etc.
- Brainstorm the connotations of the ones that strike you the most.
- Use the connotations to make a statement about what Steinbeck might be up to.
4. Wrapping up with kudos, questions, and epiphanies
HW:
1. For WEDNESDAY: Continue reading like a phenom; IF YOU AVERAGE 25 PAGES A NIGHT, YOU'LL BE IN GOOD SHAPE. Aim to be through or on Chapter 26 for Wednesday.
2. For THURSDAY: Early deadline for College Essay turn-in. Use the Night-Before checklist.
If you need the extended deadline, you may have all the way until next Monday to complete your essay.
3. For FRIDAY: Read through Chapter 30 for a big, formal Socratic.
Hi, cathy is a crazy lady
ReplyDeleteYep. It takes a special kind of person to defile a whorehouse, no?
DeleteSo how do we feel about Adam at this point?
ReplyDeleteI think that Adam is going through like another rebirth of sorts. He manages to survive being shot, and now he's going to have to rebuild his life again. Even though he's weak right now and his behavior while married to Cathy was questionable, I think that he's a good person and will eventually recover his life.
DeleteMy question about this though is: Why is Adam so determined to protect Cathy? She betrays him and yet he remains loyal to her.
Why does Adam still try to defend Cathy after she shoots him and leaves?
ReplyDeleteI think that Adam's love for Cathy is truely blinding. He can't bring himself to harm her even though she tried to kill him. Maybe goes back to Abel having no evil in him.
DeleteHe may be in shock and denial of what happened. He is attempting to find reasoning and meaning behind Cathy's attack by defending her. He had his own perfect image of Cathy and doesn't want to believe that she shot him without reasoning.
DeleteThis is where I find Adam frustratingly Oedipus-like in both his blindness and stubbornness. If one thing is becoming clear, is it that the Garden of Eden is impossible to recreate, and perhaps an undesirable mission. Every character in the book sees this except for him.
DeleteI was confused by this too. I think it really shows how Cathy has him under a spell and how her tactics of manipulation are so strong that they can never be broken. Similar to the weed analogy, you can't get rid of Cathy even if you want to.
DeleteI think that Adam is blinded by his love for Cathy and could never see past her faults. No matter what she does to him, Adam sees the idea of Cathy rather than her true self.
DeleteI think it is less abut his actual love for Cathy as a human being, Cathy puts people under spells like a trance they can not get out of and it seems like Adam is in a trance. He knows nothing about her truly, but is still infatuated by her. Adam defends her because she is under his trance and he can not see past anything but her blinding beauty and manipulation
Delete
Delete@Ian I think that like the Emma said about the weeds, her presence doesn't die off in someone quickly. I think her evil has wrapped on to Adam so tightly that we will be able to see her damage for a while.
I think Steinbeck is really trying to bring out how Adam's upbringing caused him to be dangerously insecure as an adult. He conceals it well, mostly, and seems to be functional. But in chapter 18, when he covers for Cathy even though she literally shot him, he shows how he is still obsessed with her even when she abandoned him. I don't believe it's truly love - he doesn't know her enough to love her. He's just obsessed with the idea of her, as he's had this image in his head of a woman who will love him and save him from his terrible childhood, and she fulfills that for him. This presents a really interesting contrast to his childhood, when his father isn't kind but he still depends on him. He does not love Cyrus but trusts him still, much like how he doesn't really love Cathy but trusts her loyalty so much that he can't believe she'd actually leave him. It's clear that we're supposed to see how the cracks formed in Adam's psyche as a kid expand into self-destruction as an adult.
DeleteI think that part of it is because he wants to feel like he, like all normal humans (excluding cathy), desires love and happiness. I think that Adam firmly believes that with love and a "garden of Eden" comes true happiness and he clings to Cathy because that idea is so valuable to him.
DeleteFaye tells Cathy (Kate) at one point that she, too, has changed her name. This might be a stretch, but I can't help but notice how close her name is to the word "Faith," and I wonder why Steinbeck perhaps gave her this name.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! That's really interesting...I didn't really connect that, but I definitely see significance in that detail. I think that the possibility that her Faye's name could have been Faith is very telling about a characteristic that she holds, and having that faith/trust could be quite destructive in Cathy/Kate's hands...
