Oh this was the description in the very start which I really liked a lot but I am glad that you are liking other chapters.Originally Posted by SleepyWitch
i've got started on the bookhave read 5 or 6 chapters...
at first i found it a bit difficult to get into it, what with the description of the landscape, flowers etc....
from the second chapter on it's cool though
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.
Hi Lizzie,
Thanks for your suggestion but this year we are reading only the books of certain authors (voted by members), a list of which you can find here.
~
"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
Ok, now that some have finished the book, let's actually start talking about it :-)
By the end of the book, Steinbeck gave me the impression that Cathy began regretting the fact that she lacked the "something" everyone else had.
Ending Spoiler
Either she regretted it or she actually experienced a little of it when she saw Aron, the son that resembled her. She became reflective and a little sentimental. Living all of your life without bonding and then suddenly given a hint of it might have been enough to cause her to take the morphine and kill herself.
What do you think?
Last edited by ominousluv; 07-05-2006 at 11:24 AM. Reason: added spoiler warning
Eventlessness has no posts on which to drape time.
Nah, I don't agree with the first option but the second option seems fit on her situation, I think...
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.
Don't forget to put spoiler qoutes and Plot warnings, for those who havent finished the book
penuriosus est is quisnam denies scientia
Asa Adams
Currently reading
Ethan Frome
Portrait of an artist.....again*sigh*
I put it in the title bar. Should I put it in the body as well?
Eventlessness has no posts on which to drape time.
Oh this was the description in the very start which I really liked a lot but I am glad that you are liking other chapters.
I loved the first chapter!
"Once a woman told me that colored flowers would seem more bright if you added a few white flowers to give the colors definition. Every petal of blue lupin is edged with white, so that a field of lupin is more blue than you can imagine. And mixed with these were splashes of California poppies. These too are of a burning color - not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the poppies."
"Then there were harebells, tiny lanterns, cream white and almost sinful looking, and these were so rare and magical that a child, finding one, felt singled out and special all day long."
Was anybody else thrilled that Cathy finally got beat up?
I was happy for awhile when she got whipped badly by her father, but wasn't fully satisfied. Steinbeck made me feel a lot better later on. I would have been okay with just a good beating; I was eminently suprised and pleased with the broken arm, broken ribs, cracked jaw, bruised and dented face, and especially the cracked skull.
Though she obviously hasn't changed; at this time she is currently deceiving Adam and the sheriff. Charles suspects lots of things though. I feel sorry for Adam because the book mentions that while he is taking care of her "he was never any happier."
Cathy is horrid. Steinbeck calls her a 'monster' but also tries to lessen her own liability, I think:
"Monsters are variations from the accepted normal to a greater or less degree. You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous. It is my belief that Cathy Ames was born with the tendencies, or lack of them, which drove and forced her all her life."
Some favorites so far (off the top of my head - I am in Chapter 11)
---How Alice thought that Charles was leaving her presents rather than Adam
---The description of the hobo existence at the start of chapter 7
---How Steinbeck mentions that Adam absconds from his second prison sentence 3 days before his scheduled release, and doesn't explain that fact until 60 pages later.
I am greatly enjoying this book!
Last edited by ShoutGrace; 07-05-2006 at 11:59 AM.
“As Kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame . . .”
Why disqualify the rush? I'm tabled. I'm tabled.
These are also two of my favourite events.
I also liked it when Cathy was beaten but the beating did not do her any good...it never does...
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.
Oh! Well, then I will get a little ahead an suggest "Our Mutual Friend" by Charles Dickens when the time comes to read Dickens - I see he is on the list.
Thanks for the heads Up.
The best compliments,
Lizzie.
some people might not notice the title so it would be ok to put it in the body aswell.
penuriosus est is quisnam denies scientia
Asa Adams
Currently reading
Ethan Frome
Portrait of an artist.....again*sigh*
No, I guess it doesn't. It did give me a wonderful, superficial, visceral satisfaction, however.
