East of Eden, Chapter 23 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which of Samuel Hamilton's daughters dies at the start of Chapter 23?

   • Correct answer: Una
   • Olive
   • Dessie
   • Mollie

   Una is the daughter Steinbeck calls Samuel's greatest joy, and her death is the blow that begins his decline.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What is Una's husband Anderson devoting his life to inventing?

   • A new kind of dress pattern
   • A self-opening ranch gate
   • Correct answer: Color photographic film
   • A cheaper windmill pump

   Anderson believes the exterior world can be put on paper in real colors rather than black and white, and he is said to have found color film in the end.

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3. 3

   Question 3. How does Samuel's understanding of Una's death differ from the rest of the family's?

   • He accepts it as an accident among the chemicals
   • Correct answer: He privately reads the accident as pain and despair
   • He refuses to believe she is really dead
   • He suspects her husband of deliberate violence

   The family settles on an accident among the chemicals, but Samuel mourns in the thought that the accident was pain and despair, and blames his own neglect.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Why does Tom Hamilton get no pleasure from gambling or competitive business?

   • He is too shy to sit at a table with men
   • He considers every kind of gambling morally sinful
   • He has lost too much money in the past
   • Correct answer: He wins no triumph and suffers no tragedy

   Tom tells his brothers that without the feeling of birth and death, joy and sorrow, the contest is meaningless to him.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What happens after Tom saddles up in the middle of the night and rides to Salinas?

   • Correct answer: The sheriff disarms him and jails him
   • He misses the man and returns home quietly
   • Samuel overtakes him on the road and stops him
   • He confronts Dessie's lover in her shop

   Samuel follows and telegraphs from King City, so the sheriff is waiting, disarms Tom, and keeps him in a cell on black coffee and brandy until Samuel arrives.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What do the Hamilton children realize together in the kitchen at Thanksgiving of 1911?

   • That the ranch is close to bankruptcy
   • That Tom has been drinking heavily
   • That their mother has fallen seriously ill
   • Correct answer: That their father has become an old man

   Passing whiskey in jelly glasses, they trade observations about his slumped shoulders, dragging step, and old eyes, and recoil from what it means.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Why does the family invite Samuel to Salinas instead of asking him to sell the ranch?

   • Selling would leave Tom with nowhere to live
   • Correct answer: Asking him to close up shop would be like asking him to close his life
   • The ranch is worth too little to sell profitably
   • Liza would never agree to leave the land

   Will says that asking Samuel to close up shop "will be like asking him to close his life," and George adds that he "would think it was like quitting," so the family plans an invitation to visit instead.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does Samuel tell Tom in the chapter's closing exchange?

   • That he intends to sell the ranch after all
   • That he has forgiven Tom for the Salinas arrest
   • Correct answer: That he knows why and where he is going, and is content
   • That he wants Tom to marry and take over the land

   Samuel tells Tom he sees Will's hand in the family's plan, asks him not to tell the others that he knows, and says he knows why and where he is going and is content.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 23?

   • Una's body is shipped home from the north.

     Happened

     Anderson took Una "away to the north," and the narrator says, "And then she died and her body was shipped home."

   • The sheriff locks Tom in a cell in Salinas.

     Happened

     After Tom rides to Salinas in the night, the sheriff "disarmed Tom and put him in a cell" until Samuel came for him.

   • Samuel reads Olive's letter and tears it up in anger.

     Didn't happen

     Samuel reads the letter twice, folds it, and puts it in his blue shirt pocket, then walks slowly up the eastern hill.

   • Adam Trask comes to the ranch to ask Samuel about his sons.

     Didn't happen

     Adam does not appear in person; he is only remembered, as when Samuel told him that Tom "was arguing with greatness" and when Samuel hit him with his fist.

   • Olive sends her parents a letter inviting them to Salinas.

     Happened

     Olive's letter asks her parents to visit in Salinas, where the upstairs rooms have been fixed over, and two train tickets to Salinas are enclosed.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Which of these details are true of Chapter 23?

    • Tom carves a wooden head that seems alive when a fly is put inside it.

      Happened

      Tom spends a day carving a little head, and when a fly is eased inside, "the head became alive."

    • The narrator's sister Mary asks Tom how she can become a boy.

      Happened

      Mary asks, "Uncle Tom, how do you get to be a boy?" and Tom finally tells her that she can't.

    • Dessie's shop is open to men as well as to women.

      Didn't happen

      Dessie's shop is "a woman’s world," and the narrator says, "The door was closed to men."

    • Liza refuses the trip, so Samuel plans to travel to Salinas alone.

      Didn't happen

      Liza first says they can't go, but when Samuel presses her she answers, "I said yes."

    • Tom shows his secret poetry to the whole family at Thanksgiving.

      Didn't happen

      Tom writes his poetry in secret, and the narrator says that he "showed it to only one person."

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'battlements' mean as used in: 'Una's death breached his battlements'?

    • The upper rooms of a farmhouse
    • Correct answer: The defensive walls of a fortification
    • The strict rules that govern a household
    • The weapons and gear a soldier carries

    Battlements are the fortified parapets of a castle wall. Steinbeck uses the image to say that Samuel's cheerfulness was a fortress and grief broke through it.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'sanctuary' mean as used of Dessie's shop in: 'It was a sanctuary where women could be themselves'?

    • Correct answer: A place of refuge and safety
    • A room reserved for guests
    • A shop that sells religious goods
    • A church building or chapel

    A sanctuary is a place of refuge. Dessie's shop shelters women from the town's iron rules, and the laughter inside frightens the men outside the door.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does 'diffidence' mean in: 'There was always a little diffidence between us at first'?

    • A difference in age or social rank
    • A cheerful, easy familiarity
    • Correct answer: Shyness and lack of confidence
    • A stubborn disagreement or quarrel

    Diffidence is timidity or self-doubt in company. The narrator notes that Uncle Tom was as shy as the children were, so their greetings started out formal.

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