DeleteI just googled the meaning of Faye, and it means loyalty, belief, and trust. I think that connects pretty strongly to faith. Maybe Steinbeck naming her almost-faith but not so obviously is a sign that she's trusting, but maybe a bit more subtly.
DeleteThis connection is interesting. I feel her name being close to the name Faith may amplify the contrast between her owning a whorehouse and being a godly women. Maybe despite her career/outward look she is a good women on the inside. This is contrasted by Cathy. She is beautiful on the outside, but ugly on the inside. I feel Steinbeck did this to show a greater contrast in the book.
DeleteDuring the birth of the twins I found it interesting how Cathy wanted the room to stay dark but Adam needed it to be light. The birth reveals a lot about Cathy and her relation to a monster with the biting, the dark, and the ease of the birth.
ReplyDeletedude what was the biting about?? that was crazy
DeleteIn regards to that, after Cathy has given birth, she makes Adam nail the curtains back to the wall to stop any light and also after she shoots him, he lays in darkness. I relate this back to the dandelion point about how Cathy leaves behind darkness where there was once light.
DeleteI feel Steinbeck wrote the biting scene so descriptive to make cathy's evil actions not all mental games, but rather physical. The physical element brings a new type of fear to the reader. It's one thing to be mentally evil, but its another to be physically.
DeleteI could be wrong, but at the beginning of Chapter 19 Steinbeck seems to be comparing whorehouses to church denominations. Did you guys see that and what do you think about it?
ReplyDeleteI also saw that and thought it was strange how in a book with so many biblical references, he talks about churches negatively.
DeleteYes definately, he actually says that they are "a different faucet of this same thing" on page 215. He then goes on to state, "to take out the bleakness of time" and I think when it boils down to it, religion is really about giving life meaning and purpose and for some the brothels serve the same function.
DeleteYou are definitely not wrong. This was one of the most surprising parts of the book for me. I think what he's doing is perhaps muddying the distinction between church and whorehouse in the same way that he muddies the dichotomy between Charles and Adam.
DeleteI thought of it as the people who visit the houses have their preferences and don't really want to change. Going to their house is a comforting thing for them to do. It's like how people take solace in religion, these people take comfort in their whorehouses.
DeleteWhy didn't Adam leave Cathy but instead Cathy left Adam. Cathy quite literally shot him.
ReplyDeleteAdam was so blind, like Oedipus, that he couldn't see her evilness even though it was right infront of him. Im still amazed by how Cahty is able to blind someone so much,and Steinebck indicates it is a traight you can't put your finger on ( how Lee was telling Sam there was soemthing just not right but he couldn't put his finger on it)
DeleteAdam saw Cathy as the light in his life, even though that wasn't who she was, because that's what he needed her to be. He would never have seen her true nature, because he sees what he needed to see. Maybe that's a point Steinbeck tries to make...
DeleteI think that since Adam was already blinded by his image of Cathy being everything good, Cathy took advantage of this and waited until the moment he was most vulnerable to shoot him. Also, he would have never expected her to commit such as act so it left him in shock and a feeling as though he has nothing left to live for since she left.
DeleteI feel cathy leaving was more painful for Adam then his actual death. Cathy's aim is to make people feel pain and by not killing Adam she made him suffer a greater evil. I feel her leaving is also has a close relation to Adam leaving Charles. Maybe Cathy leaving will make Adam rethink leaving his brother. Or maybe it will help Charles and Adams relationship because he can now understand how Charles feels.
DeleteWhat was holding Lee and Sam back from calling out Cathy? What withheld them from listining to their instincts?
ReplyDeleteI think that it was partly because they didn't understand what was missing from her. I also think that they were both afraid of her at some point.
DeleteOne line that defined Samuels suspicious of Cathy was when he said he was going to build a fence to keep the goose off his grave. (ignore his suspicions) Maybe he had never encountered someone this evil before and his flaw is believing there is good in everyone when there is none in Cathy.
DeleteI think they were holding back because of fear. Their instincts told them that something was wrong with Cathy and I think they also understood that she has a potential for incredible violence.
DeleteAlso, Cathy's character is really confusing because of the way she can switch the evil on and off. A lot is revealed through the articulation of her eyes, and I think the fact that her stone cold demeanor isn't always present makes the situation confusing to start attacking...no easy point of entry.