Besides, she is beginning to experience her just desserts at the moment. Adam has gone to see her a few times and reduced her to nothingness by a complete lack of interest and care for her. Ha! She is crying and quavering in fear and uncertainty right now. With her silly pot belly and varicose hands.
"Give him the boots, Ralph!"
"Some say that the decay of morality among girls has dealt the whorehouse it's deathblow." I cannot properly communicate how meaningful that was to me when I read it.
I was also delighted with the description of Olive Hamilton's duties as a small town teacher near the start of Chapter 14.
"Olive Hamilton had not only to teach everything, but to all ages."
"Olive also had to practice rudimentary medicine, for there were constant accidents. She taught reading to the first grade and algebra to the eighth. She led the singing, acted as a critic of literature, wrote the social notes that went weekly to the Salinas Journal. In addition, the whole social life of the area was in her hands, not only graduation exercises, but dances, meetings, debates, chorals, Christmas and May Day festivals, patriotic exudations on Decoration Day and the Fourth of July. She was on the election board and headed and held together all charities."
Whew! I think that the position of small town 'intellectual' is kind of unique and interesting. It sounds difficult and stressful; but there can hardly be a more rewarding or important role for a person in that setting to play.
I also enjoyed Sam Hamilton's speculation on the asteroid's terrestrial collision in Chapter 17.
"Maybe it was all water here - an inland sea with the seabirds circling and crying. And it would have been a pretty thing if it had happened at night. There would come a line of light and then a pencil of white light and then a tree of blinding light drawn in a long arc from heaven. Then there'd be a great water spout and a big mushroom of steam. And your ears would be staggered by the sound because the soaring cry of its coming would be on you at the same time the water exploded. And then it would be black night again, because of the blinding light. And gradually you'd see the killed fish coming up, showing silver in the starlight, and crying birds would come to eat them.
It is a lonely, lovely thing to think about, isn't it?"
He made them see it as he always did.
***PLOT WARNING***
I thought that Tom taking those sisters to the dance on a sofa was wonderful; Dessie's death and his subsequent suicide broke my heart.
I hope that things work out with Cal.
"And in his mind he cried, 'Don't let me be mean.'"
I am liking Aron and Abra (I'm in chapter 36).
"All that was in him was hidden by his angelic face, and for this he had no more concern or responsibility than has a fawn for the dappling spots on it's young hide."
“As Kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame . . .”
Why disqualify the rush? I'm tabled. I'm tabled.
I just read East of Eden last year, so I am wavering on reading again (Am not a Steinbeck fan, and read Grapes of Wrath last month, so I'm about at my quota), although the posts here are luring me on to it. In any case, I wanted to note that I agree with ShoutGrace and Pensive in that I absolutely LOVED the first chapter. That was what started me reading the book, and I remember having that same feeling for the Grapes as well. . . . I love Steinbeck's descriptions of the land more than anything else in his work.
I am a little world made cunningly
Of elements, and an angelic sprite; - John Donne
Oh, do read it again! I would like to hear what such a knowledgeable and insightful literary persona has to say about it!
Please, please, please!
It is very different from Grapes of Wrath (as you surely well remember).
Give in! Give in! Let yourself fall victim to your desires; I for one will greatly appreciate it.
“As Kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame . . .”
Why disqualify the rush? I'm tabled. I'm tabled.
Flattery, it seems, will get you everywhere.I would like to hear what such a knowledgeable and insightful literary persona has to say about it!
Give in! Give in! Let yourself fall victim to your desires; I for one will greatly appreciate it.
I am a little world made cunningly
Of elements, and an angelic sprite; - John Donne
YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAHHHHHHH!
Okay, I suppose I will have to resign myself to waiting a little bit longer.
Can't be that bad.
Flattery, it seems, will get you everywhere.
The rest of you can thank me later!
“As Kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame . . .”
Why disqualify the rush? I'm tabled. I'm tabled.
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