Dog-Eared Dialogues - East of Eden Part 4

Transcript

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test test donkey wicka, wow, wow you know what that song that is?

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I just said wild, wild west.

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Yeah, everyone knows what it is.

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Bro, why does everyone know what it is?

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it's one of the fucking worst movies ever, but you just go wicka.

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Wow, wow, wow and everyone's like wow I loved the show.

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As a kid it was a western originally.

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Oh, the you mean the show as a kid.

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It was a Western originally.

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Oh, you mean the show show, the show show, the old Western show.

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And so I was so excited to see that movie, but then my mom didn't let me, which I would have liked it then.

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You know, it's a great show for a 12-year-old, movie for a 12-year-old.

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It's pretty out there, but yeah.

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But like compared to that one, I finally watched it like 10 years after it had come out.

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It was exponentially worse.

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Yeah, I just I remember thinking like it wasn't remotely violent enough.

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You know the classic fact about that what Will Smith dropped the role of Neo for Wild Wild.

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West.

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Oh you're right, yeah, and did you know that Viggo Mortensen broke his toe when he kicked that helmet, sam?

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Welcome to the Make it Pass show.

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More specifically, part four of East of Eden's Dog Ear Dialogue series.

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Dog Ear Dialogues, in case you're unfamiliar, is just when we have a book we love.

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Hence, you know, when you got a good red book, you fold the corner pages to make little dog ears to keep your spot.

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And that's what we're here talking about, talking about books that we love.

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And in our final part, here we're getting into, of course, part four of the novel.

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And if you have not read the book yet, don't listen to this.

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I highly encourage you, read the whole book or listen to the whole book on Audible.

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Feel free to click, go to our website we have it listed there as well as sign up for Audible through our link.

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You'll get a discount.

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But, that said, listen to the book first, because this is easily the climax and most spoiler heavy part of the book, and it could take the wind out of your sails if you haven't read it yet, so please do.

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That said, though, we'restatic, uh, because we love this book and again, you know, dog ear dialogues isn't a review as much, as it is just a breakdown of the themes and characters in the book and why we loved it.

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So with that, we are happy to get into it and uh, pat, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do a little introduction here, and then you can uh give us an update on the character corners, yes, but uh, east of eden, of course, as we said, written by john steinbeck and all that, but in the final act of east of eden and Abel metaphor analogy in this novel, they take full center stage.

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They are definitely now the main characters, and the Trask family brings the story of Cain and Abel nearly into fruition.

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What remains is the question we have all asked after Sin, can I be forgiven?

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If forgiven, can I ever be good again?

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If I am good, will I be blessed?

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Or am I cursed to be as wretched as my own evil, forever cast away from God's favor?

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And we'll see how that pans out.

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Well, hopefully you already know how it pans out, and this isn't a spoil, but um, yeah, anything in that summary that you want to add or any thoughts?

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no, yeah, I think that you know, as we're wrapping up this series, the fourth part, you know we're talking about um good and evil, fatherhood, love or hate of a brother, inheritance, original sin, um lots of like primordial little makings of the human condition.

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Um, and this is where we get a, a new version or different version of the canon able story in a way to where steinbeck know he's been using the simple story of Cannibal in the Bible and now he's.

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You know he's given us different versions of it, different ways it can turn out, different ways that things can go, and so that's.

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You know where we will end up at the end and you know.

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As far as characters go, there's really not a lot of new characters, a couple little side characters.

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But, um, where we left off, aaron and cal trask were really still young teenage boys and throughout you know this, now they're young men they're they're finishing up high school, heading off to college.

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They're doing.

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You know they're getting jobs.

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They're interested in women.

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You know they're like.

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They're old enough to go to war seeking their fortune, old enough to go to war.

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And so in the part you know, two and three really really part three of Aaron and Cal's dichotomy, steinbeck sets them up to be even as he states it so obviously he's given them the name Aaron and Cal.

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It's pretty quickly like, oh, cain and Abel got the C, got the A.

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You pretty quickly assume who's holding what role.

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But then as he develops these characters, he also makes them their own.

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They are their own people.

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They don't just only embody those two biblical characters and we see them develop and we see one's strengths ultimately be their biggest weakness and lead to their demise and the other we see their biggest weaknesses kind of evolve into what makes them successful.

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And so Steinbeck develops these brothers throughout this fourth part of the book.

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And we have Abra, who was introduced before and she's the love interest of the boys and we'll see her um, you know she was when we talked about her last, last time.

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She was, you know, this kind of wise, beyond her years type and she continues to be that.

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But then she also, um, develops as a person and who she wants to be and how she sees the world and how she wants her life to be, and really the main key I think I don't know like guide, not the guide, but kind of the guardrails of the story is Lee.

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He's kind of the focal point for all these characters to have a relationship with him, because he's the steady unchanging, you know he's the anchor.

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And so Lee, throughout this part four, he plays a pivotal role in his relationship with him.

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And he, because he's the steady unchanging, you know he's the, he's the anchor.

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And so lee, throughout this part four, he plays a pivotal role in his relationship with each one of the boys, with abra as well as with adam.

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Um, as you know, we as the story pulls through, yeah, and then we'll briefly, maybe we'll speak to, uh, two other folks, ethel and Joe, who are, you know, ethel, a former employee of Kathy and her, and then Joe, who's basically just her henchman, you know her, her lackey.

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He's kind of like a I think you know we talked about this but he's he's like a shadow of Kathy, like just another evil incarnation, you know, born and lives to die, essentially in the vein of the cycle of evil.

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All that said, let's get started here.

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So a lot to get through, but we're going to uh make sure, uh, we get into the good meat and potatoes, um, because there's so much to impact here in this final quarter of the book.

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Um, it's actually probably, you know, part four probably makes up um, I mean, it does make up pretty much over half of the book, like nearly a third.

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A third, yeah, third of the book um.

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But uh, 34 is again like a transitionary chapter, like we've seen before for the other parts.

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And uh, we have john steinbeck, the narrator, discussing again his philosophy towards the struggle of good and evil, um through the lens of different people, excuse me, as well as the reaction to the dead um.

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He quotes uh, in 34.

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I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one humans are caught in their lives, in their thoughts and their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty and in their kindness and generosity too, in a net of good and evil.

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There is no other.

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A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions Was it good or was it evil?

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Have I done well or ill?

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For a moment, I just want people to reflect, like, ask yourself this, because I really don't think this is not universal.

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You know this truly, I do believe is universal, regardless of what religion you believe, what you know, philosophies you subscribe to.

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Truly, at the end of the day, after everything is brushed away and you're having to stand and reflect on your own life and existence, can you look at your own life and existence and ask is it good or is it evil?

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Have I done well or ill?

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And I know you know the Christian answer right.

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I know the Christian morality perspective is like, well, all have fallen short of the glory of God.

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Well, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but Christ, you know, and has totally redeemed us and covered our sins.

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And so every Christian believes like, well, no, I haven't been perfect and if I measure myself to God's standard, I haven't been good.