DeleteAt the very beginning of chapter 17, the Narrator said that he "wondered if it was true" that Cathy was a monster after looking closer at her life. Why do you think he said this, and what do you think she is if not a monster?
ReplyDeleteIt goes along well with the question "If you don't know what you're doing is wrong, is it really wrong?" I guess he's trying to see things from her perspective. From her eyes the things she does are not evil or monstrous but rather ingenuitive. Whenever she commits a crime it is only to gain something she wants such as escape or money.
DeleteMaybe the narrator knows something the audience does not know. It's difficult to understand why a person would commit the crimes Cathy committed without a reason. The narrator may be trying to credit and understand Cathy's perspective.
DeleteI interpreted it more as the author giving the reader another chance to sympathize with Cathy and to humanize her. Then she shoots Adam and leaves, solidifying her as a monster.
Deletesomtimes I think about how cathys sins go hand and hand wih the 10 Comandments, here is a list of them below, thoughts?
ReplyDeleteYou shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make idols.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet.
Haha yes, it seems as if she has a checklist in her pocket and making it her will to tick off each of them. Exemplifies the idea of her being Satan, the complete opposite of God and all that is right.
DeleteThat's interesting, I had not thought of it before, but Steinbeck has had her sin against almost all of these Commandments...she does not honor her parents, she commits adultery, she murders, and more. It's like Steinbeck is trying to paint a clear picture of her as Satan by showing evil in all areas of her life.
DeleteI know! like the picture of satan is so clear, i wonder what she will do next... any thoughts
DeleteI agree emma, they do go hand in hand. Along with that I also see many of her sins as the seven deadly sins. A few of the seven deadly things I see with Cathy are Lust, less of her own lust but the way she makes men lust for her, Greed, I am not sure what she wants but she wants something so badly she is willing to kill for it, and Wrath, she is so evil and full of anger. I have seen many of the seven deadly sins also in Charles. Going off of the commandments, I think the author does this to show she is the exact opposite of everything holy and that she is directly sinning against what the bible says.
DeleteKind of going off that, ever sin we've starting reading this book, I've been thinking that maybe Steinbeck is using Cathy to represent 'sin', and how it affects different people and how humans interact with it. For instance, I thought that maybe Cathy's parents could represent Adam and Eve from the Bible. Cathy's mom was described as believing everything her daughter said to be true, almost elevating her in a way, whereas Cathy's dad always seemed skeptical of Cathy and what she said, yet he never really disagreed with her. In Adam's case, he fell in love with idea of Cathy, of spending the rest of his life with her and their children in a perfect life, not knowing that she is not a good person, to say the least. There's also people like Charles who are very much against Cathy and don't like her at all, yet they occasionally have a fling with her. I don't know if Steinbeck has meant it this way, but it's just something I've noticed.
DeleteDo you guys think that Cathy was trying to kill Adam when she shot him? Or was she just trying to hold him off so that she could leave?
ReplyDeleteI don't think she cared what happened to him; she only needed him out of the way if she could leave. This may sound strange, but I think that's more cruel than actually trying to kill him. When he looks up at her after being shot, Steinbeck describes Cathy's eyes as "inspect[ing] him impersonally" (200). Her indifference is more shocking to him than hate.
DeleteI have kind of a resentful pity for Adam. Understandably, he is pretty distraught, and it's very telling that Cathy put her spell over him, but I blame him for checking out to the extent that he does.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way, Emma. He puts himself in the situation he is in because of his choice to deny the truth and disregard Cathy's evilness. She even tells him she will be leaving after the babies are born, but decides to not believe her instead. Then, the babies lives are ruined in the process, too.
DeleteI agree, it is like Steinbeck makes him so loveable when explaining his childhood but then I found my attitude shifted about him when he was being so oblivious. I think this has to do with the dramatic irony that Steinbeck has in place, that makes you question why Adam is acting the way he is. I wonder if Steinbeck wants to shift how the reader views Adam as the story goes on?
DeleteWhy didn't the sheriff arrest Cathy for the crimes she committed?
