East of Eden, Chapter 47 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Why is Adam appointed to the draft board in this chapter?

   • He volunteers so Cal and Aron will not be drafted
   • Correct answer: Mr. Kelly dies; Adam has time and a clean discharge
   • The town elects him after he speaks against the war
   • Lee puts his name forward as the family's civic duty

   After Mr. Kelly dies, Adam is the logical replacement: the ice plant does not take much of his time, and he has a clear service record and an honorable discharge.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Why does Adam grow more stern on the draft board?

   • Correct answer: Because he knows he is weak, he accepts fewer excuses
   • Judge Kendal pressures him after his own son's death
   • Henry Stanton orders him to start rejecting more boys
   • He enjoys the new authority of sending men away

   Adam cannot get over feeling that the boys he passes are under sentence of death. Knowing he is weak, he grows more stern and painstaking and less likely to accept an excuse or a borderline disability.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What does Adam say he would do if his own sons came before the board?

   • Reject them quietly so they could stay safe at home
   • Pass them to set an example for other families
   • Ask Lee to sit in his place for those hearings
   • Correct answer: Resign, because he could not reject them himself

   Henry first imagines a man would be tempted to reject his own. Adam says he would resign because he could not reject them; a man could not let his own go free.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What happened to Judge Kendal's boy?

   • Adam rejected him, and he later enlisted anyway
   • He died in France after Adam tried to exempt him
   • Correct answer: Adam passed him, and he was killed in training
   • Henry passed him against Adam's written advice

   Adam tells Henry the work gets him when a choice is his own judgment of the merits. He passed Judge Kendal's boy, and the boy was killed in training.

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5. 5

   Question 5. When Adam asks Lee about sending a boy who is then killed, what does Lee do?

   • Correct answer: He names timshel and says it carried a man's greatness
   • He advises Adam to resign from the board at once
   • He says blame belongs only to the army, not Adam
   • He tells Adam just to follow the rules and stop worrying

   Lee asks whether responsibility or blame is the real trouble, then recalls the old word timshel. He said it carried a man's greatness if he wanted to take advantage of it, and he glosses it as thou mayest.

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6. 6

   Question 6. How had Aron pictured university life before he arrived?

   • A noisy place of horseplay he was eager to join
   • A military school with strict drills and uniforms
   • Correct answer: Robed students converging on a white temple at evening
   • A farm college attached to the Trask ranch itself

   His uninspected picture was of clean-eyed young men and immaculate girls in academic robes, shining and dedicated, converging on a white temple on a wooded hill. He may have taken it from Doré's Dante.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What effect do Aron's letters have on Abra?

   • They make her laugh at campus jokes he retells
   • They make her proud that he jumped a year in school
   • They ask her to join him in Palo Alto next term
   • Correct answer: Their high tone and dripping longing make her uneasy

   Aron pours joyous abjectness onto the page and goes to bed purified. The letters drip with longing, and their high tone makes Abra very uneasy.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does Aron think he may do after Thanksgiving?

   • Write Abra that he has fallen for someone at school
   • Correct answer: Stay home; he might never come back to the university
   • Ask Lee to come and live with him in his Palo Alto room
   • Move into a fraternity house and start over socially

   He makes a compact to go home at Thanksgiving and then be sure. He might never come back, and Abra's old suggestion of the ranch becomes his dream of hiding from ugliness.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 47?

   • Mr. Kelly dies and Adam is appointed to the draft board.

     Happened

     Mr. Kelly dies, and Adam Trask, the logical man for the job, is appointed to take his place on the draft board.

   • Adam resigns from the draft board after talking with Henry Stanton.

     Didn't happen

     Adam only says he would resign if he had to pass on his own sons; at the end of the talk he takes his hat and says good night to Henry.

   • Adam passed Judge Kendal's boy, who was later killed in training.

     Happened

     Adam tells Henry that he passed Judge Kendal's boy and the boy was killed in training.

   • Henry Stanton says he is lucky to have sons approaching draft age.

     Didn't happen

     Henry has only girls and says he never thought he was lucky before; it is Adam's boys he says will not be called up for a long time.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Which of these details actually appear in Chapter 47?

    • Aron leaves the college dormitory for a furnished room in Palo Alto.

      Happened

      Aron leaves the college dormitory for a dreary furnished room in Palo Alto and walks the mile to and from the campus every day.

    • Aron joins a fraternity and learns to enjoy undergraduate horseplay.

      Didn't happen

      Aron finds the noise, fuss and horseplay of undergraduates horrifying and does not try to enter the life around him.

    • Adam looks in the mailbox and finds a cheerful letter from Aron.

      Didn't happen

      When Lee asks whether there was any mail, Adam says he forgot to look in the box.

    • Lee comes out of Reynaud's Bakery carrying a loaf of French bread.

      Happened

      As Adam walks home, Lee comes out of Reynaud's Bakery carrying a golden loaf of French bread for garlic bread.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'gaunt' mean as used in: 'Henry Stanton watched Adam grow more gaunt and more silent'?

    • Stiff from formal manners
    • Correct answer: Lean and worn from strain
    • Flushed with sudden anger
    • Cheerful and talkative

    Gaunt means very thin and worn. Henry watches the draft-board work strip Adam down into silence.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'egotism' mean as used in: 'It doesn't carry any pleasant egotism'?

    • Correct answer: Self-importance or self-centered pride
    • A legally binding written contract
    • Physical exhaustion after hard labor
    • A sudden burst of religious feeling

    Lee tells Adam that responsibility can be worse than blame because it does not carry any pleasant egotism: there is no self-flattery in owning the burden.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does 'immaculate' mean as used in: 'clean-eyed young men and immaculate girls'?

    • Loud and openly argumentative
    • Shy and socially withdrawn
    • Tired from too much study
    • Correct answer: Spotlessly pure or unstained

    Immaculate means spotlessly clean or pure. Aron had imagined university women that way, and later he makes the same kind of dream of Abra.

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