Is it to be wondered at if my thoughts were dazed, as my eyes were, when I came out into the natural light from the misty yellow rooms?

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Spoiler Alert: Plot Summary
Halloa! Our main character in Great Expectations is Philip Pirrip, aka Pip. His parents are both deceased at the beginning of the story, and he is being brought up "by hand" by his older sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, and her husband, Joe. Joe is a blacksmith who runs his own forge, and the family is a common laboring family. Pip is meant to become the apprentice for Joe, and Mrs. Joe is well-meaning, but an aggressive and sometimes violent surrogate parent. Joe sticks up for Pip, and the two are great friends. In the beginning of the book, Pip is at the graveyard staring at his parents' graves, and he comes upon a convict who has escaped from the "hulks", or prison ships. The convict scares Pip into offering to bring him back a file and some "wittles". Pip brings these items the next day, but Pip's convict discovers that another convict has also escaped, and he attacks that convict, risking his own re-imprisonment to ensure that the other convict doesn't get away. Both convicts are re-captured as Pip and Joe and several other neighbors watch. Pip's aid to the convict is not revealed.

Life returns to normal until Pip is asked to visit Miss Havisham, a very wealthy neighborhood lady. He goes to play with her, and she is UBER bizarre. Ready for the description? She lives in a house that is lit only by candles. She doesn't see the light of day because she spends most of her time in a room with no windows. She's wearing her tattered to-be wedding dress and still sports her wedding veil and dried flowers in her hair. She's ancient. She's wearing one shoe and the other shoe is sitting on a table; it has clearly never been worn. And all of her clocks are stopped at twenty minutes to nine.

Miss Havisham has an adopted daughter, Estella, who - well, how should I describe her? Has a HEART OF STONE. No really.

Pip, of course, is GAGA for Estella (what do you wear to cause a gaga at ze go-go? a toga full of long beautiful hair!). Estella enjoys torturing Pip emotionally. Miss Havisham likes to watch. This goes on for a great deal of time, after which Miss Havisham eventually gives Pip enough money to become apprenticed to Joe. Pip, however, is no longer satisfied with his life as a laborer, and Estella has made him ashamed of his status and who he is. (GO, ESTELLA! you rock.)

Yes, I recognize this is a long plot summary, but HELLO, haven't you missed these? Moving on.

Pip is going about his business, pining for Estella and wishing he were rich, and then, BLAM! He gets rich. A weird random man approaches him and tells him that someone has decided he is going to make Pip a gentleman. Pip assumes it is Miss Havisham, and he happily deserts Joe and heads off to London. (PS - I forgot to mention that Pip's sister is brutally attacked and suffers severe brain damage. And then dies a little while after. We "don't know" who did it. (AHEM.))

Pip makes friends with a man named Herbert Pocket, a relative of Miss Havisham, and they live well beyond their means for a while in an apartment in London. Pip pines after Estella, befriends his intense lawyer (Mr. Jaggers)'s assistant Wemmick (who has 2 personalities - one at work in London and one at home in Walworth) and waits for his assumed benefactress, Miss Havisham, to tell him that she wants him to marry Estella. Meanwhile, no one has confirmed that Miss Havisham is his benefactress, and Estella has given him ZERO indication that she is capable of any kind of non-alien, human affection. Pip doesn't seem to mind.

CUE THE CONVICT. One day, completely out of the blue, Pip's convict, who turns out to be named Abel Magwitch, appears at Pip's door and reveals that he is Pip's mysterious benefactor. Pip is HORRIFIED. Not only are his hopes dashed of meeting Estella, he played with a CRAZY lady for nothing, and he is now attached intimately to a dangerous criminal. To add salt to the wound, Magwitch reveals to Pip that he is has been exiled to Australia, and faces death if he is caught in England. Pip has to decide what to do with Magwitch, so he disguises him and hides him at Herbert's girlfriend Clara's house, with the intention of escaping to a foreign country with him at the opportune moment.

HOWEVER, of course the situation is complicated by the fact that Pip goes back to visit Miss Havisham to tell her that it was very cruel of her to let him believe she was his benefactress, and she, presumably in a rage because Estella is getting married to a loser (Bentley Drummle) and leaving her alone, promptly manages to light herself on fire. Pip helps her roll herself out, getting some pretty serious arm burns in the process. Miss Havisham is permanently laid up in her fave room (the creepy room described previously) and eventually kicks it on the table.

