East of Eden, Chapter 17 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Why does Lee gallop out to the well rig?

   • Correct answer: To summon Samuel because Cathy's labor has begun
   • To warn Samuel that Adam is gravely ill
   • To report that Adam's new well has suddenly gone dry
   • To ask Samuel to repair a broken windmill

   Lee arrives at full tilt — 'Missy Adam say come! Missy Cathy bad' — to fetch Samuel, who had promised Adam he would stand by for the birth.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What does Samuel's drill strike thirty feet down?

   • Part of a buried railroad locomotive
   • A vein of gold-bearing quartz
   • The foundation of an old Spanish mission
   • Correct answer: What Samuel believes is a buried meteorite

   The drill hits something that mangles the steel. From the scrapings Samuel guesses nickel and silver — a fallen star, a meteorite — and jokes that the family is 'at digging up a star.'

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3. 3

   Question 3. What does Cathy do when Samuel touches her scar and asks how she got it?

   • She turns her face to the wall in silence
   • Correct answer: She bites his hand and will not let go
   • She orders him out of the room
   • She begins to weep uncontrollably

   Her teeth fasten on his hand and mangle it 'the way a terrier worries a sack'; afterward she says 'It was the pain,' and Samuel cannot tell Lee why she did it.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What does Samuel involuntarily say to Cathy after she refuses to see her newborn twins?

   • 'You'll be a fine mother yet'
   • 'Adam will never forgive you'
   • Correct answer: 'I don't like you'
   • 'God help your sons'

   When Cathy says of the twins 'I don't want them,' Samuel's words come out 'without his will': 'I don't like you.' He immediately wishes he could take them back; they have no effect on her at all.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What is Liza's assessment of Cathy?

   • That she is sickly and frail — and yet she insists on nursing the twins
   • Correct answer: That she can find 'no real fault' with her — and yet she doesn't like her
   • That she is proud and haughty — and yet she works harder than any wife
   • That she chatters on endlessly — and yet she means no harm by it

   'I can find no real fault with her save perhaps a touch of laziness, and yet I don't like her very much,' Liza says — and adds that Cathy has put 'a spell on her husband. He moons around her like a sick duck.'

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does Cathy say when Adam protests 'The babies—' as she is leaving?

   • 'I never wanted children'
   • 'Give them to the Hamiltons'
   • 'Lee will look after them'
   • Correct answer: 'Throw them in one of your wells'

   Her answer — 'Throw them in one of your wells' — turns the water of Adam's planned Eden into an image of infanticide.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Who says the delivery is 'much more like a bitter, deadly combat than a birth'?

   • Correct answer: Lee
   • Adam Trask
   • Liza Hamilton
   • Samuel Hamilton

   Lee says it to Samuel on the ride to the ranch; he has been at a good many births, he says, but this one is something new to him.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 17?

   • Samuel's drill strikes what he believes is a buried meteorite.

     Happened

     The drill mangles its bit on something thirty feet down, and Samuel, guessing it holds nickel and silver, tells Tom he thinks it is a meteorite.

   • Cathy bites Samuel's hand during the delivery.

     Happened

     When Samuel touches her scar and asks how she got the hurt, Cathy's teeth fasten on his hand and mangle it before her first son is born.

   • Samuel tells Liza exactly how his hand was hurt.

     Didn't happen

     Samuel has Lee tell Liza only that he hurt his hand at the well head, and he begs Lee not to say how it happened.

   • Cathy nurses the twins through their first weeks.

     Didn't happen

     Liza finds that Cathy will never nurse the twins, and it is Lee who looks after them while Cathy rests.

   • Cathy shoots Adam with his own .44 Colt.

     Happened

     Cathy shoots Adam with his .44 Colt; the slug strikes his shoulder, and she tosses the pistol beside him and walks out.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which statements about Chapter 17 are accurate?

   • Liza spends a week putting the Trask household in order.

     Happened

     Liza stays a week, cleans the Trask house down into the grain of the floors, and puts the babies on a working basis.

   • Lee is away in King City on the evening Cathy leaves.

     Happened

     Cathy sends Lee to King City to buy a nursing bottle and says a rest would do him good, so he is gone when she leaves that evening.

   • Adam wrestles the pistol away from Cathy.

     Didn't happen

     Adam never gets hold of the pistol: Cathy shoots him in the shoulder, then tosses the gun on the floor beside him and leaves.

   • The twins are named before Cathy leaves.

     Didn't happen

     The twins have no names in this chapter; the text calls them only the babies, the twins or Adam's sons.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'welter' mean as used in Samuel's warning, 'I'm going out and leave you to welter'?

    • To suffer in stifling, oppressive heat
    • To recover quickly from an illness
    • Correct answer: To wallow or lie steeped in something
    • To argue loudly and at length

    To welter is to wallow or lie soaked in something — Samuel is threatening to leave Cathy to labor alone if she keeps snarling at him.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'prodigiously' mean in the description of the newborn who 'yawned prodigiously'?

    • Correct answer: Enormously; to an extraordinary degree
    • Wastefully; in a reckless, extravagant way
    • Precociously; in a way beyond one's years
    • Slightly; to a small or modest degree

    Prodigiously means enormously; the yawn is comically huge for so small a creature, a touch of warmth on the night of the twins' birth.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'lackadaisical' mean in Liza's description of Cathy as 'Quiet, lackadaisical'?

    • Calculating; cold and quietly scheming
    • Suspicious; wary and closely watchful
    • Cheerful; lively and fond of talking
    • Correct answer: Listless; lacking spirit or energy

    Lackadaisical means listless or lacking energy; Liza puts Cathy's quiet down to the idleness of 'rich Eastern women,' though she admits she does not like her very much.

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