East of Eden, Chapter 16 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. What is Samuel Hamilton doing at the beginning of Chapter 16?

   • Departing with Tom and Joe in a wagon of boring equipment
   • Working on an invention at his ranch
   • Correct answer: Riding home alone after dinner at the Trask ranch
   • Having a conversation with Lee about philosophy

   Chapter 16 opens with Samuel riding home on a moonlit night after dining at the Trask ranch, as a deep sadness overtakes him.

   Read the passage
2. 2

   Question 2. What German concept does Steinbeck introduce to describe Samuel's mood?

   • Correct answer: Weltschmerz
   • Wanderlust
   • Zeitgeist
   • Schadenfreude

   The narrator names the ache on top of Samuel's stomach "a Weltschmerz—which we used to call 'Welshrats.'"

   Read the passage
3. 3

   Question 3. What does Samuel initially consider as the source of his unease?

   • Fear that Adam will fail at ranching
   • Correct answer: Envy of Adam's fine ranch and its water
   • Worry about his own family's finances
   • Lingering guilt over a bitter argument with Liza

   Samuel first goes over Adam's fine ranch and its signs of water, asking whether a submerged envy lies behind his unease, but he looks in himself for envy and finds none.

   Read the passage
4. 4

   Question 4. What does Samuel ultimately identify as the true cause of his disturbance?

   • A premonition about his own declining health
   • Adam's extravagant plan to make a garden like Eden
   • The loneliness of the Salinas Valley at night
   • Correct answer: Something deeply wrong about Cathy Trask's eyes

   Samuel realizes that Cathy's eyes — empty of human feeling or communication — are what disturbed him profoundly at dinner.

   Read the passage
5. 5

   Question 5. In the childhood memory Samuel recalls, what happened to the golden-haired man with inhuman eyes?

   • He escaped the crowd and was never caught
   • Correct answer: He was executed in front of the crowd
   • He was exiled from the town permanently
   • He was imprisoned for life in a remote jail

   Samuel's father tells him they were hanging a bad man who had done dreadful things many times; his father held the boy's head down, so Samuel did not see the hanging itself.

   Read the passage
6. 6

   Question 6. As Samuel studies Cathy's face in memory, what does he find wrong with her eyes?

   • They betrayed a frightened girl's anxiety
   • They seemed weary from her advancing pregnancy
   • They burned with open cruelty toward everyone
   • Correct answer: They had no message or communication of any kind

   Samuel decides that Cathy's eyes had no message and no communication of any kind, nothing recognizable behind them, though he then warns himself not to go searching her for evil.

   Read the passage
7. 7

   Question 7. What does Samuel resolve to do after his realization about Cathy?

   • Warn Adam directly about his wife's nature
   • Avoid the Trask ranch entirely going forward
   • Correct answer: Help Adam with the ranch as a form of atonement
   • Discuss his concerns with Liza first

   Rather than confronting Adam, Samuel decides to help him on his land, partly as atonement for the dark thoughts he harbors about Adam's wife.

   Read the passage
8. 8

   Question 8. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 16?

   • Samuel rides home alone at night after dinner at the Trask ranch.

     Happened

     The chapter opens with Samuel riding Doxology home through a moonlit night, and he traces his unease to the dinner with the Trasks.

   • Samuel confronts Adam about his concerns regarding Cathy.

     Didn't happen

     Samuel never speaks to Adam about Cathy; he keeps his thoughts to himself and resolves to help with Adam's Eden as a secret guilt-payment.

   • Samuel recalls being swept by a crowd to a public hanging in Londonderry as a small boy.

     Happened

     At a fair in Londonderry the crowd carried Samuel and his father to a square with a gallows, and his father held the boy's head down so he saw none of the hanging.

   • Cathy speaks to Samuel privately and reveals her true intentions.

     Didn't happen

     Cathy appears only in Samuel's memory and in his report to Liza: she was quiet, hardly spoke, and sat with her small hands clasped in her lap.

   • Steinbeck introduces the concept of Weltschmerz to describe Samuel's mood.

     Happened

     As Samuel rides home, the narrator gives the ache on top of his stomach a name: "It was a Weltschmerz."

   Read the passage
9. 9

   Question 9. Which statements about Samuel's realization in Chapter 16 are accurate?

   • Samuel connects Cathy's eyes to the eyes of a condemned man he saw on the gallows as a boy.

     Happened

     Cathy's eyes remind Samuel of the golden-haired man on the hanging platform in Londonderry, whose eyes were not like the eyes of a man.

   • Samuel initially suspects his unease is caused by jealousy of Adam.

     Happened

     Samuel first asks whether a submerged envy of Adam's fine ranch lies behind his unease, but he looks for envy in himself and finds none.

   • Samuel immediately tells Adam that Cathy is dangerous.

     Didn't happen

     Samuel says nothing to Adam about Cathy; when Liza asks the next morning, he calls Mrs. Trask very young, very pretty and quiet.

   • Samuel describes Cathy's eyes as having no message or human communication.

     Happened

     As he rebuilds her face in his mind, Samuel finds that Cathy's eyes had no message, no communication of any kind.

   Read the passage
10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'Weltschmerz' mean as used in: 'an apprehension that was like a sick thought. It was a Weltschmerz'?

    • Correct answer: A deep, world-weary sadness about the state of the world
    • An overwhelming feeling of joy and gratitude
    • A restless longing to travel and explore distant countries
    • A physical exhaustion from hard labor

    Weltschmerz is a German term for a pervasive, world-weary sadness — a melancholy about the imperfection of the world that has no single identifiable cause.

    Read the passage
11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'imminence' mean as used in: 'he had felt an imminence akin to the one that came to him'?

    • A comforting certainty that danger has passed
    • The quality of being famous or highly respected
    • The condition of being immune from danger
    • Correct answer: The sense that something is about to happen

    Imminence is the sense that something is about to happen; at dinner Samuel felt an imminence like the one that comes to him when he holds the water wand.

    Read the passage
12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'flouting' mean as used in: 'They indicated either an ignorance or a flouting of the niceties'?

    • Correct answer: An open, scornful disregard of a rule or custom
    • A careful, strict observance of good manners
    • An honest confusion about what is expected
    • A showy display meant to attract attention

    To flout a custom is to disregard it openly and with scorn; to Liza, rolled-up sleeves at the table showed either ignorance of good manners or open contempt for them.

    Read the passage