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But Christ covers that and that's why I'm going to heaven, that's why I'm forgiven, stepping out of that Right, and you look at just like, comparatively, did you live a good life or was it an evil life?

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I think a lot of us can see and have some pretty intense, you know, memories and probably conflicts arise and we, we ask ourselves, like, you know, what would it average out to you know, if we sum it out?

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Yeah.

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And additionally the other quote here all novels, all poetry are built on the never ending contests in ourselves of good and evil.

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It occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue is immortal, and that I think helps us.

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If we take what he said initially here and we start reflecting on our own lives.

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If we take what he said initially here and we start reflecting on our own lives, that I think helps us kind of properly segregate what goes what in the scales and get a proper weight Right.

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Like the truth is is that most evil things die and do not live forever, like evil destroys and in and of itself it can't create lasting testimonies of itself, whereas good does, good perseveres, good is immortal, good deeds live on, good men are remembered.

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And so I think, like when you look at it.

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It's like okay, what will the memory excuse me, be versus.

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You know what evil have I done?

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That might be creed or status.

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This is something that you get to have a bit of a say in.

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You know they're like sure and so you know, and so there's not a just.

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Whatever your status or standing is, no one is excused from this.

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The scales of good and evil, scales of justice, the scales that you know do um reflect, you know, a life lived, what did you leave behind and what happened?

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And uh, it's a super interesting concept around.

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You know the way evil must constantly respond and that you know.

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Good, just you know, is a lasting, and I think that's like kind of easily understandable, just because if you think about anything in life, that is the way it is, you know, in the way that, or even in your own, like on a large scale, looking at like a whole nation and or like just looking at your own, like personal life, like the thing in you, that's like there's the goodness, that's just is like striving forward, and then there's like the resurgences and like the, an evil finds its way in and out.

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You know.

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Yeah, no, I agree.

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I think the way I look at it is like we see in history or in your, in our own individual lives and interactions with people, there are times where evil usurps good, without a doubt, and there are times where evil comes into power without and without a doubt.

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Third reich you know I'm talking yeah, uh, mao zhang dong, dynasty in china, uh, communist russia, ussr.

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Yet all those things have wilted away and died and been and like, what is more immortal now is like the persevering spirit of what, like surpass those things, undermine those things, and I don't mean just like I'm not saying like america I'm just saying, like the people who live through it and move forward, yeah, like the exactly the forces of good that never died out exactly.

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Yeah, it's so.

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And what do we see?

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Like those things crawl away, worm away or squished, and they have to be reborn.

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And you know, some might say like right now in america we're seeing a rebirth of those evils little little sodom and gomorrah out there yeah, and I'm not even going to make a statement as to which is what evil.

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You know what I mean.

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I'm just going to say, like ask anybody around and they're going to point fingers at an evil rising to power and like everyone's got an opinion and I think we're at a point where it's warming its way up, it's usurping again, but I also rest in the knowledge that it will be supplanted and wilt away again.

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Um, all right, moving forward, um, with uh this, I think we can kind of skip around from a few chapters, because some, some of these final chapters are very transitionary, just to help accelerate, I think, the plot, uh, and help us understand how one thing leads to another.

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But one that I found pretty interesting was kind of 3738, where Adam has this like failed venture into, like he just wants to do something with his money and decides to try to like refrigerate lettuce at a time where it doesn't exist.

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He gets, like a little Sam Hamilton, hair up his butt.

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Exactly Well, and I think that's like the whole point, right, is that he begins to live life.

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You know, and we see with this, that, like I've talked before, you know, liza Hamilton called Adam out for this, but, like Adam was never able to enjoy work, he's never wanted to work, he's always shirked from it.

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Even with Charles, he shirked from it, and he would tell Charles we should do some of the money, and Charles would be like, well, yeah, let's work, and like, make something of our farm here, and Adam would just shirk away from it and be unhappy.

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And now he finds himself, like taking pleasure in his work, regardless of if it makes him money or not, just because, uh, you know, it is giving him a life that is enjoyable, um, despite it not being easy or always successful, um, and we see that Adam is happy to work, even if it doesn't bear, like I said, financial fruits, especially, though, if it is a work that is full of adventure and purpose.

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And um, in him, you know, to him, the purpose was testing himself, like testing his own metal and seeing if he could make something happen.

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Um, and I found that, you know, pretty cool because, like we see, like that's kind of like almost the final arc for adam before he's sidelined.

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I think you know what I mean.

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Like it's fun.

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It's like finally this man, towards the end of his like youth, gets to achieve something, and that achieving is realizing like there is pleasure in work if it's work that is meaningful and purposeful to you and, and, and, exhibiting the fact that it totally flopped.

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It totally flops, but like he toiled for it and he was content with it.

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He just wanted to do it exactly um aaron.

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We also see, though, um, he begins to like run away, uh, into religion.

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Uh, because previously, in a few chapters ago, abro tells him that his mom's alive.

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You know, she heard it from her parents and Aaron ran away from her then.

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And then we see him still not really believing his mom's alive and turning into just like overbearing religiousness and justification, and he becomes misguided due to his newfound holiness.

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It starts telling cal like you're damned to hell.

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You know you need to like seek forgiveness, and it just comes off the wrong way like, you know the book, even like john.

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Even john steinbeck even says like if he had been more subtle, cal might have actually become a believer, excuse me, in aaron's religion and it's not that cal's not a like.

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I don't know if it's ever said he doesn't believe in God or anything like that.

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No, because he talks to God.

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Yeah, he does.

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He prays to God.

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He prays to God to make him better and to help him be good to Aaron.

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It's just that, like the difference is like Aaron is, you know, truly regulated religion, to the point where he even rebuffs Abra and says like we can't be together because I'm probably gonna have to take a life of celibacy for the priesthood, and all of this is just like you can tell it's an escape, not genuine.

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And like the moment he said, like the moment he was telling Abra all this stuff, I was like there's no freaking way, dude.

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Like let's be real, we all know someone like that who, at one point or another, found their spiritual walk and went into holier-than-thou mode and they crashed like a stone and most of them actually fall away from the faith.

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I think in my experience I don't know about you, but rarely, I think, do they remain at a healthy level in their religion.

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They usually fall out pretty hard.

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Yeah, they're making emotional responses to things in their life, which is also what we see Aaron doing, and we'll see this as a trend where Aaron just continues to run away from the truth of his life and the truth of things going on in it, and so just like Adam.

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You know, adam didn't necessarily run into religion, but he's always was running from responsibility ran to the being just a vagabond, anything but ran to mexico, yeah, anything but, you know, facing his life.

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And so also, this is where we see cal and aaron are starting to grow up and steinbeck will continue to kind of polarize and juxtapose the two characters, where you do have Aaron, high horse celibacy, wants to be a priest, you know, and living in kind of a naive, self-made, uh, false reality.

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And then Cal is kind of going the other way where he's sneaking into gambling houses at night, you know, uh, he's, you, learns of his mother's profession in these chapters.

