East of Eden, Chapter 54 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Why won't Cal go on the picnic before the azaleas bloom?

   • The Ford still sits without tires or dry cells
   • Lee forbade them to go until Adam is stronger
   • Correct answer: He made azaleas the signal and will not break it
   • Abra will not skip school on a weekday yet

   Cal set azaleas as the picnic's signal, and once that symbol is set he will not violate it, even when Lee tells him to go anyway.

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2. 2

   Question 2. How does Lee get Adam to allow blood-pressure readings?

   • Correct answer: They bet on each other's readings like a race
   • He trades the readings for extra kitchen favors
   • He pretends Dr. Murphy ordered daily tests
   • He takes the readings only while Adam sleeps

   Lee bets on Adam's pressure and Adam on Lee's, a game Lee says is better than horse racing. Lee could win but does not, because that would spoil the game and the chart.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What does the chapter report about May 28, 1918?

   • Salinas holds a parade for the First Division
   • Correct answer: The First Division captures the village of Cantigny
   • The Germans retake Cantigny in a counterattack
   • Aron writes home that he is leaving for England

   Steinbeck inserts a communiqué-like account of the First Division taking Cantigny after an hour of artillery, then holding the line against two German counterattacks.

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4. 4

   Question 4. How do Cal and Abra slip out of school?

   • Lee picks them up in the Ford at the noon bell
   • They wait for the last bell and walk out openly
   • They ask Miss Norris for a pass to the ice plant
   • Correct answer: Cal signals Abra, then goes out the basement door

   Cal waves a handkerchief and blows his nose in Miss Norris's class, waits in the boys' toilet for a flush on the girls' side, then goes out by the basement door, along the brick wall, and around the pepper tree. Out of sight of the school, he walks slowly until Abra catches up with him.

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5. 5

   Question 5. Why does Adam skip the picnic with Cal and Abra?

   • He does not like azaleas and says they always wilt
   • Dr. Murphy has forbidden him to leave the house
   • Lee warns that the trip would raise his blood pressure
   • Correct answer: He promised to go to the ice plant about new tubing

   Adam says he would like to go, then that he can't: he promised to go down to the ice plant, where they are putting in new tubing. Abra says they will bring him some azaleas.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does Abra tell Cal beside the Alisal stream?

   • She heard Lee say Adam is dying of a thrombus
   • She still intends to wait for Aron to come home
   • Correct answer: She thinks her father stole money from the company
   • She wants Cal to enlist before the next draft call

   Abra says her father is not sick but scared, and she thinks he has taken money from his company. He does not know whether his partners will put him in jail or let him try to pay it back.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What is Lee doing at three o'clock, before the doorbell rings?

   • Charting Adam's latest readings for Dr. Murphy
   • Correct answer: Turning a seed catalogue's sweet-pea pictures
   • Mixing Adam's evening dose of red bromide
   • Writing a letter to Aron at his army camp

   Lee is at his desk turning the pages of a seed catalogue, looking at colored pictures of sweet peas and thinking of planting them to screen the slough.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Why does Lee mix elixir of bromide before Adam comes home?

   • Correct answer: He wants a sedative ready before he tells Adam
   • He has run out of Adam's usual evening tonic
   • Adam asked for a sleep powder after the ice plant
   • Dr. Edwards ordered a daily dose at four o'clock

   After reading the telegram, Lee tells himself that nobody has the right to remove any experience from another, then says he hasn't the courage and couldn't stand it. He mixes three teaspoons of bromide in water until it turns pink and carries the glass to the hall when Adam comes home.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 54?

   • May Day's Sunday School picnic is drenched out by freezing rain.

     Happened

     May Day is cold, and the Sunday School picnic in the Alisal is drenched out of existence by a freezing rain, with no azaleas yet in bloom.

   • Adam changes his mind and rides to the Alisal with Cal and Abra.

     Didn't happen

     Adam says he would like to come but can't, because he promised to go down to the ice plant; Cal and Abra go to the Alisal without him.

   • Cal and Abra buy bread at Reynaud's before the picnic.

     Happened

     Leaving school, Cal and Abra run, buy bread at Reynaud's, and hurry Lee into making the sandwiches.

   • Lee packs a lunch and goes along as a third on the picnic.

     Didn't happen

     Lee was to make the sandwiches, but when Cal and Abra ask him to come, he answers, "Don't be ridiculous," and stays home.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Which of these events actually occur later in Chapter 54?

    • Lee sits at his desk looking at a seed catalogue of sweet peas.

      Happened

      At three o'clock Lee sits at his desk turning the pages of a seed catalogue whose pictures of sweet peas are in color.

    • The doorbell rings a second time, and Lee still will not answer.

      Didn't happen

      The bell rings once and Lee tells himself to let it ring, but it does not ring again; he goes and finds the envelope.

    • Lee measures three teaspoons of elixir of bromide and dilutes it.

      Happened

      After reading the telegram, he measures three teaspoons of elixir of bromide into a glass and adds water until the red medicine is pink.

    • Lee telephones Dr. Murphy as soon as he has read the telegram.

      Didn't happen

      The chapter shows no call: Lee lays the telegram face down, talks to himself, mixes the bromide, and at four o'clock hears Adam fumbling at the doorknob.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does hullaballoo mean as used in: "What's the hullaballoo?"

    • A formal holiday or feast day
    • A breakdown in the parked Ford
    • A sudden spell of dizziness
    • Correct answer: A noisy commotion or fuss

    Adam hears the loud kitchen noise of the picnic preparations and asks what the hullaballoo is. The word means an uproar or commotion.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does recurrence mean as used in: "I'm always afraid of recurrence"?

    • Lee's habit of talking aloud when alone
    • A delay in the azaleas coming into bloom
    • Correct answer: The return of Adam's cerebral hemorrhage
    • A second German attack on Cantigny

    Lee tells Dr. Murphy he is always afraid the hemorrhage will happen again. Recurrence here means another bleed, which Murphy says they cannot patch like an inner tube.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does weariness mean as used in: "A black weariness fell on Lee"?

    • Physical hunger after skipping his lunch
    • Correct answer: Deep tiredness and hopelessness of spirit
    • Relief that an advertisement is at the door
    • A sudden burst of anger at the doorbell

    After the doorbell rings only once, a black weariness and hopelessness press Lee's shoulders down. The word names exhaustion of spirit, not ordinary sleepiness.

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