Pip is rather flustered by this whole situation, but he returns to London and is getting ready to make his escape with Magwitch when he gets a mysterious note saying he should come back to the moors near his house if he wants to save his "uncle Provis", which is what they've been calling Magwitch. He goes alone (STUPID) and it turns out to be a message from Orlick, who, BIG SURPRISE, we find out is the disgruntled ex-employee of Joe who attacked Pip's sister earlier in the book. Orlick is getting ready to kill Pip, apparently just because he hates him and has resented Pip's rise to wealth, (and manages to seriously mess up his burned arms even more) when Herbert and their friend Startop intervene, having followed Pip from London.

Whew! Still with me? I'll speed it up. In a nutshell, we find out that Magwitch is Estella's father (HAHA!) and her mother is Mr. Jaggers' housekeeper (RANDOM!) and Estella's marriage ends badly and then she gets married again and that one doesn't go so well either. Magwitch is identified during their escape attempt by Compeyson, who turns out to have been the other convict from the beginning of the story. Turns out Compeyson was the man who broke Miss Havisham's heart (on her wedding day, at 20 minutes to nine, GET IT?) and Magwitch was working for him. They were basically into a lot of bad things, scheming and cheating people and the like, but Compeyson was in cahoots with Miss Havisham's brother, who went CRAZY after they tried to cheat her out of her money, and Compeyson made it seem like Magwitch was to blame for everything, when he was really just the grunt man. Magwitch lunges at Compeyson, Compeyson drowns, Magwitch is seriously injured, he goes to jail, and Pip visits him often and eventually Magwitch dies in jail. Pip turns around and ends up really loving Magwitch, and feeling bad for being such an ass toward Joe and Biddy (who I didn't introduce but was basically like a platonic friend of Pip's). Herbert gets a decent job as clerk and then a partner in a shipping house (which has been secretly subsidized by Pip, first by his own money, and then by Miss Havisham at Pip's request) and eventually marries Clara, his long-time gf. Herbert offers Pip a job at his house, now that Pip is destitute (all of Magwitch's money went to the state when he was jailed). Joe comes back to take care of Pip after Magwitch dies, because Pip falls very ill and then goes into debt. Joe pays all of Pip's debts, and just as Pip and he are getting back to the way things used to be, Pip is better, and Joe disappears. Pip follows him back to his old stomping grounds and decides he should just marry Biddy, because even though he doesn't love her, she's a good common girl with a good heart, but when he gets there, it is Joe and Biddy's wedding day, and Pip realizes he's being a dummy, and he celebrates with them. They have a son and name him Pip, and the book ends with Pip walking with little Pip and bumping into Estella, who is still cold, but seems a bit more like she has a real heart instead of one made of stone. They are both mostly miserable. HOORAY!
Spoiler Over: Continue Here

So, I know what you're thinking. BEST BOOK EVER, right? Oddly enough, this is actually one of my favorite books. Okay, so it might have taken me six odd months to read it this time around, but I took the GREs and the LSATs, worked full-time, and applied to grad school. It's still an excellent book. Allow me to tell you the parts I like best.

-When Pip goes home from meeting Magwitch and attempts to steal "wittles" for him in secret, he shoves a piece of buttered bread down his pants. Joe, shocked by how quickly Pip has consumed this slice, accuses Pip of "bolting", and though he is apologetic that Pip will get in trouble with Mrs. Joe, he says, "manners is manners, but still your elth's your elth." The ensuing description of the lump of buttered bread sliding down Pip's pant leg is delightful.

-Pip is placed on display at various points in his childhood as the only child in his sister's group of friends. During one of the very awkward dinners he is forced to sit through, Joe gives Pip gravy each time he feels Pip is being verbally abused by the crowd. At one point, Dickens claims Joe pours Pip a half a pint. Excellent example of Dickensian wry humor - Joe offers Pip gravy about six more times during the meal.