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He, you know, he learns about the whorehouse, he, um, he's whatever, drinking, staying out night and so, but he's kind of making his way, own way in the world in this way and the and we'll see where.

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I think we're steinbeck kind of um, there, while they would seemingly you, you, if you just took two people and said, okay, this guy's, he's taking a vow of celibacy, he's joining the priesthood and this guy's late night gambling, going to brothels, you'd be like, okay, I now understand the trajectory of their life.

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One is holy, one is sinful, and like or like the direction they're headed.

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The journey has been set, but we'll see.

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That kind of maybe doesn't have to be.

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Maybe there's a choice.

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Oh, maybe there's a choice gross that you put that there.

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Huh, just kidding.

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Um, all right, uh, we see a moment too I think that is really sweet that like begins also to show through the cracks that like this might not have to be the story of Cain and Abel.

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And it is when Cal is arrested and his father has like an opening in his, you know, clouded vision and sees his son for the first time and realizes like this is my son, whom I have no idea what he's doing.

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And uh, we see adam and cal kind of have a heart to heart and um, adam's acceptance of cal from, you know, being locked up and stuff, uh creates a devotion in cal to his father that is almost religious.

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And Cal realizes the most important thing to him in his life is Adam's love and appreciation.

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And Adam says, when Cal gets up to go make coffee I guess Steinbeck says about Adam Adam feels a warmness wash over him, like he had opened his eyes and he had an exceeding desire to to live and get out and make a life right and like this is kind of like the thing that almost like, uh, I think kind of brings excitement and livelihood to adam after everything, um, but we see, you know cal, in this conversation adam is open about it finally and opens up about, uh, you know, kathy and um, cal commits to protecting his brother.

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You know he, adam's afraid it would destroy aaron.

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And cal says, you know, I commit to be my brother's keeper and keep aaron from knowing about kathy.

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He's like what if we even get aaron out of here sooner so lowers the risk of him, you know, graduating high school and walking around town as a grown man and finding his mother that way, and Adam seems open to the idea With that as well.

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We see, with Tim Scholl, you know, cal encounters Kathy and in this encounter there is a pretty sick moment, I think, where Cal looks into her and he asks, asks, you know, were you like this as a child?

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And kathy like gets angry and, you know, gives him eyes, like daggers and shuts down and it kind of does the same thing to cal that it did for adam, where cal feels empowered and like not afraid of her anymore and he realized like he's not her, he's like I'm not like you, I'm my own person.

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I'm not just evil, there's also good in me.

00:23:39.529 --> 00:24:00.852
And you know he tells her like he could see, because she's like at one point, like turn that light off Hurts my eyes, and he, you know, sees that the light makes her afraid and I thought that was really cool because it's, you know, I think, very alluding to the scripture um john 1 5, and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.

00:24:00.852 --> 00:24:07.594
And john 3 20, for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deed should be exposed.

00:24:07.594 --> 00:24:25.281
And I think, like this is just again hammering, like focusing on, like kathy is already our real cane, like Kathy is the marked Kane who, you know, no one can kill and who will, like squirm as an evil worm until the end of her days.

00:24:26.326 --> 00:24:47.523
And she hates the light and you know she'd rather live in darkness than see reality yeah, in the that, in that encounter with them, the cal's realization of that, yeah, we're just, it's like you, don't like he, it's a.

00:24:47.523 --> 00:24:50.151
It's a beautiful scene where he, just, just like his father, was freed.

00:24:50.151 --> 00:24:56.814
In that moment he is free too, because in the previous chapter, you know, he and we, he's kind of learned of his mom for a long time.

00:24:56.814 --> 00:25:21.465
But then in the previous chapter, before this, he uh, you know, the drunk family friend mistakenly takes him to what's called the circus, you know described as the circus, where he sees all the horrors, doing all the horror things and the yeah, the probably the most like depraved horror things you could see, yeah, and it's like mom's the queen of the damned, you know there and like.

00:25:24.569 --> 00:25:49.397
And so, just like with we've said this before with all the people who Kathy hates, people who can see through her stuff, and so, in this moment too, it's been the people who have see through her stuff, and so, in this moment too, the it's been the people who have a piece of kathy in them, that see her, who can see her for what she is, and so, like, the piece of cal in him that is kathy in this instance is his saving grace.

00:25:49.698 --> 00:26:13.596
Oh yeah, it is his protector and his ability to see through her yeah, and she even notes that like she sees charles in him and it's like I think I think that too is like also like a reminder of her sin right, and also probably why she wants the lights off, because she sees cal and she sees like her sin with charles and charles final who knows if it was a prank or knife in her right.

00:26:13.695 --> 00:26:19.472
But just like I leave you this half if you're still married, right, because it's like I know you're a bad woman.

00:26:19.472 --> 00:26:26.140
And he probably anticipated, like she left him as soon as they got there, yeah, but didn't anticipate they'd still be married on paper, right?

00:26:26.140 --> 00:26:43.928
Um, going forward to, though, we see, like, with this, kathy's paranoia begins to spiral and she gets she, she remembers about this woman who blackmailed her and begins thinking about it and, uh, I don't really think the blackmail is all that important, um, but it is.

00:26:43.928 --> 00:26:49.787
I think the significance of it is to show that, uh, she's starting to reap what she's harvested.

00:26:49.787 --> 00:26:51.171
She's starting to reap everything.

00:26:51.171 --> 00:26:52.736
And this is like I don't know about you, man.

00:27:03.184 --> 00:27:42.209
I like, again, I worked in law enforcement, enforcement, so like I've seen so many people having what they sowed come out and come to collect on them, right, like the fruit of their crop being their downfall, um, and so I think of this like, uh, with, uh, it's job 4-8, as I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same, and I just think like, right now, this is like the perfect image of, like kathy she's probably in her 50s, maybe not even 50 yet, late, late 40s, and we see her starting to just like see the fields and fruits and it's all starting to come back to her and paranoia and like these haunted ghosts, these echoes of people who she doesn't know if they're alive or dead, but she knows they know something and is starting to wonder if she really did the right thing and put it to bed.

00:27:42.269 --> 00:27:44.954
And it's having to keep track of who's who?

00:27:44.974 --> 00:27:50.074
yeah, um, and of a murder she'd committed a decade before and planted in the ground.

00:27:50.074 --> 00:27:51.944
The evidence was found there.

00:27:51.944 --> 00:27:54.951
Yeah, it's like, and she's, she's not even.

00:27:55.252 --> 00:27:57.778
She's not even like current day, being confronted with it.

00:27:57.944 --> 00:28:16.561
It's just the memory that someone had said something in passing and is now reaching out with a letter Right, but yeah, so we see this also manifest in the life of her pimp, whose name is Joe, who's her right hand man and enforcer.

00:28:16.561 --> 00:28:29.450
Um, I think he's also supposed to kind of seem like a little bit like a plant or, you know, a crop planted who's grown now so much that in her weakness is seeking to overcome her.

00:28:29.450 --> 00:28:39.049
But he is also of evil nature and evil roots and he will also be kind of brought down by his own folly, right like his time.

