How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"I know what you hate. You hate something in them you can't understand. You don't hate their evil. You hate the good in them you can't get at. I wonder what you want, what final thing." (25.3.129)
Whoa—hey there, paradigm shift. This is like one of those revelation moments you have while on your shrink's sofa, where all of a sudden you understand that your relationship with the rest of the world comes from within you, instead of from without. That's what Adam is trying to tell Kate here: she can't understand that people can have both good and evil in them at the same time—because she doesn't have any good in her.
Quote #5
"And the men who come to you here with their ugliness, the men in the pictures—you don't believe those men could have goodness and beauty in them. You see only one side, and you think—more than that, you're sure—that's all there is." (31.1.71)
Kate hates hypocrites, and in her view everyone just pretends to be good, church-going, upstanding citizens, while secretly they come to her place to get whipped by hookers. But that means that whenever she sees a little bit of badness in anybody, she takes that to mean that they are all bad. And what person doesn't have at least a little bit of badness in them? No wonder she sees the world as all evil.
Quote #6
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. (34.1.11)
Steinbeck isn't saying that all stories are about good versus evil. Well, actually, he kind of is—he's saying that most of the conflicts in our stories can be boiled down to good versus evil at some symbolic level. But Steinbeck doesn't think that it's an equally-balanced fight, because evil can't survive on its own. Evil has to have something to keep it evil, whereas good seems to be its own reward.