ReplyDeletei feel as if he didnt want it to affect adam and the twins, like god banished adam and eve from the garden of eden,the officer banished cathy away from adam
DeleteThere are many different ways to answer this (I like Emma's response above). I think that the sheriff is concerned for the twins; by banishing Cathy, he's keeping her a secret from them so that they never have to find out what their mother is. However, he's also beheading the weed here without killing it, which, as we just discussed, makes it grow back stronger.
DeleteIn chapter 18 Steinbeck says 'The best sheriff was not the best fighter but the best diplomat'. I think the sheriff knew that bringing Cathy in was only going to cause pain for him but also for the people involved.
DeleteI feel the Sheriff didn't necessary care for Cathy. Yes he cared for the children, but I think he just wanted her out of town in order to not deal with her. I wonder if he will come back. On thing that I question is "She was beginning to trust this man and to like him." Cathy doesn't trust anyone because of her fear of not being guarded and break her "carefully built barriers and defense and deceptions." I wonder what the sheriffs significance will be later on since Cathy seemed to care.
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ReplyDeleteI noticed some similarities between Lee and Charles. For example, they are both feared by Cathy because they understand her manipulative abilities. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI think that they are two different sides of Cathy. Lee understand the fake identity and pretending to be something that you aren't. This makes it super easy for him to see through Cathy's fake persona. Whereas Charles sees the evil inside of Cathy as a reflection of the evil within him. They are both parts of Cathy that play off of each other, but I don't think that they are that similar.
DeleteI agree with this. Another similarity that I noticed between Lee and Charles is that they are both held back from their potential because of their past. Lee feels stuck because of his race and Charles feels stuck in Connecticut because of his father.
DeleteIn chapter 20 the reader gets this moment of Cathy alone as a character. This type of writing does't happen much, rather she is being spoken to or is with another character. "She brushed and braided her hair and let it hang behind in one thick pigtail tied wit h a little white bow. she patted her cheeks with Florida water..." I wonder what could be the significance of this one on one moment?
ReplyDeleteIt almost seems like the author is trying to make us feel more empathetic towards Cathy by making us see everything from her point of view- the language is almost forcing the reader to imagine everything is happening to them personally.
DeleteYes and I also wonder the significance of the Florida water. She uses it twice, once in this passage and another after she uses the ammonia on Faye, right before she wakes up.
DeleteI think that Kate was trying to appeal to Faye's desire to have a daughter/a child, and by presenting herself in this youthful light, Faye becomes even more susceptible to Kate's game.
DeleteI agree with Kaily, for the entire book Steinbeck has been developing Cathy's evil but I think these personal moments emphasize the complexity of Cathy's character outside of just being a monster. Steinbeck does this with characters on the other side of the spectrum as well- most notably Adam- and in doing so asks the reader to be hesitant in their assumptions about the inherent goodness/badness in others. Good and bad both exist in the the world and people, but maybe in a more complicated way than we would hope.
DeleteWhy do you think Steinbeck has sometimes seemed sympathetic to Cathy, such as at the beginning of chapter 17? Why do you think he initially introduced Cathy by comparing her to a monster, only to second guess himself later on?
ReplyDeleteThis is told from the perspective of a grandchild of Samuel's so perhaps he initially thought Cathy was a monster because that's what his grandparents and parents believed. He might have second guessed himself because he realised that her image was distorted by opinion.
DeleteI think he did this to further blur the lines between good and evil. When he second guessed himself at the beginning of 17, he was showing readers that Cathy, to some degree, does not have control over all of her behavior. She is definitely portrayed as being evil, but she isn't completely evil, just as Adam is not completely good.
DeleteI think this is a great example of the unreliable narrator. Because its a child of Olive's, the narrator isn't sure of his positions on the characters. This adds an interesting element to the novel because it seems that Steinbeck is wrestling with how he feels about Cathy. This indicates that Steinbeck may have known someone in his life who caused him trouble just as Cathy causes trouble to the Trasks and the Hamiltons.
DeleteI think that having readers see multiple aspects of her personality allows us to experience the confusion she inflicts on the people she interacts with. We understand why Adam, Faye, and her parents trust her. Stiensbeck shows us both the Cathy she portrays and the Cathy she is.