00:28:39.049 --> 00:28:42.545
We like, we know immediately just from like his thoughts and minds and his behavior.

00:28:42.545 --> 00:28:46.013
Like this guy's not long like this is not going to be the hero.

00:28:46.013 --> 00:28:52.674
I thought he was for sure going to be the snake that takes her out, um, but I didn't think.

00:28:52.674 --> 00:28:55.347
Joe walks off into the sunset with the money in the pictures.

00:28:55.469 --> 00:28:56.030
You you know what I mean?

00:28:56.030 --> 00:29:01.048
Yeah, it's like they're just all these people, especially like for Kathy, joe and Ethel, these people are like.

00:29:01.048 --> 00:29:02.901
They're like drowning rats.

00:29:03.324 --> 00:29:06.463
Yeah, Like and like just like rats in a bucket.

00:29:06.463 --> 00:29:08.112
Yeah, they're just going to get on top of the other one.

00:29:08.112 --> 00:29:16.238
Yeah, and there's always a plan to like, at some point I will get on top of the other one, you know, and to survive I'll do that.

00:29:16.238 --> 00:29:17.039
Even.

00:29:17.039 --> 00:29:36.426
And that's like kind of the underlying driver of this paranoia for both of them, as they because also Joe's trying to he's paranoid too she's gonna find out the stories he's weaving and everything else, and then it snowballs on him yeah, this going also in these chapters.

00:29:36.448 --> 00:29:38.855
You know we're talking about like 40 through 44.

00:29:38.934 --> 00:29:44.917
Here I see something that I think you know is definitely John Steinbeck having fun.

00:29:44.917 --> 00:30:01.165
I imagine he's sat here thinking what are all the things that the Bible doesn't say about Cain and what?

00:30:01.165 --> 00:30:04.096
What was it like to be Cain and to be told of God and to be able to talk to God directly and know what is expected of you?

00:30:04.096 --> 00:30:06.483
And you know, god is truly the source of creation, right?

00:30:06.483 --> 00:30:45.467
And so, like I think he, you know, went through and fantasized about all these different aspects of like who Cain might be, and I found it very compelling here because like, yes, of course, like I don't believe anything that is personified of cal here isn't is biblical, right, right, I do think it's totally fine to use this as a metaphor and like to challenge a reader to consider, like you've probably just thought of cain as a jealous, evil brother, right, and you've probably never once thought like kane might have loved god and kane might have even helped abel with his own gift out of love, and like desire of acceptance and appreciation from god.

00:30:45.728 --> 00:30:51.028
Like you, like it's, I'm not saying it's there, but it's certainly, I think appropriate to wonder.

00:30:51.107 --> 00:30:52.290
Right, it's like the same way.

00:30:52.290 --> 00:30:53.253
Sam hamilton was like.

00:30:53.253 --> 00:30:56.281
Maybe god didn't like vegetables.

00:30:56.442 --> 00:31:07.492
Yeah, maybe he liked meat well, if you think about it, if cain is bringing crops, cain probably fed those crops to abel's animals, right, you know, and helped keep him alive.

00:31:07.492 --> 00:31:29.257
Um, but anyways, I say that all because we see cal begins to make this extravagant plan, not only to fulfill Adam's request of him of looking after Aaron and fulfill his father's commands, uh, but to reward his father with a gift, as well as a gift for Aaron, and Cal begins to set up this plan and encourages Adam.

00:31:29.257 --> 00:31:37.057
He's like hey, if you graduate high school year early, as a gift to our father, I will pay for your way to college.

00:31:37.057 --> 00:31:37.906
I'll help you with the money.

00:31:37.906 --> 00:31:41.936
And like, in this moment, like I, really like I had this like epiphany.

00:31:41.936 --> 00:31:46.894
I was like, dude, aaron's gift isn't even really aaron's gift, it's cal's gift.

00:31:46.894 --> 00:31:53.125
And not only that, but cal's want, wants to provide his own gift, to show like he doesn't want to take away from aaron's accomplishment.

00:31:53.125 --> 00:31:59.338
He doesn't want his father to be like oh, cal, look how you've helped your brother get here and supported him.

00:31:59.338 --> 00:32:03.471
He wants Aaron to have his moment and he wants himself to have his moment.

00:32:04.845 --> 00:32:14.273
And so you know, even though this gift of graduating early and being studious and going to college appears in the front, like in the beginning of Aaron, like being based on Aaron's effort.

00:32:21.545 --> 00:32:24.173
We all truly know, as a reader, like this is Cal's effort and you know him fulfilling his promises.

00:32:24.192 --> 00:32:42.989
And we know that this is dangerous, right, like, if Adam fails to appreciate Cal, like this is seriously setting up to be some some deep pain and hurt, uh, in, you know, uh, a lack of appreciation and acceptance, um, and uh, it only kind of is, you know, we know, we know what's going to happen.

00:32:43.009 --> 00:32:45.076
This could propel us closer to the cain and abel story.

00:32:45.076 --> 00:32:53.837
Um, and you know, additionally, in all this, cal begins to work to save up money in order to give it to his father as a recompense for the failed lettuce business.

00:32:53.837 --> 00:33:03.867
You know, even though cal is not in any way responsible for that, he still sees it as an opportunity to provide a gift that would be seen as an appreciation to his father.

00:33:03.867 --> 00:33:23.878
Um, and we know that adam's rejection of this gift, gift and a genuine rebuke of cal's intentions, without any gentleness or kindness, hardens cal's heart to his father's desires and creates a vindictiveness that can only really be quenched by punishing Aaron and, in turn, punishing his father.

00:33:23.878 --> 00:33:43.036
And I think, lastly, we see the symbolization of, like God's blessing to Abel and withholding of blessing to Cain, and that Adam buys this beautiful gold watch and what is a watch, if not something that you can take with you no matter where you go?

00:33:43.036 --> 00:34:04.965
And so he, kind of you know, buys and creates this blessing to give to Aaron, knowing that if Aaron does this he's going off to school and he wants his son to remember always how proud my dad is of my sacrifice, my gift to him um, and there's not even, there's no thought into a gift for cal yeah

00:34:05.287 --> 00:34:10.077
and in fact he even says like aaron's, just the brighter and smarter and more driven boy.

00:34:10.077 --> 00:34:15.193
And lee's like well, hold adam, like you don't that.

00:34:15.193 --> 00:34:20.541
And Lee can see through it all because he knows what Cal's doing and Cal's trying to keep Lee to secret.

00:34:20.541 --> 00:34:32.438
And he knows like Adam, like sure, aaron's bright, but like Aaron would be doing and driving for nothing if it wasn't for Cal's you know, encouragement and pursuit.

00:34:32.438 --> 00:34:34.773
And Cal's also doing this other secret gift.

00:34:34.773 --> 00:34:38.914
So you might be surprised down the road that's one of adam's downfalls throughout.

00:34:38.934 --> 00:34:39.637
The book too is his.

