How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
The church and the whorehouse arrived in the Far West simultaneously. And each would have been horrified to think it was a different facet of the same thing. But surely they were both intended to accomplish the same thing: the singing, the devotion, the poetry of the churches took a man out of his bleakness for a time, and so did the brothels. (19.1.2)
Hello, Controversy, nice to meet you. But Steinbeck does make a pretty convincing argument for this idea in the paragraphs afterwards. He sees both sex and religion as different ways of getting out all that emotion that society has got pent up. The idea is that when you boil the two things down, they both make people act and feel the same way.
Quote #8
"Look there. That's a state senator. He thinks he's going to run for Congress. Look at his fat stomach. He's got bubs like a woman. He likes whips. That streak there—that's a whip mark. Look at the expression on his face! He's got a wife and four kids and he's going to run for Congress. You don't believe! Look at this! This piece of white blubber is a councilman; this big red Swede has a ranch out near Blanco. This is a professor at Berkeley. Comes all the way down here to have the toilet splashed in his face—professor of philosophy. And look at this! This is a minister of the Gospel, a little brother of Jesus. He used to burn a house down to get what he wanted. We give it to him now another way. See that lighted match under his skinny flank?" (25.3.120)
Um, rated R for graphicness and, shall we say, variety (Shmoop doesn't judge). While fetishes might seem like peanuts in the Age of the Internets, this is the early 1900s we're talking about, a time when people were still getting riled up over ankles, for goodness's sake. But not Kate—no, Kate might be ahead of her time in anticipating people's, um, needs, but it seems like she deals in the particularly degrading brand of needs. Looking at the diversity and scope of her clientele though, it seems like she's just filling a niche in the market. In other words, this repressed society has got some wild things going on under the surface.
Quote #9
"Well, she wasn't no good as a wife but she's sure as hell a good whore." (38.2.12)
We love this sentence, because it's hilarious and because it perfectly encapsulates Kate. Adam tried and failed to make Kate into the perfect wife (okay okay Kate agreed to it but still), but she just wasn't cut for that kind of life. She didn't want to be the mother who sat at home on the ranch and darned socks for her children; she wanted power, she wanted money, and she wanted freedom. Sex was her way of getting those things. We guess some things come naturally to some people?