-In a discussion of reading and writing, Joe's limited abilities are revealed. When Pip asks him how he spells Gargery, Joe promptly replies, "I don't spell it at all." He says he's "uncommon fond of reading", and happily points out that he can find a J, an O, and a J-O, JO in any piece of writing. This leads to one of my favorite lines in the whole book, "I derived from this last, that Joe's education, like Steam, was in its infancy." I know some people can't get behind him and accuse him of being verbose because he was getting paid by the word, but Dickens is a wordsmith, truly. His sentences may be long and his descriptions in-depth, but each word and phrase carries weight and wit.

-When Pip first returns from visiting Miss Havisham, he embellishes wildly, perhaps to hide the true bizarreness of his visit. He describes them as playing flags, waving swords wildly, and suggests that if he had been prodded further, he would have included a balloon in the yard and a bear in the brewery next door. Amusingly enough, the true story was probably twice as odd as his tale, but when he fesses up to Joe, Joe is extremely disappointed. I love the way Joe pleads with Pip: "But at least there was dogs, Pip? Come Pip, if there warn't no weal-cutlets, at least there was dogs?" Pip responds, "No, Joe." Joe replies, "A dog? A puppy? Come?" He discusses with Pip why Pip would feel compelled to lie, and then adds in, "which reminds me to hope that there were a flag, perhaps?" And Dickens inserts in a parenthesis of Joe's next line, "I'm sorry there weren't a flag, Pip." Brilliant.

-Miss Havisham asks Joe to come to Satis House to make Pip his official apprentice, but Joe is too uncomfortable to address Miss Havisham, so during the whole interview, he addresses Pip when he answers Miss Havisham's questions. Example - when Miss Havisham asks, "Has the boy ever made any objection; does he like the trade?", Joe replies, "Which it is well beknown to yourself, Pip, that it were the wish of your own hart." Pip finds this to be (a) embarassing and (b) extremely frustrating, but it makes for an amazing comic interaction.

-Herbert Pocket, a relative of Miss Havisham, becomes Pip's roommate when he moves to London. Herbert is a kind, true friend, and from the beginning, is willing to help Pip to adjust to high society. This is hilariously portrayed in their first meal together, during which Pip asks him to point out any inappropriate table manners so that he can learn to correct them. Herbert doesn't like Pip's name (Philip) and thinks it too reminiscent of a book about a school boy, so he names Pip Handel, after a Handel piece about a blacksmith. In the process of discussing Miss Havisham and beginning the meal, Herbert points out, "Let me introduce the topic, Handel, by mentioning that in London it is not the custom to put the knife in the mouth - for fear of accidents - and that while the fork is reserved for that use, it is not put further in than necessary." Dickens has a marvelous way of packing seemingly banal conversations with a dry humor. My other favorite line here is when Herbert interrupts his story to mention to Pip that a "dinner napkin will not go into a tumbler."

-Wemmick, the assistant to Mr. Jaggers, Pip's lawyer and guardian while in London, is one of the best characters in the book. He is extremely strict and straightforward with the clientele at the law firm, but when Pip manages to crack Wemmick's hard exterior, he finds out that Wemmick is a totally different person at his home in Walworth. He lives in a bizarre house with a drawbridge and a small moat, and he lives with his father, whom he refers to as the "Aged Parent", or sometimes simply, the "aged P". Dickens' description of the scene where Pip first meets the aged P is hilarious. Wemmick asks Pip to oblige the aged P by nodding, as he is exceedingly deaf.

"You're as proud of it as Punch; ain't you, Aged?" said Wemmick, contemplating the old man, with his hard face really softened; "there's a nod for you': giving him a tremendous one; "there's another for you; giving him a still more tremendous one; "you like that, don't you? If you're not tired, Mr. Pip - though I know it's tiring to strangers - will you tip him one more? You can't think how it pleases him."

Wemmick also shoots off a sort of cannon that he nicknames the Stinger, and calls this the Aged's nightly treat. Pip describes this as it happens for the first time, "Upon this, the Aged - who I believe would have been blown out of his arm-chair but for holding on by the elbows - cried out exultingly, "He's fired! I heerd him!" and I (Pip) nodded at the gentleman until it is no figure of speech to declare that I absolutely could not see him."