00:34:40.947 --> 00:34:50.731
Also false realities he paints yeah, he characterizes everybody in a fantasy, just like you know, aaron tends to do with abra, right, or his own mother.

00:34:51.494 --> 00:35:02.838
Yeah, um, aaron goes off to college too in these chapters and he falls in his father's footsteps and he creates this fantasized version of abra in his, in his letters.

00:35:03.460 --> 00:35:26.699
That is absolutely impossible for abra to live up to and even though abra is definitely not a cane character she's not kathy, she knows, like I can't be this picture perfect woman he has in mind and you know, lee even tells her like, yeah, this is not good, like this idealized version of yourself that aaron is presenting could actually be.

00:35:27.001 --> 00:35:29.413
It's probably actually harmful to you and your guys's relationship.

00:35:29.413 --> 00:36:09.054
It's kind of not, it's not very healthy, it's unrealistic standards, um, and it's just again like showing, like you know, adam did that to kathy and um was, you know, adam basically died when it was revealed like this person is not who they imagined and so, like the question is like, when aaron finds out whose mother really is, will he have that death when, like, when he comes home from college and abra still abra and not this fantasized version of her in his letters home, will their love endure, um, so that's kind of the prognosis on the themes, and all that from 40 to 44.

00:36:09.054 --> 00:36:13.572
Uh, anything in there that you want to touch on before we go into 45 through 50?

00:36:14.295 --> 00:36:18.829
I think you know really one like it's a little side plot in the story.

00:36:18.829 --> 00:36:32.429
You know that becomes a little more prevalent, but it just is like lee and abra's relationship because, yeah, because abra's dad at home is a douche, yeah, he's just kind of uh, he's just your total prick, just drunk.

00:36:32.429 --> 00:36:39.579
Yeah, yeah, just your arrogant businessman who maybe didn't earn the business he's in.

00:36:39.579 --> 00:36:43.445
Yeah, or just like a non-present father.

00:36:44.447 --> 00:36:51.514
And it's never said, I think that he beats her or her mom or anything like that, but he's still an evil man by all regards.

00:36:51.514 --> 00:36:54.132
It's shown that he's disrespectful.

00:36:54.132 --> 00:36:57.153
She tells stories of how he has a temper.

00:36:57.153 --> 00:37:13.052
That is unjust and it's like you don't have to be this picture of violence to be an evil, unkind person yeah, and I see him as kind of like this weasley, like low tier local politician.

00:37:13.373 --> 00:37:28.833
Sure, you know just kind of like lives his lives off of rumors and and kind of trying to make a name trying to make make a name always in the mix, yeah, but really has nothing of substance to offer.

00:37:29.114 --> 00:37:29.737
Yeah, no, I agree.

00:37:29.737 --> 00:37:34.726
And Lee becomes that surrogate like loving, accepting, encouraging, good father to her.

00:37:34.726 --> 00:37:35.126
I love that Likeate.

00:37:35.126 --> 00:37:36.327
Like loving, accepting, encouraging good father to her.

00:37:36.327 --> 00:37:38.289
I love that like their relationship is never.

00:37:38.289 --> 00:37:46.041
There's never a moment where there's any alluding to like Lee having a lust for her because he's never had a wife.

00:37:46.722 --> 00:38:01.612
It's purely that like Lee recognizes, like, oh my gosh, for, like the first time ever, a decent woman might be a part of this family yeah, you know I mean it like, and, as far as we know, this is the only relationship with a woman he's had in his whole life.

00:38:02.956 --> 00:38:19.927
Yeah, outside of like a servant relationship right, like even with liza hamilton he acted the servant and with kathy he acted the servant and he's like been around him and seen him but never had really had that relationship and and from his origin story being like literally like torn from his mother's womb and then raised by men.

00:38:20.670 --> 00:38:46.047
So but, like he said, he has had not had this type of, he just hasn't had a relationship with a woman in any form one way or the other, and theirs is just pure and good it's so wholesome, especially too, where we see, like later on, like he just asked cal, like please check on abro, ask her if she wants to come over, you know, and she asked cal about lee and um, it's just a very wholesome relationship.

00:38:46.047 --> 00:39:17.757
Um, going forward, uh, john steinbeck is uh confronted and uses his own lived experience for an example of tim shull in the openings here um, you know, uh, world war one is pretty much on the doorstep of the town of salinas, um, and that, like you know, the, the war front is here, uh will and uh, cow's plan to buy the beans and sell them at a higher price is manifesting, and soon you know, the draft for World War.

00:39:17.757 --> 00:39:26.092
I will begin and this story opens up here, where John Steinbeck is talking about him and his sister, mary, or was it, cousin I?

00:39:26.112 --> 00:39:26.894
think it was a sister.

00:39:26.914 --> 00:39:53.675
Sister, and how in Salinas they made fun of this German-American man who and I say German-American because he was an immigrant, right Wasn't a German man, didn't show any love or allegiance to Germany, had a business and he was kind and smiled and he saw them as children and he was excited when he was walking the street to say hello to the children and they made fun of him and they yelled at him and they taunted him and he wept and ran away.

00:39:56.664 --> 00:40:15.996
And because World war one was happening at this point right it was happening at this point, but it wasn't like it wasn't really there, necessarily in salinas right where like their young men were dying, but they know that germans are bad yeah, like that's the whole thing like that's like from these little children, for the little children's point of view is germans are are the bad guys well, and they see the whole town of adults.

00:40:16.757 --> 00:40:18.469
Uh, you know, they have the mob mentality right.

00:40:18.469 --> 00:40:25.717
Everyone else says he's bad, everyone else talks poorly about him, no one wants to go to his business, they say we can't shop there.

00:40:25.717 --> 00:40:40.650
Um, but you know, even though everyone was choosing to be evil to this man and based only on his heritage, there still existed the moral knowledge that their acts were wrong and that partaking in the acts of the many did not excuse them.

00:40:40.650 --> 00:40:52.271
And Steinbeck says he always regretted how he treated that man because he realizes he was just a man and he was probably a good man too.

00:40:52.271 --> 00:41:10.539
And the conviction of having known what was done was evil and the desire to repent and experience redemption is within all of mankind, even if not outwardly expressed, because the truth is is like probably everyone who burnt down his business and made fun of him felt awful, especially years later.

00:41:21.644 --> 00:41:47.596
Um, in, you know, in these chapters too, we see that Adam is appointed to a position of authority as a man who delivers a judgment, right, he's kind of even being elevated more into a symbolic God, uh, where he is able to almost divinely, like direct the lives of uh young men in Salinas, you know he's, he's convicted, uh, with this you know notion that, um, his consciousness tells him, his conscious thoughts tell him, you know, he has to send boys to die in a war, not based on if they're good or bad boys, right, but it's just.

00:41:47.596 --> 00:41:49.405
It's not based on if they're poor or rich.

00:41:49.405 --> 00:41:52.791
It's simply like, are they physically fit enough, are they mentally fit enough?

00:41:52.791 --> 00:41:54.253
Are they of age?

