East of Eden, Chapter 50 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. What does Joe find on the chain around Kate's neck?

   • A silver-backed brush, a locket, and one house key
   • Correct answer: A small gold watch, a little tube, and keys 27 and 29
   • A ruby ring, a perfume vial, and a depot-box pass
   • A gold locket, a diamond pin, and a spare cellar key

   Joe lifts the chain clear of Kate's neck, unsnaps the clasp, and finds a small gold watch, a little tube, and two safe-deposit keys, numbers 27 and 29; he slips off the watch and pockets it. Her dresser, purses and bedside box hold nothing of value, not even a silver-backed hairbrush.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Which book organizes Kate's last hours and the way she takes the capsule?

   • The Winning of Barbara Worth, which Joe is reading
   • A brown ledger listing the girls' nightly records
   • The Bible story of Cain and Abel that she rereads
   • Correct answer: Alice in Wonderland, remembered from her childhood

   Kate remembers reading Alice in Wonderland as a very small girl and carrying a bottle of sugar water labeled "Drink me" so she could imagine shrinking away from her enemies. In the gray room she says "Eat me" to the capsule and "Drink me" to the cold tea.

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3. 3

   Question 3. How does Kate prove that Joe's story about the stranger is a trap?

   • Correct answer: She reminds him quietly that Faye used to own this house
   • She shows him Ethel's letter from the judge in Salinas
   • She has Therese search his room for stolen photographs
   • She offers him tea and watches the teapot rattle in his hands

   Joe claims Faye means nothing to him. Kate asks softly whether he never heard that Faye used to own the house, and his mind flounders. The shaking teapot is a symptom, not the proof.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Who shoots Joe Valery, and under what circumstances?

   • Ralph, after reading Kate's letter about Joe's fingerprints
   • The cook, after finding the stolen brown envelopes
   • Correct answer: Oscar Noble, after Joe runs toward Chinatown alleys
   • The sheriff, serving a warrant at the front door

   Oscar Noble tells Joe the sheriff wants a talk and has no warrant. When Joe admits he has been printed and then runs for Chinatown, Oscar misses a snap shot and kills him from a telephone pole rest.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does Kate's note ask Ralph to tell the sheriff?

   • That the house is closing until Kate goes to the hospital
   • That Ethel has come back into Salinas against the judge
   • That Faye's death should be investigated all over again
   • Correct answer: That it would not hurt to check Joe Valery's fingerprints

   Holding the pen with her whole arm, Kate writes Ralph that it would not do any harm to check on Joe Valery's fingerprints. Therese mails the letter out the back way with the candy errand.

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6. 6

   Question 6. Where does Joe run after Oscar asks whether he has been printed?

   • Back into Kate's locked gray lean-to room
   • Correct answer: Toward the stores and alleys of Chinatown
   • Out along Castroville Street to hail a car
   • To the barbershop where he spent the afternoon

   They are walking toward Castroville Street when Oscar asks whether Joe has been mugged or printed. Joe says yes, for hitting a cop, then runs like a rabbit across the street and over the track toward Chinatown.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What did the child Cathy carry so she could play at shrinking?

   • Correct answer: A pocket bottle of sugar water with a red-framed label
   • A vial of perfume she hid in her pinafore pocket
   • A pocket mirror she used to practice a sweet smile
   • A brown storybook with a small gold lock on the cover

   When enemies surrounded her, Cathy had sugar water in her pocket and had written the Alice instruction on its red-framed label. A sip would make her smaller; the whole bottle was a reserve she never used as a child.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 50?

   • Kate writes a will leaving everything to Aron Trask.

     Happened

     At her desk Kate forces herself to write plainly, "I leave everything I have to my son Aron Trask," and signs the sheet "Catherine Trask."

   • Kate names Cal as her heir if Aron will not take the house.

     Didn't happen

     The will is two lines long and names only Aron; Cal appears nowhere in it.

   • Joe finds Kate dead in the gray lean-to room.

     Happened

     At nine in the morning Joe opens the door of the lean-to, sees her bloodless lips and dull, half-closed eyes, and knows she is dead.

   • Joe escapes with the photographs and takes a faro job in Reno.

     Didn't happen

     Joe only daydreams about dealing faro in Reno; when he runs from Oscar Noble, who has come to take him to the sheriff, he is shot dead near the entrance to an alley.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these details are in Chapter 50?

   • Therese mails Kate's letter to Ralph while running a candy errand.

     Happened

     Kate sends Therese for chocolates and toothbrushes and asks her to drop the letter in a mailbox; the next morning Oscar Noble comes to take Joe to the sheriff.

   • Oscar Noble shows Joe a warrant before they leave the house.

     Didn't happen

     When Joe asks whether he has a warrant, Oscar says they have nothing on him; the sheriff only wants to talk.

   • Joe finds safe-deposit keys numbered 27 and 29 on Kate's chain.

     Happened

     When Joe unsnaps the chain from Kate's neck, he finds a small gold watch, a little tube, and two safe-deposit keys, numbers 27 and 29.

   • Kate puts Therese in charge of the house before she swallows the capsule.

     Didn't happen

     Kate only tells Therese she will seriously consider putting her in charge when she goes to the hospital.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does holograph mean in: 'The two-line holograph will attracted him'?

    • Copied by a lawyer onto official paper
    • Hidden in a secret compartment of the desk
    • Correct answer: Handwritten by the person whose will it is
    • Stamped with a notary's raised seal

    A holograph will is written entirely in the testator's own hand. Joe pockets Kate's two-line sheet because he thinks somebody might pay for it.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does dwindle mean in: 'she would dwindle and disappear and cease to exist'?

    • Sleep the pain off quietly until morning
    • Hide the bottle so no one else can drink
    • Correct answer: Shrink steadily until nothing is left
    • Run away to another town under a new name

    Dwindle means to become smaller by degrees. Kate's childhood reserve was to drink the whole bottle and shrink out of existence, a fantasy she finally completes with the capsule.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does marionette mean in: 'her body moved crookedly like a badly operated marionette'?

    • Correct answer: A puppet moved by strings, here badly handled
    • A dancer practicing a stiff formal step
    • A jointed wooden figure that artists pose for drawing
    • A clockwork toy that winds down at noon

    A marionette is a string puppet. Steinbeck uses it to show Kate's pain: her mind is wooden and her body lurches, but she still goes steadily about the business of dying.

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