-Joe and Pip frequently refer to adventures they will have by saying "What larks" - this theme recurs throughout the novel, even after Pip begins to ignore Joe. When Joe comes to visit Pip (and Pip ends up feeling embarassed and ashamed of Joe - SAD!) Joe asks Biddy to write a letter to Pip announcing his arrival, and the post script reads, "P.S. He wishes me most particular to write what larks. He says you will understand. I hope and do not doubt it will be agreeable to see him even though a gentleman, for you had ever a good heart, and he is a worthy worthy man. I have read him all excepting only the last little sentence, and he wishes me most particular to write again what larks."  This phrase is a delightful representation of Joe and Pip's playful connection, and it appears in circumstances where Pip is mistreating Joe, but also later on in the book when Pip realizes how mean his treatment toward Joe has been. It acts as a sort of code for their relationship and its potential. This letter also captures both Biddy's good heart (for she gives Pip more credit than he deserves at this point in the novel) and Joe's playful innocence and charm.

-When Pip confronts Miss Havisham after finding out that she is not his benefactress, he asks, "But when I fell into the mistake that I have so long remained in, at least you led me on?" She replies, "Yes. I let you go on." Pip demands, "Was that kind?" To which Miss Havisham replies, in a wrath, "who am I, for God's sake, that I should be kind?" This interaction really sums up her feelings of total absolution from responsibility toward Pip or Estella. Her own abuse and heartbreak have ruined her ability to empathize or, perhaps, feel anything at all.

-When Pip comes back to visit Miss Havisham after Estella has gotten married, Miss Havisham, in an odd change of heart, begs his forgiveness for her ill treatment of him. She doesn't really apologize for being so cruel and hard-hearted, but she explains that in the beginning, she hoped only to save Estella from misery, but in the process, she "stole Estella's heart away and put ice in its place." Pip responds "better, to have left her a natural heart, even to bruised or broken." This is the last conversation Pip has with Miss Havisham before she lights herself on fire.

-Pip has strict orders from Wemmick never to discuss his Walworth personality with Mr. Jaggers, nor ever to let on that Wemmick has a whole different life at home. However, in a fit of frustration at Mr. Jaggers boxing him out of the reasoning behind Magwitch granting Pip his "great expectations", Pip reveals to Jaggers that Wemmick has a pleasant home and an aged parent and innocent, cheerful habits at home. Jaggers responds in a shocked voice, "What's all this? You with an old father, and you with pleasant and playful ways?" Wemmick replies, "Well? If I don't bring 'em here, what does it matter?" A hilarious moment of each man re-evaluating the other occurs, after which Wemmick snaps at a blubbering client and tells him to stop "spluttering like a bad pen." He demands that the man leave the office, crying, "I'll have no feelings here. Get out!" It's a wonderful denouement to the storyline of Wemmick leading a double life.

-In the end, Pip loses his money, and realizes, in many ways, that Joe and Magwitch have been truer "gentlemen" than he ever was. When Magwitch dies, he feels affectionate, grateful, and generous, which is a huge turnaround from when Magwitch appeared on Pip's doorstep and Pip was tempted to throw him out on the street. He sums it up by saying, "I only saw in him a much better man that I had been to Joe."

-Wemmick tricks Pip into being a witness for his wedding after Pip has fallen into a deep depression after Magwitch's death. Wemmick grabs a fishing rod and asks Pip to go for a walk. Pip finds this odd once he realizes they are not going fishing, but Wemmick exclaims with surprise, "Halloa! Here's a church! Let's go in!" He proceeds to lead Pip through the wedding, following this line up with others like, "Halloa! Here's a couple of pair of gloves! Let's put 'em on!" and "Halloa! Here's Miss Skiffins! Let's have a wedding." and "Halloa! Here's a ring." The description of the Aged P's role in the day is as follows:

"The responsibility of giving the lady away devolved upon the Aged, which led to the clergyman's being unintentionally scandalized, and it happened thus. When he said, "Who giveth this woman to be married to this man? the old gentleman, not in the least knowing what point of the ceremony we had arrived at, stood most amiably beaming at the ten commandments. Upon which, the clergyman said again, WHO giveth this woman to be married to this man? The old gentleman being still in a state of most estimable consciousness, the bridegroom cried out in his accustomed voice, "Now Aged P. you know; who giveth?" To which the Aged replied with great briskness, before saying that he gave, "All right, John, all right, my boy!"