00:41:54.253 --> 00:41:59.900
All all, right, it doesn't matter what their parents want, like I have to accept that they're good for the, for the draft.

00:41:59.900 --> 00:42:17.367
And you know, he's at all times eating, being eaten alive, because he knows, like his boys should also eventually face this and it's not morally right for him to send other people's boys to war and try to like, exclude and exempt his own.

00:42:18.369 --> 00:42:20.880
Um, and this is like another kind of timshel moment.

00:42:20.880 --> 00:42:21.722
I'd like one.

00:42:21.722 --> 00:42:35.829
I think this serves again, like I said, to elevate adam to this um, metaphorical, you know, jehovah, um, but it also is a timshel moment where, like, lee reminds adam like well, you have a choice, you may do this or not.

00:42:35.829 --> 00:42:37.628
You, you don't have to sit in this role.

00:42:37.628 --> 00:42:55.056
And Adam's convicted, he's like, yeah, but if I didn't do it, I'd be subjecting another man to it, um, and he's afraid that if another man were to do it, they would actually not send his boys out of like, preference or favor for him, which he would almost feel more guilt about.

00:42:55.998 --> 00:43:06.086
Um, and it quote in a chapter 49, he says, you know, um, this is later on, when, uh, he's dealing with like the rejection of Cal's gift.

00:43:06.086 --> 00:43:13.289
He says I send boys out, I sign my name and they go out and some will die and some will lie helpless without arms and legs.

00:43:13.289 --> 00:43:15.532
Not one will come back untorn.

00:43:15.532 --> 00:43:18.076
Son, do you think I could take a profit on that?

00:43:18.076 --> 00:43:22.925
I don't want the money, cal, and the lettuce.

00:43:22.925 --> 00:43:23.728
I don't think I did that for a profit.

00:43:23.748 --> 00:43:39.909
And so this is like Adam's rejection of Cal's gift, and I think it's like very intended to allude to, like God's rejection of Cain's, of course, because Adam struggles to see this nuance of both evil and good coexisting in one person.

00:43:39.909 --> 00:43:43.487
You know he struggles to see that that's what makes a person and he only sees the good.

00:43:43.487 --> 00:44:19.112
Sometimes he cannot understand that his son, you know, made this money with good intentions, while teaming up with Will Hamilton to do so and taking advantage of, you know, war, but like that doesn't make it evil, even though he colluded with someone who might have had, you know, greedy intentions, um, but I do think this is actually very much in line with what we believe, you know, is the character of god, uh, psalms 5, 4, here, uh, for you're not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with you.

00:44:19.112 --> 00:44:27.393
And if there's any ounce of evil in a gift, it cannot be accepted by Adam, just like it can't be accepted by God.

00:44:27.393 --> 00:44:29.847
And you know it looks to be like.

00:44:29.867 --> 00:44:37.594
I think it like Adam here is a reflection of God in that he must refuse Cal's gift because it is woven with the greed of Will Hamilton and tainted.

00:44:37.594 --> 00:44:56.717
Well, whereas Aaron's gift quote, unquote gift is is entirely good, you know, it's entirely motivated by good and what's woven into it is Cal's desire to uh respect and fulfill his, his father's wishes and to provide him a gift and like restore his name, yeah, and.

00:44:56.717 --> 00:45:06.030
But cal doesn't doesn't get that recognition in aaron's gift and in his own gift it just looks kind of dirty and it cannot be accepted.

00:45:06.030 --> 00:45:27.226
It's against adam's character, right, um, all right, before moving forward, wanted, you know, I wanted to see like your thoughts, because that's like a huge, pivotal, you know, moment, right, of like the the gift and the rejection of the gift and yeah, because you know he's cows saved up an insane amount of a lot of money for, and he's a young kid still like I mean relatively young.

00:45:27.246 --> 00:45:45.782
You know, like instagram influencer money at yeah 17 yeah, big time money, and it's just like it's such a gut punch because you see the setup for it going all the way back to the gift of Adam and Charles.

00:45:46.043 --> 00:45:49.190
Yeah, the dog and the knife, and you know it needs to happen.

00:45:49.411 --> 00:46:09.114
Yeah, adam found the dog at the woodpile to give to Cyrus and Cal worked or, in, charles worked his butt off chopping and selling wood to buy that knife, and that was the pivotal thing, one of the major pivotal thing in Charles relationship with Adam.

00:46:09.235 --> 00:46:29.242
And then you, so we see it coming for Cal and Aaron and this gift and it's just like, uh, exaggerated tenfold and like the stakes of it as far as like the effort put forth and you know the intention of this kid and the thought put forward to I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna make this money, make my dad proud.

00:46:29.242 --> 00:46:32.530
We're not gonna be the laughing stock at the town anymore from this.

00:46:32.530 --> 00:46:37.356
You know business blunder, um, and the.

00:46:37.356 --> 00:46:57.925
You just see it coming from so far away, though, and you're just you're is a gut punch when you know, because you're like I feel like as a reader, I was on like cal's side of this leading up to it like oh yeah, and like yeah, I was at this point I had lost all favor of aaron, like there was a point when there were boys I empathize with.

00:46:57.985 --> 00:47:48.672
Aaron and I during like the archery archery encounter right like shooting the rabbit and you're like this mean kid and this, this good-natured boy, and when Aaron cries in Abra's arms, just wanting a mom but, now, like Aaron is so honestly like he's almost inhuman, right like he's, he's kind of inhuman, but on the other side that Kathy is, like he's he doesn't care at all about, you know, showing thankfulness and appreciation to any member of his family, let alone Abra, who literally waits on him, and he's just, he's just totally internally focused on like what he wants to do and what would be fun for him or good for him and so like, yeah, I was 100 on cal side here and I was.

00:47:48.672 --> 00:47:50.724
I was just cringing, dude.

00:47:50.744 --> 00:48:02.914
I remember listening to it in the car and I was yelling like no, please no dude, don't let it be yeah, and because you know, and like we've touched on too the fact that all of Aaron's gift was all Cal's doing too.

00:48:02.914 --> 00:48:23.181
He worked hard, sweat off his brow to pay the money to get him through high school and send him to college faster, adam's rejection of the gift.

00:48:23.181 --> 00:48:33.403
While like it's, it's one of those situations where it's like the you, you didn't like when I react to my kids this way, where I'm like I was right but I didn't really handle that correctly.

00:48:33.403 --> 00:48:41.557
Yep, right is, and that's what's happening in this case, where you have like from adam's perspective, when he's talking about you know this money is.

00:48:41.557 --> 00:48:58.385
You know the reason why prices skyrocketed was because of the war, profiteering off of the backs of you know and the blood of other boys, and so which I get, but like yeah, I don't even think is like necessarily wrong, like right that's.

00:48:58.585 --> 00:49:08.045
That's, everyone was gonna do it and even the farmers were resenting the fact that they didn't get to do it and they still made good money.

00:49:08.045 --> 00:49:10.452
Yeah, and it's just like I know.