DeleteYes--I find it fascinating that he follows that opening paragraph of Ch 17 with the passage, "I've built the image in my mind of Cathy, sitting quietly waiting for her pregnancy to be over, living on a farm she did not like, with a man she did not love" (182). There's a sense of empathy in that part that I have not previously seen (nor felt) for Cathy. I'm not going to go as far as saying that I actually feel sad for her, but I'm wondering if Steinbeck may be making a point here about how our minds--the free, exploring minds that make humans unique--are constantly searching for empathy and connection.
DeleteTo what extent does Cathy (Kate) utilize the vulnerable nature of the people around her to benefit herself in the future? How will the pattern of Cathy taking advantage of other people's desires (like Adam's desire for a wife or Faye's desire for a daughter) develop as the story progresses?
ReplyDeleteCathy definitely understands the art of manipulation and deceit. She is able to pull at the emotions of others like the strings of a puppet, and she lacks the ability to feel guilt or regret. I assume that in the future, she will continue to wield other's emotions and she will continue to escape the grasps of the police and the consequences to her actions.
DeleteCathy uses every ounce of the vulnerable nature of the people around her to benefit herself. You see it countless times, one recent one being with Faye and how she can tell Faye is motherly in nature and will take someone in. She uses this to get money in the long run. As the story progresses I am not sure if she can get much more evil, she has little emotion in her and she will cross any line. Honestly, I think whatever Cathy's end goal is, she will never reach it and be content. The pattern will continue, no doubt, but I am not sure if she will ever get what she is looking for.
DeleteCathy uses all of other people's vulnerable nature in order to benefit her own future. She knows exactly what other people want and leads them to beieve that she can provide them with that one desire. Ultimately, she brings them so much on her side that they are too closely attached emotionally and cannot escape.
DeleteShe definitely knows how to take advantage of the emotions in other people that she doesn't appear to have. I wonder if she will ever see her children in the future, and what kind of interactions she will have with them.
DeleteWhen Cathy bites Sam, I believe it is further evidence that she is supposed to parallel the serpent in Adam and Eve. Sam says, "Humans are more poisonous than snakes" (pg 191). Also coming back to what was said about weeds in the beginning of class, Cathy is like the dandelions, beautiful yet secretly horrible. The weeds reminded me of the snake from the painting, as it was also deceitful.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. I wonder why Samuel helped Cathy in the first place.
DeleteI feel like the fact that Samuel keeps helping Adam and Cathy despite everything is a testament to his good character. He isn't willing to aid in evil, and he isn't a complete push over, but he truly wants to be helpful and do what is right.
DeleteThats really a cool thought and I like the quote, relates really well. From a socraric awhile ago we mentioned she even looked like a snake with her tucked back ears and stuff
DeleteYes! And her murder weapon at Faye's house is poison.
DeleteWhen Samuel decides that Cathy must be evil, he decides to call Liza. What makes Liza so good at spotting the evil in people? Is she truly able to see evil or does she just see people that don't follow her religion as she thinks it should be followed?
ReplyDeleteI think Samuel sees Liza as closer to God than most everyone on Earth, and that her input on anything religious is almost fact.
DeleteLiza is portrayed as a beacon of reason and religion throughout the story, albeit stern. When Samuel gets bad vibes (sorry, no other way to put it) from Cathy, he turns to the only person who is unmoving in her convictions, because he needs a rock to steady his uneasiness.
DeleteI think Liza sees the world through almost an entirely black and white lense whereas the other characters, especially Samuel, can't approach a situation without subjectification...
DeleteI think that she was called not because she is better at detecting evil than Sam, but that she is more CERTAIN in herself and what she belives in. If she would've seen Cahty as evil, she would've probably wanted to take more action than Sam, who knows something is not right in Cathy but is stuck in uncertainty.
DeleteDoes anything change about Cathy's personality when she goes from Cathy to Kate and dyes her hair darker?
ReplyDeleteCathy's always been shown to look innocent and young on the outside, and dark and monstrous on the inside. That deceit used to serve her well, but after the Adam experience she realizes it won't help her anymore. I think this is Steinbeck officially telling us that Kate has shed her innocence.
DeleteCathy is an incredible actress. I think it is less about the name change than the fact that she is willing to change who she is to fit the situation. If she feels like she can benefit in some way from a person, she will give them what they need. This includes shifting her personality. I think she could not change her name, but be a different person if that is what the situation calls for.