-The ending is intriguing, and sort of confusing. I'm not sure where we're supposed to assume Pip has ended up on his roller coaster of emotions toward Estella. He isn't totally miserable, in that he has a job working with Herbert, and Herbert is truly delightful, but he still pines for Estella, and in some ways his heart is never complete without her. My version of the book includes an alternate ending that Dickens wrote upon the suggestion of his fellow novelist who thought that the original ending was too dreary. In that one, Estella and Pip bump into each other during one last visit to Satis House, and she is still miserable, but she hopes that she and Pip can be friends, and she expresses openly that suffering has taught her what Pip's heart used to feel, and she is sorry for that. They still leave each other, but this time as friends, and Dickens remarks on the fact that she leaves with no accompanying shadow of a companion. I'm not sure if that's supposed to suggest that maybe she and Pip will end up getting together, or if that's just to reinforce the idea that she will always be alone. I think all told, I like the original ending better.

-The title of the post comes from the following line of thought that Pip expresses in reflecting on the time he spent at Satis House: "What could I become with these surroundings? How could my character fail to be influenced by them? Is it to be wondered at if my thoughts were dazed, as my eyes were, when I came out into the natural light from the misty yellow rooms?" While I'm sure that Miss Havisham's presence could not fail to influence such impressionable minds as those of Pip and Estella, I feel like the effect it has on Pip is remarkable in that it overpowers the positive effects of such relationships as that of Joe, Biddy, Herbert, and eventually Magwitch. It takes Pip most of the book to wash away the smudge that Miss Havisham leaves on his soul, and his attachment to Estella, though not Miss Havisham's fault, leaves him ultimately miserable because Estella has been turned into a heartless ice queen by Miss Havisham. If we really played the blame game out, though, Miss Havisham was who she was because of Compeyson, who was aided by Arthur Havisham and Magwitch, which brings us full circle, as Magwitch made Pip a gentleman and also eventually taught him compassion and love. Tada! Vicious cycle!

This book never ceases to fascinate me, in that I don't particularly like Pip, Estella, or Miss Havisham throughout the novel, and I think it's brilliant that Dickens manages to write a novel about three people I dislike and make me understand and empathize with them. The humor is equally brilliant, and unparalleled in any other book I've read so far. All told, I have no difficulty understanding this one's rating as a classic.

Deeper I go into the land of Dickens, off to Paris in the midst of a revolution.

Ahem. Apologies for a prolonged absence.

My dearest blog enthusiasts,

After several conversations which have convinced me that there are those in the internet world who actually read and enjoy this blog with some regularity, I realize that I should explain the reason for my absence.

Just in case you were terrified that I was NOT going to finish my task, FEAR NOT! I am merely on hiatus. I am in the process of applying to graduate school (dual degree programs in law and public policy, in case you're interested) and have had to study for and take the GRE and the LSATS in the last six months. After the LSATs, I was hard at work on my applications, and now I am finally ready to return to my lovely books.

I have just finished Great Expectations and will be blogging about it soon - perhaps tonight, perhaps later in the week.

So for those of you who have missed my blogs, look forward to a new one soon. In other news, I'm looking for fellow book-lovers to do "read-alongs" with me in the coming weeks so that I can have reading partners and they can share alternate perspectives. They're welcome to share a blog entry alongside mine, or just thoughts and ideas. I've got takers for A Tale of Two Cities and War and Peace but I'd love for anyone to join me for any of the other ones coming up on my list.

Off to a crackling fire, back in a jiffy!