00:49:10.452 --> 00:49:21.788
You know, we know that adam's burdened by this consciousness and he can't see it yeah, and one thing about adam, though, is that adam's never cared about money.

00:49:22.570 --> 00:49:26.588
True, he's like like, even like he's just been black and white about the whole time.

00:49:26.588 --> 00:49:29.342
I don't even think about that like from like the day one.

00:49:29.342 --> 00:49:36.623
Like receiving his father's inheritance, he wasn't like, uh, he didn't want to keep the money to be rich.

00:49:36.623 --> 00:49:39.030
When him and charles were talking about it, he's just like.

00:49:39.030 --> 00:49:40.442
Charles is like can we keep the money?

00:49:40.442 --> 00:49:44.550
Like this might be bad money, yeah, and adam's just like um.

00:49:44.550 --> 00:49:48.423
In one sense, you could say you know adam in that moment too.

00:49:48.423 --> 00:49:48.784
He's like.

00:49:48.784 --> 00:49:51.702
He's black and white, like this is our inheritance, it's fine also.

00:49:51.702 --> 00:50:02.989
In this same same way, you could look at this as, like adam got his first inheritance, his first big break off of war profiteering.

00:50:03.289 --> 00:50:05.739
Oh yeah, True dude, that's a good connection.

00:50:07.742 --> 00:50:26.222
And then if you go back to Adam's epiphany, when him and Lee and Sam Hamilton are talking about the story of Cain and Abel and all of a sudden he pauses because they're all three talking about it and they're they're like this is the story of every man and Adam's like, well, I don't know about every man, basically.

00:50:26.222 --> 00:50:29.110
And then he kind of stops and he's like, oh wait, no, this is my story too.

00:50:29.110 --> 00:50:47.215
In that same way that, like he is having to he's, he's come a long way from he, from evaluating his life, knowing where he got his first you know inheritance from, and then also, even like the inheritance of Charles to him, he gave half to Kathy.

00:50:47.215 --> 00:50:52.215
He didn't go to court over it, he just gave it to her, like when it was time to do the lettuce thing.

00:50:52.215 --> 00:50:59.224
He wasn't in pursuit of money, he was in pursuit of doing what he wanted to do with his life, and so he has transitioned to a like.

00:50:59.224 --> 00:51:04.233
Money for him is different now and throughout the book to like money.

00:51:04.797 --> 00:51:23.454
Inheritance, I should say, is kind of alluded to as original sin in the way it's passed down, like from one to the next, and like blood money or bad money or like we'll see later on where inheritance comes from a poor house or where inheritance comes from a war profiteer, where inheritance comes from.

00:51:23.474 --> 00:51:30.853
You know these different places and so it's like you are by accepting it, you are bound to those things.

00:51:30.853 --> 00:51:40.432
And so Adam, I think, has a different perspective on it now, and so that's why he says to his son if you want to give me a good gift, live a good life.

00:51:40.432 --> 00:51:43.157
If you want to give me a good gift, live a good life.

00:51:43.157 --> 00:52:00.048
And so in this moment of rejection, while he did the right thing it was also like his he didn't do it correctly of how you should approach your son, whose works are hard, but like he is not wrong in that, like in this moment of teaching a lesson is like if you want to live, if you want to give me a good gift, live a good life.

00:52:00.048 --> 00:52:15.445
And this difference between making a living and making a life, where he has kind of come to understand now, like the Sam Hamilton version of making a life, not a living, just how Sam Hamilton never really made a dime, but he had a really full life.

00:52:16.460 --> 00:52:25.873
Yeah, and I think you know it's unfortunate here, because we know, with Adam's intentions, though, he spurred his son in the other direction.

00:52:25.873 --> 00:52:35.070
And Cal is deeply hurt by this and begins to like.

00:52:35.070 --> 00:52:40.056
He doesn't even really sulk, but he festers in this anger.

00:52:40.056 --> 00:52:44.204
He doesn't even really sulk, but he festers in this anger.

00:52:44.204 --> 00:52:48.740
And lee sees that, and lee tells him like, you can like, you can choose between good or evil, you do not have to go punish your brother for this.

00:52:48.740 --> 00:52:52.349
And, uh, you don't need to take your anger out.

00:52:52.909 --> 00:53:42.074
Your father is misguided in like his actions, but his intentions are good and, um, he serves as this voice of morality within you know, the consciousness of cain leading up to abel's murder, right, and uh, we see that kyle succumbs to this hatred, though he, he does choose actively to no longer be his brother's keeper, um, and in his heart he desires to kind of get recompense against his father by, you know, spoiling aaron's quote-unquote like virtuous this, and uh, show him the truth of his mother, um, and in taking aaron to see his mother, you, you know, and he says you know, I have a present for you, aaron.

00:53:42.755 --> 00:53:42.835
Yeah.

00:53:42.876 --> 00:53:54.201
And it's, it's veiled in kindness and it very much comes to the feeling of like post rejection from God Cain putting his arm around Abel and be like oh, I want to show you something in the field.

00:53:54.280 --> 00:54:01.327
Yeah, it's like, and it's like a Dr Jackal, dr Jekyll, mr Hyde, dr Jekyll, mr Hyde, dr Jekyll, mr Hyde.

00:54:01.327 --> 00:54:03.289
You know kind of like shift.

00:54:03.289 --> 00:54:08.014
You know, just like the like, the darkness is here now.

00:54:08.195 --> 00:54:09.876
Yeah, right, and we all know too.

00:54:09.876 --> 00:54:21.554
Yeah, because it like, especially if you're listening to it in Audible, the narrator at the end of this chapter just makes it so ominous in the way Cal approaches Aaron, puts his arm around him.

00:54:21.554 --> 00:54:24.507
He's like come on, I want to show you, it's over here in town.

00:54:24.887 --> 00:54:25.108
Yeah.

00:54:25.349 --> 00:54:26.806
It's a I'll show you this present.

00:54:26.806 --> 00:54:55.690
And he gets Aaron, you know, drunk and then shows him his mother, um, and Aaron completely rejects her, um, and in this, like you know, anger and frustration, in this shattering of this image of who his mom is, out there in the world maybe, or who she was, aaron runs away again, he runs from the ugliness to join the army and sign up.

00:54:55.690 --> 00:55:07.503
And that also is the manifestation of adam's fears, that one that his boys, one of them, would be drafted um.

00:55:07.503 --> 00:55:23.862
But also we see that kathy's fantasy of her son and this idea that she would, you know, run away to another city and have her wealth and, and you know, aaron would join her and accept her as his mother.

00:55:24.983 --> 00:55:30.474
And I, you know, idolize, idolize, idolize her, that's the word.

00:55:30.474 --> 00:55:41.788
She, her whole life, has only loved herself until she saw Aaron, yeah, and this fantasy of him accepting her as is that she would be loved.

00:55:41.788 --> 00:55:48.501
You know she's she's never had this desire of acceptance by anyone and she's never feared anyone else's rejection.

00:55:48.501 --> 00:55:56.001
Rather, you know, she has always desired control and only been frustrated at failure to control someone.

