East of Eden, Chapter 45 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. What does Kate tell Joe to bring back if he finds Ethel?

   • Correct answer: Ethel's address, and do not warn her
   • The glass Ethel stole from Faye's room
   • A signed confession naming Kate
   • Ethel herself, tied and gagged

   Kate offers five hundred dollars for an address only and tells Joe not to let Ethel know. She claims Ethel stole something and will not say what.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What does Kate's file say Joseph Venuta did?

   • Robbed a Salinas bank and jumped bail
   • Correct answer: Walked away from a San Quentin road gang
   • Burned a Watsonville boarding house
   • Killed a deputy in King City

   The notation says Venuta walked away from a San Quentin road gang in the fourth year of a five-year sentence for robbery. Kate has never mentioned it until she asks Joe if the name means anything.

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3. 3

   Question 3. After buying a ticket for Watsonville, what does Joe do?

   • He doubles back to search Kate's gray room
   • He takes a night bus to Ethel's San Luis relatives
   • He rides straight through and asks around the depot
   • Correct answer: He stops in Monterey and registers under a false name

   Joe gets off at Castroville, waits for the Del Monte express, and registers at Monterey's Central Hotel as John Vicker so he can think before he hunts.

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4. 4

   Question 4. How does Hal Mahler think Ethel ended up in the water?

   • She jumped off the pier after drinking beer
   • Kate ordered Joe to row her out and drown her
   • Correct answer: A sardine crew took her out and dumped her
   • She fell from the Pajaro River railroad bridge

   Hal rejects suicide because Ethel was too lazy to kill herself. He figures a sardine crew took her out and pushed her overboard.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What breakfast does Kate order on the morning she feels better?

   • Correct answer: A boiled egg, cinnamon toast, and a crisp apple
   • Coffee, bacon, and a bowl of fondant
   • A steak from Pop Ernst's and a pear
   • Port wine, salted cashews, and a box of chocolates

   She wants a boiled egg timed at four and a half minutes, cinnamon toast, and a crisp apple. Joe brings a pear instead because there were no apples.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What rumor does Joe plant about Ethel's plans?

   • She has already talked to a Salinas deputy
   • She means to take her story to a judge in San Jose
   • Correct answer: She plans to return to Salinas and hide there
   • She sold the glass to a Watsonville bartender

   Joe invents a man also named Joe who heard Ethel, drunk on beer, say she would come back to Salinas and lay low, then drop out of sight.

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7. 7

   Question 7. While the new medicine eases her pain, what future does Kate imagine for Ethel?

   • Putting Ethel back to work in the house under Helen
   • Paying Ethel to keep quiet and leave California
   • Turning Ethel over to the sheriff with a fresh charge
   • Correct answer: Taking Ethel to New York and killing her with rich food

   Kate toys with a comical unsolvable murder: keep Ethel close and feed her chocolate, fondant, bacon-fat, port, and cream until she bursts. It is a fantasy, not a plan she carries out in this chapter.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Who is supposed to take over Joe's duties while he hunts Ethel?

   • Trixie, who snickered at Faye's funeral
   • Correct answer: Helen, whom Kate tells Joe to send in
   • Wilson, Joe's snooker partner from Watsonville
   • Hal Mahler, if the stud game can spare him

   After springing the name Venuta, Kate tells Joe to come back as soon as he can and to tell Helen to come in and take over for him.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 45?

   • Kate offers Joe five hundred dollars to find Ethel's address.

     Happened

     Kate asks Joe whether he would like to make five hundred and tells him just to find Ethel and bring her the address, without letting Ethel know.

   • Joe tells Kate that Ethel's body was pulled from the Santa Cruz sand.

     Didn't happen

     Joe learns from Hal Mahler that Ethel was found dead, but he tells Kate only that her trail ran out and that she meant to come back to Salinas and lay low.

   • Kate asks Joe whether the name Venuta means anything to him.

     Happened

     Right after Joe agrees to look for Ethel, Kate asks whether the name Venuta means anything to him, and he answers, "Not a thing."

   • Kate rides a night bus to Watsonville to silence Ethel herself.

     Didn't happen

     Kate only imagines taking a night bus to Watsonville and knows she would be afraid to go; she sends Joe instead.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Which of these details are in Chapter 45?

    • Joe registers at the Central Hotel in Monterey as John Vicker.

      Happened

      Joe gets off at Castroville, takes the Del Monte express to Monterey, and registers at the Central Hotel as John Vicker.

    • Hal Mahler says Ethel jumped off the pier after a beer.

      Didn't happen

      It is Joe who suggests the pier; Hal answers that Ethel was too lazy to kill herself and guesses a sardine crew pushed her overboard.

    • Kate locks herself in the gray room after Joe's report.

      Happened

      After Joe leaves, Kate goes to the gray room, locks its door, and sits still in the big chair with her eyes closed.

    • Kate confesses to Joe that she poisoned Faye.

      Didn't happen

      Kate says nothing to Joe about Faye; only in her own thoughts at night does she ask herself whether she was sorry she had killed her.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does voluptuousness mean as used in: 'vanity, voluptuousness, anxiety or conscience, greed, hysteria'?

    • Correct answer: Sensual appetite Joe expects to use as a weakness
    • A medical swelling in Kate's arthritic fingers
    • Religious guilt left over from Joe's childhood priest
    • The loud cheer of the King City farmer in the house

    Joe lists voluptuousness among the ordinary female weaknesses he lives on. He is shocked when he cannot find it, or the others, in Kate.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does inspective mean as used in: 'her eyes were slitted and inspective again'?

    • Blind to the Venuta name she is about to mention
    • Watery from arthritic pain and lack of sleep
    • Correct answer: Searching, as if she is testing him for a slip
    • Playful, matching the mild geniality Joe sensed earlier

    Inspective here means examining or probing. The look comes just after Joe feels fine about the five hundred, and it precedes the Venuta question that jars him.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does abated mean as used in: 'The pain in her hands was abated'?

    • It had been invented to make Joe hold the teacup
    • It had spread from her hands into her throat
    • It had been cured for good by a doctor's surgery
    • Correct answer: It had eased after medicine and a night's sleep

    Abated means lessened. The new medicine eases the arthritis enough for Kate to sleep, study her face, and recover a burst of cruel confidence.

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