1. Happy Monday journaling
2. Warming up with fire...kind of literally
Take a look at Lee's commentary on fire (598). Put it into your own words and consider whether or not you agree with him.
Revisit the three scenes in recent reading in which a character sets something on fire:
- Sheriff Quinn's burning of explicit photos (558)
- Cal's burning of the money (565-6)
- Abra's burning of Aron's letters (578, 583)
In each scene, what does the fire release? What does it destroy?
Why is destruction by fire (vs. a different method of destruction) appropriate to these particular objects?
What do these objects have in common?
3. Enjoying our final Socratic seminar on East of Eden
4. Wrapping up
HW:
1. Set a specific reading schedule for your independent reading book and record the page/chapter numbers directly into your student calendar. You need to finish by Monday, October 27.
2. Bring your laptops an East of Eden to class tomorrow.
3. Your Tuesday writing on East of Eden will actually take place on Wednesday; you will have some class time on Tuesday to finish your big question blog on East of Eden.
Do you think Steinbeck purposely reflected the jealousy of Cain and Abel in Cal’s decision to take Aron to the brothel out of anger and jealousy
ReplyDeleteAdam asks. “Do you know where you brother is?”
Same as in the Bible when God asked Cain where his brother is
Cal is a good character who made a mistake, so he didn’t actually murder his brother
Steinbeck shows more about Aron through his joining of the army and his death
Fate vs free will-there is more free will through each generation
Cal didn’t hurt Aron directly, but Aron still dies
Aron made the choice to join the army-his moral spectrum is black and white
Control, your own fate- Cal accidentally kills his brother in the army- it was out of his control
Was it Cal’s choice to turn out evil?
Aron decided his own fate
Does Adam have blame in Aron’s death?
Adam is the tragic hero-everything that happens with his sons centers around Adam’s actions
They all had an element of choice, but Adam sets off the chain of events.
Timshel? Has Cal really escaped from his fate as Cain?
He was never free from trying to earn his father’s love
Cal doesn’t have to be defined by his past actions because of Adam’s forgiveness
The letters didn't have to define the town, the money doesn’t have to define Cal, Aron’s view of Abra doesn’t have to define her.
Adam is God
Cal tries to earn his love by being good
Cal not only kills his brother, but he killed his father by killing his brother
The good in Cal tries to overcome the guilt of his actions
God could choose to make people behave a certain way, but he frees them like Adam does Cal
Doesn’t say Cals name he says timshel so he’s releasing him from the name as well as guilt
Why does Kate leave her inheritance to only Aron?
Cal scares her and she doesn’t understand him, but she understands Aron, so she feels comfortable with him
Kate can’t manipulate Cal, so she is afraid
Why would it matter if she is dead?
What does she feel towards Aron?-his showing up to the brothel killed her and Aron
She sees a purity and goodness in him, and to have someone like that so close to her, it made her feel something
ReplyDeleteShe also sees herself, she realizes that she is a mother and Aron looks like Kate, so it stuck her.
What is about Aron that causes death?-he kills Kate when seeing, and kills Adam by leaving him
Aron’s purity kills Kate and the absence of purity kills Adam
Aron parallels Kate makes her realize that she is a mother
But when Aron leaves Adam, it’s like Adam lost Kate and he can’t live with that
Both Kate and Aron lack the ability to understand the gray world.
Aron is all good and Kate is all bad
Is Kate content with the way her life turned out?-Is there regret or remorse
She so set in her ways that she just thinks that it’s how the world works
It’s significant that her death was a suicide-maybe she wasn’t happy
It shows that she is not content because no one cares about-she doesn’t have anyone, so she doesn’t want anyone to have her
Kate is always in a sea of transition, there is always a new phase and change, she never gets to where she wants to go-she never accomplishes anything
What did Kate need to accomplish?
Monsters can only see monstrous things
Maybe her recognition of good in Aron killed her because she knew what she was missing
Kate kept talking about her and Alice-
In the end of her life, she knew that no one cared about her
Killing herself was her final piece of control over the world
She knew that she was going to kill herself so it gave her control and comfort
So many of the deaths are simply reported-Sam telegram- but every detail of her death is given. Why does Steinbeck let us see that?
We saw the lives of other characters, their motivations etc., but Kate was distance and we only got her actions. For Kate we didn’t hear about her life, but we heard about her death.
It makes us think about her and humanizes her
She has human emotions if she kills herself- maybe she
Does Kate die completely evil or a little bit of good as well?
Does she still die a monster?
She dies conquered by timshel, she keeps getting smaller and smaller
“She had never been”
Other characters preserve a dignity and a larger than life impact, but her death scene takes away her power.
Similarities between the burning scenes?
The physical act of burning gave the burner a sense of control over something that was controlling someone before
Abra was controlled by Arons view of her the pictures had control over the town
Wasn’t destroying the objects, but destroying the part of them that was attached to the items-rebirth
What’s the significance of Abra at the end of the story?
She plays the good of Aron, he sees more Aron in her
Lot’s of similarities with the family dynamic Cal hated Abra for taking Aron away, Charles hated Cathy for taking Adam away
Unlike Kate, Abra doesn’t live on the extremes, she turns into shades of gray, she’s like Cal because they are both good and evil
She doesn’t have to be perfectly all the time
Being with Cal frees her from Aron’s perfect image of her
She could decide to live in the gray with Cal or live up to perfection.
Wrap Up:
The three burned objects all embody the shame of the burner
Kate saw the gray area, but she can’t feel it
pg 552- she was smarter and stronger than everyone she had something that she was missing… right before her suicide
pg 131-the free exploring mind is the most valuable thing in the world...
If Aron had found out about Cathy from Adam, would the outcome be the same
Burners of the objects wanted to get rid of the past
What is the significance of Joe?
Family dynamic affects human nature?
Is timshel a more powerful force than both good and evil?
Fire is a cleansing agent, cathy kills her parents?
Chapter 12- childhood is not as good as it used to be