East of Eden, Chapter 21 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. How does Kate make sure the household learns what is in Faye's will?

   • Correct answer: She convinces the cook he leaked it, then walks the curious girls in to ask Faye directly
   • She chalks the will's words on the blackboard where the girls check the week's score
   • She leaves the will open on the parlor table, then sends Ethel in on an errand to find it
   • She reads the will aloud at supper, then passes it down the long table for the girls to see

   Kate never appears to want the will known. She makes Alex believe he talked, then forces the question into Faye's own room so Faye produces the will herself.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Why does Kate insist on going to Dr. Wilde's office instead of letting him come to the house?

   • She is afraid the girls will gossip about another house call
   • She wants a second opinion about her pain
   • She does not want Faye to overhear the consultation
   • Correct answer: She wants time alone in his office to raid the dispensary

   The chapter never says her illness is put on, but she arrives at eight-thirty for office hours that begin at eleven, is inside before the doctor gets there, and goes home with five small bottles in her handbag.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What does Dr. Wilde conclude has made Faye and Kate so violently ill?

   • Spoiled meat bought at the market
   • Correct answer: Botulism from home-canned string beans
   • Bad water from the well behind the house
   • An overdose of the pills he prescribed

   He fastens on the home canning, orders every jar broken, and tells the women afterward to buy their string beans in cans.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Why does Kate swallow a purgative before serving the poisoned salad?

   • To make the doctor prescribe stronger medicine for Faye
   • To protect herself from the croton oil she has used
   • Correct answer: So that she falls ill too and suspicion stays off her
   • Because she has lost her nerve and wants to confess

   Being stricken first removes Kate from suspicion and makes the poisoning look like an accident the two women shared.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does Kate do immediately after giving Faye the final dose?

   • Correct answer: She buries the bottles and eye-dropper in the weeds and crushes the glass
   • She wakes the girls and sends for the doctor
   • She searches Faye's room for the box holding the will
   • She burns her stained clothing in the kitchen stove

   She digs a small hole at the back of the lot with a pointed stick, grinds the glass to bits, scrapes dirt over it, and goes back inside as the rain starts.

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6. 6

   Question 6. Which detail best explains why Dr. Wilde suspects nothing?

   • He never examines either woman and diagnoses them both from the doorway
   • He dislikes Faye and pays little attention to her health
   • He is new to Salinas, knows nobody at Faye's, and has never treated anyone there
   • Correct answer: He is overworked, forgetful, and assumes he left his own doors unlocked

   Steinbeck spends a whole section establishing the doctor's exhaustion and vagueness, so that when his key will not turn he blames his own carelessness.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Why does Kate spend months making the girls, the cook, and the piano player happier?

   • Faye's kindness has genuinely reformed her, and she wants to repay it with a happier house
   • A cleaner, busier house will fetch a better price once she persuades Faye to sell it
   • Correct answer: A grateful, prosperous house makes her look like the last person who would harm Faye
   • Faye has ordered her to raise the standards of the place before they sail for Europe

   Every improvement doubles as cover. The canning even supplies the innocent explanation for the poisoning, and the household's gratitude makes her the last person anyone would suspect.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 21?

   • Kate lets herself into the doctor's office before he arrives and tells him the door was never locked.

     Happened

     Kate is already inside when Dr. Wilde arrives at nine-thirty and tells him it wasn't locked, and he blames his own age and forgetfulness.

   • Kate stirs croton oil into a string-bean salad prepared for Faye.

     Happened

     In the kitchen Kate squeezes two drops of croton oil from the eye-dropper onto the string beans and stirs it in before carrying the trays to Faye's room.

   • Faye rewrites her will to leave the house to the girls instead of Kate.

     Didn't happen

     Faye never changes the will; Kate makes sure the rolled paper is still in its box and that all the girls have seen it or heard about it.

   • Dr. Wilde notices that bottles are missing from his dispensary.

     Didn't happen

     Dr. Wilde only wonders whether he left the dispensary door open too, blames his age, and goes back into the surgery without checking his stock.

   • Faye tells Kate she wants to take her to Europe.

     Happened

     One afternoon over her solitaire game Faye says she would like to go to Europe and wants Kate to go with her, maybe next summer.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these details are true of Faye's house in this chapter?

   • Alex the cook is given a silver watch engraved with his name.

     Happened

     At the end of the canning season Alex has a silver watch with his name engraved on the back, to prove the canning was his idea.

   • The girls resent Kate's gifts and begin working against her.

     Didn't happen

     The gifts work the other way: Ethel cleans her room, Grace puts on a clean shirtwaist, and the house scores eighty-seven tricks in one week.

   • The blind piano player tells Kate how he lost his sight.

     Happened

     Cotton Eye tells Kate how he lost his sight, a story he had never told anyone else.

   • Kate confesses the poisoning to Trixie before Faye dies.

     Didn't happen

     Kate tells no one; Trixie only looks in while Kate is bathing Faye, and later it is Trixie who remembers the will.

   • The kitchen is turned into a cannery and the girls put up fruit and vegetables.

     Happened

     On Kate's suggestion, which Alex believes was his own idea, the kitchen turns into a cannery and all the girls help put up the cheap fruit and vegetables.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'imperceptible' mean as used in: "she set in motion a series of imperceptible springs and pendulums"?

    • Impossible to stop once started
    • Correct answer: Too slight or gradual to be noticed
    • Repeated at regular intervals
    • Built out of borrowed materials

    Imperceptible means below the threshold of notice. Kate starts small mechanisms working in other people and lets them gather their own momentum.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'codicils' mean in the doctor's thought about an old woman's death: "There were codicils."?

    • Prayers said over the dying
    • Debts left unpaid at death
    • Lawsuits brought against an estate
    • Correct answer: Additions or amendments to a will

    A codicil is a formal addition to an existing will. The detail also quietly echoes the chapter's own preoccupation with wills and inheritance.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'haggard' mean as used in: "Kate was haggard and her slender body had shrunk to bones"?

    • Unusually calm and rested
    • Correct answer: Worn and wasted from exhaustion
    • Flushed with sudden fever
    • Bitter and openly resentful

    Haggard describes a face and body drained by strain and lost sleep. Kate's nursing performance is convincing precisely because the exhaustion is real.

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