The Tower Of Babel: Chapter Summary

When thinking about the gift offering in the biblical story of Cain and Abel and its impact, one can see many similarities in East of Eden. Cain brought to God “the fruit of the ground” and Abel offered God “the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof” (Gen 4 KJV). God preferred the gift of Abel to the gift of Cain.

The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament. Sandra L. Richter, InterVarsity Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-8308-2577-6

Genesis 34 describes the story of Dinah, her rape, and the events that follow. The story of Dinah has inspired many written publications which work to provide background to the life of Dinah and expand on her story because so little information is given on her life and the events that took place to merit her story in the bible. Interpreting the story of Dinah is a popular theme in articles and novels alike because of how little is known of the life of Dinah. Genesis 34 gives a brief snippet of information about Dinah, but instead focuses more on the actions of her brothers in response to Dinah and Shechem.

The biblical story of Cain and Abel also plays a central role in the novel East of Eden. The novel portrays this analogy through the characters of both Charles and Adam, and Cal and Aron. In the Christian Old Testament, The Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve's sons, Cain and Abel, offer sacrifices to God. Because God prefers Abel's gift over Cain's, Cain becomes infuriated and kills his brother in a jealous rage. The characters of Charles and Adam Trask, who share the initials C&A with their biblical forebears, closely follow the Cain and Abel paradigm. Cyrus Trask favors Adam's birthday gift of a puppy over Charles' gift of an expensive knife, and Charles almost beats his brother Adam to death in a jealous rage. However, unlike Charles, Adam becomes the wanderer. Finally, Adam then later moves to California, where he settles and raises his twin sons. His brother, Charles, remains on their Connecticut farm. When Charles dies, he leaves his fortune to his brother: clearly, although jealousy drove them apart, the brotherly bond is still there. Years later, Adam's wife Cathy, or Kate, gives birth to the next generation of Trask brothers, Caleb Trask and Aron Trask; another set of brothers who share the initials C&A. Unsurprisingly, these brothers perpetuate the Cain and Abel ideology. After the birth of their sons, Cathy abandons Adam, and he sinks into such a severe depression that he neglects to even name his children. Samuel suggests to Adam that he name the children Cain and

The beginning of the Old Testament starts by explaining how God created everything within seven days. He creates night and day, the sky and the ocean, vegetation, the stars, sun and moon, sea creatures, land creatures, and for the seventh day he rests. The Garden of Eden was the paradise where man once lived until Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit thus creating the original sin. Eve listened to the serpent and gave into temptation leading to the fall of man.

Gandhi once said, “I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul”.

The Epic of Eden was written in hope that believing readers would come to an understanding of the Old Testament as their story. A way for them to understand and cross the barrier that is created by the people, places, history and context of the scriptures which can be daunting and hard to navigate. As Sandra L. Richter, who is the author of Epic of Eden, depicts the modern believer as having what is called the dysfunctional closet syndrome. What she means by this is that as believers we are given many “stories, characters, dates and place names” but we do not have a way to sort all the information, like a closet with a bunch of items but no shelves or hangers. Ritcher aims to sort out these barriers and in the course of the book and all in

In the novel “East of Eden”, written by John Steinbeck, readers follow a man named Adam Trask from his childhood up to his death. His life is an exhibit of struggle, perseverance, and naivety; in which all of these qualities seem to be apparent in his significant relationships. As the story progresses, Adam has his fair share of relationships, and not all of which are healthy. He slowly but surely has to learn that even people he loves have the ability to hurt him and that those relationships may be detrimental to him and his family. Adam Trask repeatedly displays how the theme of relationships is recurring in “East of Eden”; with his father, Cyrus Trask, his half-brother, Charles Trask, and his ex-wife, Cathy

This act is translated into todays concept of rape, but as the narrative continues we see how Shechem tries to justify his manner by claiming he fell victim to love. "Being drawn to Dinah, daughter of Jacob, and in love with the maiden, he spoke to the maiden tenderly” (Genesis 34:3). This, however, is not admissible in the eyes of Israel’s men. Shechem’s behavior is considered “an outrage in Israel…a thing not to be done”, and therefore, hinders Shechem’s aspiration of marriage to her (Genesis 34:7). One of the ways he is able to seek mercy is by offering Dinah’s brothers and father a high bride price. This offering along with a promise for all men to be circumcised in accordance with God's command to their grandfather Abraham: "This is my covenant between Me and you and your offspring to follow which you shall keep: every male among you shall be circumcised," is a fitting plea to their ears and Dinah is wed off (Genesis 17:10). But what about Dinah’s ears? Who is to say that she wants to marry this man who defiled her? What is her view on it all?

How can there be similar themes in different books? Themes can be found in every story. If one says ignorance is bliss, or spirituality vs. science, these are all themes. Correspondingly, acceptance is a theme that has always been used. However, this word has not only been used for texts it has been used everywhere, from books to relations to even movies. To put it differently, ambition is getting what you want, this is seen often in stories. This word makes people think what their needs are and what their wants are. Furthermore, themes are generally made when you feel like you have seen the movie or read that book, however you have just watched the movie which has similar themes in it. There are many themes in one story. The themes of spirituality

Significance of the title: The novel is intended to be an allegory for or a retelling of the first few chapters of the Book of Genesis, from Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden through the story of Cain and Abel. “East of Eden” is also the final phrase of the final biblical passage about Cain and Abel, which is an important aspect of this story.

I'm going to start with Genesis 1 and move through Genesis 11 in this paragraph. Genesis 1 starts out with God creating the universe,

“Is there, then an evil that is innate, that is the little piece of monster in all of us.” (Cusatis). Every person has two sides, no one is completely good or completely evil. In the East of Eden, John Steinbeck uses a biblical metaphor to illustrate the innate good and evil that humans encounter. The novel includes several characters that are purely evil or do evil deeds. The Trask family is directly correlated to the Garden of Eden and other biblical narratives. “Steinbeck puts more into his stories than Genesis 4” (Fontenrose). Steinbeck illustrates the concepts of good and evil, family, and love to describe the frailties of the human experience.

Judeo-Christian religions employ the concept of location as a storytelling tool. Stories help to explain intangible concepts, and the use of specific places in biblical stories helps to concretize these concepts. In the story of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden is described as a beautiful place. In the center of the garden are the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen. 2.8-3.24 NAB). This story utilizes tangible elements to represent deeper meanings. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil symbolizes the Lord’s omnipotence. When Eve eats from this tree, it represents humanity’s sinful desire to be like God. In the New Testament, the story

In the story Adam and Eve were let to be living in the Garden of Eden, where God had created one of everything. He created many fruits and vegetables, animals, plants, and trees. It was first Adam’s job to take care and live in the Garden of Eden, till one day God saw that Adam was lonely so he took matters into his own hands. God created Eve out of Adam’s rib, that’s how Eve began to live in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was Adam and Eve’s home and it was beautiful. Till one day God and Jesus had come over to the garden to talk to Adam and Eve and what he was expecting for them to do while they lived there. There were many trees in the Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve could eat from and take care of. God had told Adam and Eve that they could eat fruit from all the trees but one. It was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it was the center tree of the garden. God had said if they ate fruit from that tree that they would die and have to leave the Garden of Eden. If they didn’t eat fruit from that tree they would be able to live in the Garden of Eden forever.