You see, there's a responsibility in being a person. It's more than just taking up space where air would be.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Spoiler Alert: Plot Summary
We have two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons. Cyrus is the father of Adam and Charles, and he's married to Alice. Alice is the mother of Charles - Adam's mother died. Alice is sweet, but sick, and dies fairly soon after the novel begins. Charles and Adam have a tenuous relationship growing up on a farm in Connecticut, and Charles almost kills Adam once after they both give their father a birthday present and Cyrus seems to reject Charles' present. Cyrus was in the army briefly, but he becomes a war hero and gets moved to Washington to consult after he fabricates an extreme knowledge of all things war-related. Adam is sent off to fight in the war with the Indians (sorry, really don't know what war they're referring to, or if it has an official title) though he is sweet and tender and doesn't want to fight. He is eventually discharged from the army, but doesn't know what to do with himself, and he ends up re-enlisting, and then he ends up getting arrested for being a vagrant after he refuses to go home. Charles continues to work the farm, Adam eventually returns home, and their father dies. Adam and Charles discover a girl who has been beaten within an inch of her life at their doorstep, and despite what everyone will say (and perhaps think) they take her in. (We know that she's a crazy girl who burned her parents' house down (while they were in it) and then became a whore and then got good with the pimp and then cheated him and broke his heart and then he tried to kill her, but they don't know any of this). Adam falls in love with her (of course) and moves with her out to California. Cathy (the woman) gets pregnant, tries unsuccessfully to abort it (did I mention she slept with Charles before she left?) and then gives birth to twins. She is creepy and clearly very unhappy, and she up and leaves after the twins are born. (Well, to be precise, she shoots her husband, Adam, and then goes into the city to become a whore again.) Adam is both nearly dead and heartbroken, but he manages to survive with the help of Lee, his Chinese servant, and Sam Hamilton, his neighbor. The twin boys are named Caleb and Aron, and Adam ignores them for about 10 years before he finally comes back to life. Everyone in town eventually figures out that Cathy is the new whore in town, Kate, and Kate eventually murders the existing madam, Faye, and takes over the whorehouse. Caleb (Cal) and Aron grow up and have a similar relationship to Adam and Charles. Oh, and Adam is rich because Charles dies and leaves him lots of money from the farm, and he also got money from his father's death. Adam eventually finds out that Cathy is whoring in town, and he confronts her but he's over her. Caleb has some trouble finding his place as he grows up, but he eventually figures out how to be a good son, and falls in love with his father (and his brother's girlfriend, Abra). Aron decides to go to college and go into the ministry, but returns from college unhappy and confused. Cal tries to win his father's love (after Adam loses a large portion of his income through an experiment with ice trucks to transport fruit) by making 15,000 dollars through selling beans and futures, but his father sees the money as stolen, and Cal is heartbroken. In his sorrow, he takes his brother Aron to see their mother (Cal knew she was in town, but Aron thought she was dead) and, heartbroken by this discovery, Aron joins the army and disappears. Cal feels guilty, but doesn't tell his father, Adam suffers some kind of mini-stroke, and eventually they get a telegram that Aron has died. Adam has another stroke, and in the last scene of the book, Lee asks Adam to forgive Caleb for sending his brother to war.
Spoiler Over: Continue Here

Well, this book was incredible, and though I was a little overwhelmed by the Cain and Abel metaphors that happened TWICE in the book, it has hands down some of the most exquisite figurative and descriptive language that I have EVER read.

In case you didn't catch this from the plot summary (I didn't catch it until almost the last minute with the second round) there are two Cain and Abel metaphors in the story, Charles and Adam, and Caleb and Aron. (Get it? C & A, C & A?) Each story includes a moment where the C brother (Charles/Caleb) "kills" or almost kills his A brother (Adam/Aron). And to top it off, the second set of boys have a father named Adam.

For those of you not familiar with the Cain and Abel story, here's the version from the Bible:

"And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;

When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden."

The book also deals heavily with the translation of the lines about sin - Lee, the Chinese servant and philosopher ends up studying the lines and translating the Hebrew to mean not "Thou Shalt" conquer over sin, nor "Thou will" conquer over sin, but "Thou mayest" conquer over sin, meaning that man has the opportunity to prove himself and his worthiness, even after he "kills" his brother. I like this idea that we aren't just pre-destined to fix our mistakes, but that we have the opportunity to prove ourselves after we've made them. I thought the metaphors were more interlaced and less hit-you-over-the-head earlier in the book, but I was a bit disappointed that they became so overt at the end.

Some of my favorite parts:

- The language and lyricism of Steinbeck. Case in point: "Adam Trask grew up in grayness, and the curtains of his life were like dusty cobwebs, and his days a slow file of half-sorrows and sick dissatisfactions, and then, through Cathy, the glory came to him." What lovely turns of phrase.