00:55:56.001 --> 00:56:00.510
But here, you know, she has genuine fear and desire for acceptance and love.

00:56:09.920 --> 00:56:14.512
And she has this weird like perverse redemption version, like the fever dream she puts out there of her like fantasy in her own mind.

00:56:14.512 --> 00:56:24.760
It is like it's weird, cause it it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to be like this woman who'd never been with her son all of a sudden wants to take him to New York and just be with them and live together.

00:56:24.760 --> 00:56:50.052
But the way it's described and written out it's like this, like in her version of redeeming her life is still like this weird, perverse version of it and it's like and I think that Steinbeck kind of uses it as like a um, uh, kind of uses it as like a kind of a nail in the coffin on like she's evil, like even her version of like redemption is just a weird, perverse thing.

00:56:50.139 --> 00:56:57.871
Yeah, in no way is it like forgiveness, in no way is it like recognition of her past acts and pardoning them.

00:56:58.072 --> 00:56:58.652
And it's selfish.

00:56:59.039 --> 00:57:04.865
Yeah, it's entirely selfish and under the concept of like, all of my wrongs will be veiled.

00:57:04.865 --> 00:57:10.784
You know, all my son will know is that I'm a wealthy woman who wants to spoil him um.

00:57:11.224 --> 00:57:47.771
And in this rejection by aaron, she realizes like all of her life has been for not you know, and she exists as this, like wretched crone that only has ghosts and anxieties to kind of haunt her um and aaron, as he's always done, like I said, he runs away from this ugliness and pain in his life and it's, you know, very much like just as adam hid from the world and the hard truths you know and kind of you know, adam had his moment of death whereas but like samuel at, uh, samuel adams, samuel hamilton was there to pull him out of it.

00:57:47.831 --> 00:58:07.206
You know, and there's, with aaron running away, there's no chance for him to be pulled out and, uh, one thing I I think I missed when initially reading, but now, like reviewing, it was like did Cal like laugh at him leaving, like in this moment of like.

00:58:07.206 --> 00:58:32.063
I can't remember Right Because I was reading like a little like review and it just like it mentioned and I couldn't remember exactly, but like it basically said that you know, in this moment of Aaron screaming, of his like seeing his mother's way, and cal has like a sadistic sadistic laugh while it's happening and it's just uh, uh, back to the like, dr jackal and mr hyde, which I can never remember which one's the bad one.

00:58:32.605 --> 00:58:34.108
Jackal, that one.

00:58:34.108 --> 00:58:51.443
So you know it's like, but he's just like fully unleashed in that moment, just this, like you know, um, which I think we'll see like that, that for him, like him laughing in this moment, I think also like helps us understand the grief and guilt to come, like him reflecting upon that moment.

00:58:52.445 --> 00:59:16.610
It's just like that really, it just paints a solid picture of where his guilt's coming from yeah, I laughed at my brother's death, you know um, metaphorical death, um, we see here, though, this, you know, conclusion to kathy, pretty much where, um, she embodies, you know from earlier on, the quote um from steinbeck.

00:59:16.610 --> 00:59:19.755
Uh, let me scroll back up to it.

00:59:19.755 --> 00:59:26.063
Um, you know, uh, and it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn while good, while virtue, is immortal.

00:59:26.063 --> 01:00:01.429
And we see kathy wilting away, you know, and like evil is, is dying here, um, kathy literally has death hanging around her and that she has a vial of a lethal dose of morphine that she keeps on a chain around a necklace, um, in case the pain, uh, whether physical or emotional, becomes so severe that she cannot withstand it any longer and kathy, having been denied any redemption via aaron's rejection, runs away from the ugliness of her sins into this fantasy of her own mind.

01:00:01.429 --> 01:00:39.367
Um, she decided she desires to escape so desperately that she commits suicide, imagining she could become so small in this, in this, you know, morphine induced, uh, you know what's the term, not haven, but, uh, hallucination, um, that she would become so small that nothing can find her and hold her accountable for these actions, that she can run away from them, uh, and she uses, you know that the story of alice in wonderland, as like this, you know, imaginary fantasy, she'd run away with alice and, uh, kathy dies.

01:00:39.367 --> 01:00:51.001
But, however, you know, in her final moments it's not this blissful escapism but it's a haunting by the ghosts and incarnations of those who she is harmed along the way.

01:00:51.001 --> 01:01:00.567
Her parents are there, um, and additionally, like she sees charles and she sees all these ghosts of the past, and then she sees a cow there smiling at her.

01:01:00.606 --> 01:01:19.302
Essentially, and um, in this last final act of, you know, I think it's, I think it's actually evil now that I've been thinking about it, originally I was like it's a maybe it was a final act of like hope of forgiveness, but I don't think it was.

01:01:19.302 --> 01:01:38.947
I think it was a final act of vindictiveness, because she knows the only way aaron will probably know, uh, that she's dead and she can kind of make him think like he's killed her, is to leave her this inheritance, I mean, leave him the inheritance of her stuff, and she leaves all of her things, all of her possessions and money to Aaron.

01:01:38.947 --> 01:01:49.416
And I think that that really is her way of like telling Aaron like you killed me, and she wants him to feel guilt with every dime of hers that he would ever spend.

01:01:49.416 --> 01:01:56.313
However, that's pretty much thwarted by Cal, because Aaron never will know.

01:01:56.313 --> 01:02:00.469
He enlisted in the army before he could ever find out she's dead.

01:02:01.460 --> 01:02:11.780
And also so with like, where we see Aaron run once again into join the army, run away from his problems.

01:02:11.780 --> 01:02:28.889
There's also there's a quote from Lee talking about mankind and him and Adam are discussing kind of the state of men at this time and and this is before Adam knows about uh Aaron joining the military.

01:02:28.889 --> 01:02:38.253
But Adam just says I know uh little about a great many things, um, but not enough about one thing to make a living at it.

01:02:38.253 --> 01:02:53.764
And he talks about how Sam hamilton saw this coming and he hated, hated, the age of the specialist, you know, and um, and then lee's response was is is the part I wanted to focus on here, which is he.

01:02:53.764 --> 01:03:05.143
Lee says maybe the knowledge is too great and the men becoming too small, maybe kneeling down to atoms, they are becoming atom sized in their souls.

01:03:05.384 --> 01:03:22.561
Maybe a specialist is a coward missing the world and the later on lee will go on to critique uh aaron as a coward in his own like self-conversation, how he's like when, about him going and running away, and so it's like the.

01:03:22.561 --> 01:03:25.829
There's a couple pieces here, just even on like a personal note the.

01:03:25.829 --> 01:03:27.432
Uh, I resonate with the.

01:03:27.432 --> 01:03:32.960
I know a little about a great many things, but not enough about one thing like kind of the jack-of-all-trades thing.

01:03:32.960 --> 01:03:36.344
I think it's as common to man, um and then.

01:03:38.304 --> 01:04:10.744

Dog-Eared Dialogues - East of Eden Part 4

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