DeleteIt mentions in that description that Faye liked her blond hair better because Kate has a fair complexion, and I think that the reason she darkened her hair (aside from the obvious reason of becoming less recognizable), she is creating a very clear juxtaposition between light and dark...it is beginning to get easier to identify the good from the bad...like the line has been drawn? Going back to Faye's part in this, I think that she liked the light hair better because it didn't show any of Kate's darkness, and now that it is more visual (symbolically), Faye is weary of her "daughter's" real character.
DeleteWhen I saw the name Kate in last nights reading, I compared it a bit to The Taming of the Shrew because in The Taming of the Shrew, the characters name starts off as Katherine and then gets shortened to Kate and she is very hard to control and does what she wants.
DeleteI don't think anything truly changes about her, as evidenced by her actions at the end of chapter 21. I find this strange because she goes through the actions of living and being a good person, kind of like Samuel would maybe suggest. After Adam is shot and Cathy leaves, Sam tells him to go through the motions and live life and it will begin to feel real and better. But Cathy has been going through the motions her whole life, been pretending to be good, and she still seems to be the most static character so far.
DeleteI think this whole time she has been specifically feeding off of the loneliness in people. When she takes atvantage of Faye, her ability to feed off of loneliness is even greater because she makes Faye belive she was her daughter, versus in the other situations she had more of a marital relationship with the people. This emphasizes what Drake said, weeds are able to come back stronger.
DeleteI don't think so. On the exterior we see her in her kindest, most loving form, but on the inside we see how the wine breaks down those barriers she put up, revealing she is still the same.
DeleteDid anyone else notice the strong recurrence of hands / arms around Cathy's final days with Adam? She bites Samuel's hand, and shoot's Adam's shoulder. Could that be an allusion to the phrase "helping hand," meaning that Cathy can't stand anyone trying to mess with her independence, as she operates fully for herself?
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I noticed with this is that Adam was shot in his left shoulder near his heart. Symbolizing that not only had he been physically wounded, but emotionally as well. Horace describes Adam as death still breathing, showing hoe completely damaged he had been by Cathy's betrayal.
DeleteThat is an interesting observation! I think that is definitely possible, however I think that it is more coincidence. Cathy mangling Samuel's hand seems to me like it is just to show how hateful and evil Cathy is and I think that Adam getting shot in the shoulder is just a coincidence. Being shot in the shoulder is serious, however it is not fatal. I think the reason that Adam was shot in the shoulder is much more because Steinbeck was not ready for Adam to die yet and being wounded in the shoulder generally isn't as serious as being shot in the head or heart... Maybe Cathy didn't mean to kill him? Only make sure he never came after her again? Does it mean anything that Cathy might not have wanted to kill Adam?
DeleteIf Cathy represents Eve, then does her painful childbirth represent the painful childbirth that God used as a punishment for Eve's sinning (eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil)?
ReplyDeleteI think that this is definitely possible however I feel as though Cathy is more like the serpent than she is like Eve. Cathy takes advantage of people and benefits from their misfortune, similar to the serpent.
DeleteThat's an interresting idea. I think that if we are seeing Cathy as Eve then this is definatly a suggestion towards that. We could also see her as the serpant, which might make sense if you think about how she tried to kill her own baby,representing how the serpent condemned mankind to death when he tricked Eve.
DeleteI definitely think this could be a connection to the bible. However, I am unsure of Cathy's connection to the characters in the bible. She could resemble multiple different characters at different times in the story. Does Cathy drive Adam to sin, as Eve drove Adam? Is she more represented by Eve or the serpent?
DeleteI like to relate Cathy poisoning Faye to how Cathy has poisoned the story. Little by little Cathy has infected the storyline until the plot revolves around her sort of how she poisoned Faye little by little until the house was hers.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 19 (on page 127 in the school copy), the Narrator repeatedly asks people to 'remember'. Why do you think this section was written this way? Do you think t is directed towards the reader?
