How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—'Thou mayest'—that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if "Thou mayest'—it is also true that 'Thou mayest not.'" (24.2.73)
Choice is good, right? It means that your actions are your actions, not what someone else already laid out for you. But that means that you have to take responsibility for your choices too, and that's where the whole tyranny of choice idea comes in. Here, Lee is citing what God says to Cain before Cain decides that killing Abel is the way to go: he basically says thou mayest rule over sin, i.e. it's your choice how you want to act, bro. In other words, if you do well it's to your credit, but if you screw up it's your fault. How hands-off of God.
Quote #5
"But the choice, Lee, the choice of winning! I had never understood it or accepted it before. Do you see now why I told Adam tonight? I exercised the choice. Maybe I was wrong, but by telling him I also forced him to live or get off the pot." (24.3.75)
Samuel and Lee are really into this idea of choice—in fact, one might even call them obsessed. Samuel choosing to tell Adam about Cathy is hardly the same as Tom choosing to be great or not, though. (Or is it?) For Samuel and Lee, the importance of choice is more philosophical than practical—it means that, hypothetically speaking, every person has a capacity in them to be any kind of person they want.
Quote #6
"I have always disliked deception. Your course is drawn. What you will do is written—written in every breath you've ever taken […] Faced with two sets of morals, you'll follow your training. What you call thinking won't change it. The fact that your wife is a whore in Salinas won't change a thing." (30.2.74)
So far we've been talking about choice and how everyone has it, but Lee doesn't seem to have that much faith in Adam's choosing abilities. Or rather, he knows that Adam has already made a choice before he has made it, if you follow. It's like Adam has the ability of choice to a fault—to the point where it isn't really choice anymore, but a pre-set course of action. In other words, Adam acts one way, period. It's not really a choice if there is only one option, now is it?