Litsy

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Question 4 Part 4
#EoE
How does inheritance—financial and moral—feature in the novel?
Why does Adam reject Cal‘s gift?

Reviewsbylola Ugh, Adam rejecting the gift, especially in the way he did, really bummed me out. Knowing how much the gift meant to Cal, I really wanted Adam to show more appreciation. I think it highlighted how misunderstood Adam and Cal were to one another. Cal just wanted his father‘s love an acceptance but neither of them knew how to get or give that to one another. 5y

erista I think Adam rejected Cal‘s gift because it was never about the money for him and he didn‘t like the way it was earned. Cal was so genuine and enthusiastic about giving his father back what he lost. It‘s a shame they couldn‘t find some common ground and have a better relationship. 5y

batsy I was angry with Adam when he rejected the gift. I can totally understand why he did it; it's the how of it that annoyed me. #TeamCal Adam's head is still stuck in the clouds, even after his conversation with Cal about having been to prison, etc. One would think he would have a better sense of how Cal is, and realise that Cal too is deeply sensitive. But he favoured Aron instead, Aron who is just like his father in wanting to escape the world. 5y

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CarolynM Again, I'm agreeing with @batsy . What bothered me most, though, was that Adam had obviously never talked about his view of the world, his moral compass, with his sons. 5y

Cinfhen I was so disappointed with Adam. His rejection of the gift proved to me, he hadn‘t learned anything about human nature. Seeing what the rejection did to Charles when he like Cal, offered a gift to his father from a place of love and even innocence was so infuriating @CarolynM @batsy @erista @Reviewsbylola 👇🏼 5y

Cinfhen I also found it interesting that Cal earned his money “honestly” through business smarts but Adam found his profit money tainted. Whilst he had no problem taking the inheritance left to him from his father (and Charles) although he suspected that his father‘s wealth was gained from stealing! And even Aron who rejected his father accepted the money given to him from Cathy ( which was definitely earned from illegal means) 5y

Cinfhen I‘m totally #TeamCal @batsy ♥️plus James Dean {{swoon}} 5y

mrp27 I agree with both @erista and @batsy however I didn't like how Cal insisted that he give the gift in front of everyone. Shows to me that Cal, although his intentions were good, was still selfish about the gift. 5y

erista That‘s a great point, @Cinfhen .I hadn‘t thought of that, but it‘s true Adam was very hypocritical in not accepting the money from Cal and accepting stolen money from his father. Although, if I remember correctly, towards the beginning of the novel Adam suspected his father of being dishonest and then when the money was inherited Charles had doubts about it being honest money and Adam thought it was fine? I‘m not sure if I‘m remembering that right 5y

erista Either way, Adam chooses not to see what he doesn‘t want to see and his choices have negative effects on his sons. 5y

Cinfhen Yes, @erista it was Charles who struggled to accept and believe the 💰wasn‘t tainted because Charles like Cal loved his father and wanted to keep his memory pure but Adam who “hated” his father just took the $ without really caring how it was earned. He initially tells Charles it‘s fine but later on in the novel he tells Lee or Samuel his inheritance was built on dishonest earnings. ( which was a biblical illusion to the world being built from👇🏼 5y

Cinfhen The Original Sin) “also called ancestral sin, a Christian belief in the state of sin in which humanity has existed since the fall of man, stemming from Adam and Eve's rebellion in Eden, namely the sin of disobedience in consuming the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org › wiki”
5y

erista @Cinfhen ahh yes, now that you mention it I do remember Adam acknowledging the money was dishonesty earned later in the book. I wonder if that‘s why he so willingly spent a good portion of that money on his lettuce project which would have helped many people had it worked. Having failed, it didn‘t seem like a big deal to him since he didn‘t actually do anything to earn it in the first place. 5y

Cinfhen Good point @erista money means nothing to Adam because he‘s never had to earn it. That‘s actually a total turn-off for me 😣 5y

batsy That's true @mrp27 but I also chalk it up to Cal being young and brash (and desperate for love and recognition); it was partly selfish, and I like that he wrestled with himself about that. 5y

CarolynM @erista @Cinfhen although Caleb's money was earned legally it certainly looked like war profiteering and that was how Adam saw it (and I think how Steinbeck saw it) and therefore saw it as immoral. It's not clear what Aaron would have done about Cathy's money since he ran away as soon as he found out about her immorality. 5y

MemoirsForMe @Reviewsbylola @erista @batsy @Cinfhen @CarolynM Agreed! Adam‘s lack of compassion and communication with both sons plus his wishy-washy nature were dreadful. 5y

staci.reads @Reviewsbylola @batsy @CarolynM @Cinfhen I agree. I hated the way he rejected Cal's gift. How could he not see the parallels with that and the his father's rejection of Charles's knife earlier in the book? This is why I struggle with thinking of Adam as a good man. He is SO self-consumed: 👇 5y

staci.reads wandering around for years without contacting his brother, emotionally abandoning his sons for so long, oblivious to his wife's wishes when she doesn't want to go to California or stay on the ranch, etc 5y

rubyslippersreads @batsy @mrp27 Cal is only 17. Adam is a grown man with a lot of life experience (although he doesn‘t seem to have learned much from it, as @staci.reads pointed out). Even if Adam saw the money as war profiteering, there could have been other ways to handle the situation (building a hospital for soldiers, giving it to war widows and orphans, etc.) 5y

mrp27 @rubyslippersreads Agreed. I was also horrified when Cal burned it. Talk about being young and brash. 5y

DebinHawaii There is the part where Adam is musing (to Lee I think or maybe it is to Cal) about not knowing much about his sons & asking them questions but still, at the end he didn't know his sons or what they needed from him & was repeating some of the mistakes his own father made. 5y

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