ReplyDeleteI think he's inviting a nostalgia for early 20th century rural life, perhaps because this was a time of childhood for him (if we're thinking this is Steinbeck speaking directly to us here). But I also he's careful to distinguish between Cathy and other prostitutes. Steinbeck somewhat glorifies the whorehouse as a necessary institution (I think he does this in several of his novels, actually), and he's making sure we understand that Cathy is poisoning the whorehouse, and not the other way around. She's preying upon institutions that keep society in check.
DeleteNote: I'm arguing what STEINBECK's intent may be here. I am in no way condoning prostitution.
Reverend Billing is described as a thief, adulturer, a libertine, and a zoophilist, many of which parrell Cathy's crimes but then Sienbeck states that "no one ever arrested the good things he had released. And it doesn't matter that his motive was impure" what is the significance of him as a character? Do Cathy's motives matter?
ReplyDeleteThough Steinbeck frequently uses religious undertones, he seems to have a slight bias against organized religion. Reverend Billing is a prime example of that. He has strong contempt for the fact that Billing can use piety to escape punishment. I think he brings him in to show that religion has been used as a justification or excuse for crimes since its beginning. The parallels that Billings has to Cathy reminds readers that there is evil everywhere, it is not all consolidated inside one person.
DeleteWhy twins?
ReplyDeleteCould the Cain and Abel cycle repeat? They have one "good" parent and one "evil" one. Maybe shows how good and evil survive in humanity and in each individual
DeleteI don't have my book with me (it is at my desk and I have to charge my computer) but I believe that Cain and Able were even mentioned in chapter 21? I think that Steinbeck chooses to have twins so that he can begin to draw new parallels between Cain and Able's story and his book.
DeleteI think Cathy had twins to continue the Cain and Abel narrative. The two boys mimic Charles and Adam. I thought this was to show that eventually evil would have to prevail over good, and the rest of history would be impacted by it like in the original story of Cain and Abel.
DeleteI believe Cathy had twins because the symbolism of the two fathers and it is stated that one looks exactly like charles and the other doesn't and also to show how Charles and Adams sons may fight between the good and evil, as one will have Adam and Cathy's tendencies (good v evil) and one may have Charles and Cathy's tendencies (all evil)
DeleteI definitely think that it is a cycle. The rest of the story also seems to cycle. Cathy is back at a whorehouse after destroying the place she was before. Adam is back to being alone. Samuel is back to going through an invention even though they never make him money. I think that the whole story has a cyclical effect. It's like they're stuck in the same pattern and don't realize they keep making the same decisions and the same mistakes.
DeleteI was thinking that the twins might signify the two paths that Adam and Eve- and in a way, all mankind- have the ability to take. This might be foreshadowing on Evil twin and one Good twin?
DeleteI have a theory and it might not be right, but I predict that the twins are supposed to represent Cain and Abel (or Charles and Adam). I thought so because the babies were born separated from each other in their birth. "Two fine sons. They aren't alike. Each one born separate in his own sack." (pg 192)
DeleteIn a way, twins also adds to the mystery of whether the children are Adam's or Charles'. If there had been only one child that appeared to have the evil of Charles or the goodness of Adam, it would have been made clear to the readers. Because they are twins, there is still that ambiguity that leaves the reader wondering.
DeleteI thought it was interesting how Samuel said "Two fine sons. They aren't alike. Each one born separate in his own sack" (Steinbeck). I was thinking that this could be Steinbeck's way of hinting that these two sons are going to be completely different from each other, maybe one being good, and the other being evil?
DeleteI thought it was interesting how, after Cathy leaves and Adam is left alone with the twins, a leaf from the oak tree falls into the crib. What do you think is the significance or symbolism of trees so far? In this specific scene?
ReplyDeleteCould it be some kind of family tree idea? We are all descendants of Cain kind of idea? I also thought this was super interesting when I read it... It made me think of the cover of the book!
DeleteIt could have something to do with the tree in the Garden of Eden, maye symbolizing life?
DeleteMaybe the leaf symbolizes that although the twins lost their mother, they haven't lot everything- even though Adam and Eve lost their innocence, the tree gave them knowledge as well.
DeleteI've been noticing a frequent occurrence of stones throughout the entire book thus far. What do you guys think that this represents? Could it be a biblical reference?
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that comes to mind for me is when criminals would be stoned in Biblical times. Charles and Cathy were both hurt and scarred by a stone, marking them as criminals and sinners with no repentance for their actions.
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