Hannah’s Reviews > East of Eden > Status Update

“Maybe you’re playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience.”

“Do you take pride in your hurt?” Samuel asked. “Does it make you seem large and tragic?”

“It was a personal opponent and one he could lick.”

“Samuel may have thought and played and philosophized about death, but he did not really believe in it. His world did not have death as a member. He, and all around him was immortal. When real death came it was an outrage, a denial of the immortality he deeply felt, and the one crack in his wall caused the whole structure to crash. I think he had always thought he could argue himself out of death.”

“But Tom got into a book, crawled and groveled between the covers, tumbled like a mole among the thoughts, and came up with the book all over his face and hands.”

“She seemed always to be listening. When she was reading, her face would be like the face of one listening to music.”

“You can’t make a race horse of a pig.”
“No,” said Samuel, “but you can’t make a very fast pig.”