East of Eden, Chapter 29 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Why is Adam so restless at the beginning of Chapter 29?

   • Correct answer: He is waiting for a reply to the letter he sent his brother Charles
   • He is expecting the twins to be sent home from school again
   • He has quarreled with Lee over the ten years of house and ranch accounts
   • He has decided to sell the ranch and move the family to town

   Adam has mailed his first letter to Charles in more than ten years and cannot stop wondering why no answer has come, though it has only been a few days.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What happens when Adam tries to teach the twins to make willow whistles?

   • The boys refuse to let him touch their willow twigs
   • Correct answer: He has forgotten how to make the cut and cannot get a sound out of them
   • Lee takes over and finishes the whistles for him
   • He makes the whistles so well that the boys beg him to make one for each of them

   Adam reclaims his pocketknife to teach a skill Lee had already taught the boys three years earlier, then finds he has forgotten the cut and cannot get a peep out of his whistles.

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3. 3

   Question 3. How does Will Hamilton's demonstration of the new Ford go?

   • He teaches Lee to drive it and lets Lee explain it to Adam
   • He starts it on the first crank and drives the family around the ranch
   • He refuses to explain it and leaves the manual behind instead
   • Correct answer: He gives up during a third explanation and promises to send an expert

   Will is explaining a mechanism he does not really understand himself, so as he begins for the third time he sees he is getting nowhere and promises to send out an expert the next day.

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4. 4

   Question 4. How does the narrator say Will Hamilton feels about the Fords he sells?

   • Will considers the automobile a passing fashion not worth his time
   • Will loves the cars and believes they will remake the valley
   • Correct answer: Will hates Fords even though they are steadily making him rich
   • Will is losing money and hopes to sell the dealership soon

   The narrator states outright that Will hates Fords with a deadly hatred, and that they are daily building his fortune.

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5. 5

   Question 5. Who does Will Hamilton send out to teach the family about the car?

   • A retired railroad engineer from the coast
   • His younger brother, who has studied engineering
   • Correct answer: A nineteen-year-old mechanic with three months of automobile school behind him
   • A factory representative sent out from Detroit to train the valley's new Ford owners

   The expert is a teenager fresh from three months at an automobile school in Chicago, and he arrives full of weary contempt for everyone he meets.

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6. 6

   Question 6. How does Lee answer when the mechanic demands to know what he said?

   • He walks away and refuses to attend the rest of the lesson
   • He repeats his remark in plain English and explains the word
   • He argues with the boy about the workings of the engine
   • Correct answer: He spreads his hands, smiles blandly, and answers in pidgin

   When the boy reacts angrily to Lee's ironic compliment and uses a slur, Lee spreads his hands, smiles blandly, and answers in broken pidgin — a mask he can put on at will.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What does Lee say he will and will not do with the automobile?

   • He will drive it but refuses to maintain it
   • Correct answer: He will try to understand it, but he will not drive it
   • He will neither look at it nor discuss it
   • He will learn to drive it so Adam does not have to

   Lee tells Adam he will try to understand the car, but that drive it he will not.

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8. 8

   Question 8. How is the mechanic's real name finally revealed?

   • Correct answer: Will Hamilton returns and calls him Roy in front of everyone
   • Adam finds it written in the manual under the seat
   • Lee recognizes him from a previous job in town
   • The twins read it stitched on his overalls

   Will drives up to take him back for an urgent repair job and addresses him as Roy; when Cal challenges him, Roy laughs and says he asks to be called Joe because his name is Roy.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 29 of East of Eden?

   • Adam grows impatient waiting for an answer to his letter to Charles.

     Happened

     Before the letter can even reach San Francisco, Adam is asking aloud why Charles does not answer.

   • Will Hamilton brings out a new Ford and fails to explain how it works.

     Happened

     Will explains the car again and again, sees he is getting nowhere, and cannot start it, so he borrows Adam's buggy and drives back to town.

   • A letter arrives from Charles saying he will come out to visit.

     Didn't happen

     No reply comes in this chapter; Lee reminds Adam that the letter has only been gone a few days.

   • The twins stay home from school to watch the mechanic work on the car.

     Happened

     The twins are kept home the next day and watch the mechanic's lesson so closely that he orders them off the running board.

   • Lee agrees to be the family's driver once he has learned the machine.

     Didn't happen

     Lee says he will try to understand the car, but drive it he will not.

   • Cal catches the mechanic out over the name he told everyone to use.

     Happened

     When Will calls the mechanic Roy, Cal points out that he told them to call him Joe, and Roy laughs that his name is Roy.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'erudite' mean as Lee uses it in: 'So young to be so erudite'?

    • Physically strong and quick
    • Rude and openly disrespectful toward others
    • Uneasy in the company of strangers
    • Correct answer: Showing deep and wide-ranging learning

    Lee means learned or deeply read, and he means it ironically; the mechanic only scowls and demands to know what he said.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'truculence' mean in: 'The truculence went out of the boy and a magnanimity took its place'?

    • Correct answer: Aggressive, spoiling-for-a-fight hostility
    • Careful attention to small details
    • Cheerful and easy good humor
    • Silent embarrassment about a mistake

    Truculence is belligerence. Once Adam smooths over the insult, the boy's aggression gives way to generosity toward Lee.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'dour' mean in: 'The Ford stood tall and aloof and dour under the oak tree'?

    • Brightly polished and inviting
    • Correct answer: Grim, stern, and unsmiling
    • Unsteady and about to fall
    • Small and easily overlooked

    Dour means grim and forbidding. Steinbeck personifies the idle new car as a stern, unwelcoming presence the family circles warily.

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