- The relationship between Lee and Adam and Lee and Sam Hamilton is fascinating. (By the way, I apologize to the Hamiltons, who I've pretty much left out of the plot summary. They aren't unimportant, but Sam is really the most important, and his large family (wife Liza, kids Olive, Una, Mollie, Lizzie, Dessie, Tom, Will, George, and Joe) are characters, but not really major players in the story. Aside from the fact that John Steinbeck is the son of Olive Hamilton. ahem.) Lee pretends to speak only Pidgin English in the beginning of the novel, and when Sam Hamilton finds out he can speak perfect English, Lee tells him that he prefers Pidgin because that's what people expect him to sound like, and they're confused when he speaks normally. He slips in and out of Pidgin for the rest of the novel, but each moment is interestingly depicted when he slips back into Pidgin.

- When Adam is completely lost after his wife shoots him, Sam comes over and visits, and he says this to Adam:

"Act out being alive, like a play. And after a while, a long while, it will be true."
"Why should I?" Adam asked.
Samuel was looking at the twins. "You're going to pass something down no matter what you do or if you do nothing. Even if you let yourself go fallow, the weeds will grow and the brambles. Something will grow."
Adam did not answer, and Samuel stood up. "I'll be back," he said. "I'll be back again and again. Go through the motions, Adam."

I thought this was an extremely poignant conversation. I think we've all had moments where we just need to go through the motions, and Sam really keeps Adam connected to the world during his moment (that happens to last 10 years).

I also like it because it reminds me of one of my favorite lines from "Sleepless in Seattle", when Tom Hanks is on the radio show talking about life after the passing of his wife:

Doctor Marcia Fieldstone: People who truly loved once are far more likely to love again. Sam, do you think there's someone out there you could love as much as your wife?
Sam Baldwin: Well, Dr. Marcia Fieldstone, that's hard to imagine.
Doctor Marcia Fieldstone: What are you going to do?
Sam Baldwin: Well, I'm gonna get out of bed every morning... breathe in and out all day long. Then, after a while I won't have to remind myself to get out of bed every morning and breathe in and out... and, then after a while, I won't have to think about how I had it great and perfect for a while."

- There's a fascinating comparison of churches to whorehouses. Steinbeck writes, "While the churches, bringing the sweet smell of piety for the soul, came in prancing and farting like brewery horses in bock-beer time, the sister evangelism, with release and joy for the body, crept in silently and grayly, with its head bowed and its face covered. You may have seen the spangled palaces of sin and fancy dancing in the false West of the movies, and maybe some of them existed - but not in Salinas Valley. The brothels were quiet, orderly, and circumspect. Indeed, if after hearing the ecstatic shrieks of climactic conversion against the thumping beat of the melodeon you had stood under the window of a whorehouse and listened to the low decorous voices, you would have been likely to confuse the identities of the two ministries."

Steinbeck really has a way with words, and his comparisons and metaphors and similes are just unparalleled.

- This is for anyone at work who happens to be reading this, but I was thrilled to find an example of SAY-SEE-DO teaching in the book. When the twins and their father get their first car, a Ford, they're taught how to use it by a man who tells them the step, points out the car part, and then the whole group is asked to respond chorally the name of the part. They continue to start the car using this choral memory response throughout the book. It's been around for ever!

- Tom Hamilton blames himself for the death of his sister, Dessie, who dies of a stomach illness (unfortunately many of the Hamiltons die throughout the course of the book). It's a very sad moment, but I loved the conversation Tom has with himself, and the way Steinbeck describes it. Tom is also talking to his father (who has passed away at this point).

"Tom ignored his father. He said, "I'm busy greeting my friends," and he nodded to Discourtesy and Ugliness, and Unfilial Conduct and Unkempt Fingernails. Then he started with Vanity again. The Gray one shouldered up in front. It was too late to stall with baby sins. This Gray One was Murder."

Last, but not least, I'll share this quote that I liked, as I think, in particular, my mother will appreciate it, as it relates to her thesis work:

"We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is."

Off to England, Pip, and Magwitch!