Biblical Allusion Of John Steinbeck 's East Of Eden

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men novel he constantly uses biblical allusions to express the theme of losing paradise. His novel contains characters that allude to certain biblical stories, particular those in Genesis. Curley’s wife is alluded to the apple of temptation from the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis. Also in the book of Genesis, George and Lennie are allusions to the sons of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. In using the biblical allusions of the apple of temptation and the brothers, Cain and Able, Steinbeck expresses the theme of losing paradise and straying from the path of dreams.

Capote employs biblical allusions to emphasize the seriousness of the crime and to create sympathy for the murderers. The first example is the usage of Eden “Eden on earth…the green, apple-scented Eden, he (Mr. Clutter) envisioned” (Capote 12-13). Capote utilizes Eden here to show that Mr. Clutter sees his farm as paradise already, that his world is already perfect and that there was no troubles afoot. This helps to add to the intensity of the crime and also to foreshadow the oncoming murderers. In the original biblical story, Eve eventually gets corrupted and expelled, in much the same vein that Clutter will be viciously murdered along with his family. This helps to emphasize the tension as most readers knows what happens in the Garden of Eden, tragedy. The usage of Eden also helps to set up a stark contrast with a beautiful, paradise land and the act of ruthless murder which in turn further builds up the cruelty of the murder. The second example is the numerous biblical allusions that debate between whether capital punishment should be justified “I believe in

East of Eden is a story that is based on the biblical stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel. Like the story of Adam and Eve, East of Eden has characters that embody Adam and Eve to an extent. While the story of Adam and Eve tells about the beginning of man, how we came to be on this earth, and why we have original sin, East of Eden uses Adam Trask and Cathy Ames as the beginning of a complex and conflicting story of good vs. evil. Adam Trask is presumed to be Adam, good natured and goodhearted, while Cathy is presumed to be Eve. Only while Eve was deceived into committing sin, Cathy embraces it wholeheartedly and commits evil simply for its own sake.

John Steinbeck’s historical novel, East of Eden, is a story of the genealogy of the Trask and the Hamilton families living in Salinas Valley, California. and their experiences involving choice. Along with numerous biblical references, Steinbeck emphasizes the story of Cain and Abel through the characters of Cal and Aron Trask. The novel revolves around a central idea of the Hebrew word Timshel, which signifies “thou mayest”. In other words, an individual may choose between justice and evil and that one is in control of their own destiny. Adam Trask, Cal and Aron’s father, deals with Timshel because he chooses to be righteous. Cathy, Adam’s wife, deals with Timshel because she chooses to be morally evil. Cal struggles with the idea of

Throughout the novel East of Eden, Steinbeck uses many biblical references to illustrate clearly the conflict between the opposing forces of good and evil. Much of the plot of East of Eden is centered upon the two sets of brothers representing Cain and Abel.  Both pairs are similar to Cain and Abel in the way they go about winning their fathers’ favors.  All four give gifts to their fathers, and the fathers dismiss the gifts of Charles and Caleb, the Cain representations (Marks, Jay Lester. p.121).  Caleb and Charles Trask are obviously the more malignant brothers.  They are also the more loving towards their father.  Steinbeck’s purpose in this is to illustrate the need of the Cain character in

In John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, the characters of Charles and Cal act as parallels when taking into account the Genesis story of Cain & Abel. The Genesis story of Cain & Abel tells the story of Adam & Eve’s twin sons. Cain, tiller of the ground, was characterized as the ‘evil’ brother, with unsound thoughts and tendencies. While Abel, keeper of the sheep, was characterized as the ‘good’ brother embodying a light pureness and divinity, making him the complete opposite of his brother Cain. Each brother brought offerings to God, and while Abel’s offering of the firstlings of his flock was respected by God, Cain’s offering of the fruit from the ground was not respected. From the rejection God gave Cain, Cain soon grew jealous of his brother Abel,

East of Eden is a novel with many real life influences. One of the biggest influences in East of Eden is religion, it parallels stories from the bible and it is the inspiration for some of the characters. It also works to help illustrate an important life lesson that is the ultimate goal of the novel. FFFFFFFFFFFF

The narrative framework of this novel is based upon the one of Cain and Abel, children of Adam and Eve. In the biblical story, Cain, who is jealous that God approved his brothers offering over his, kills his brother and then lies to God about it. East of Eden explores this conflict of good and evil in life and retells the story of Adam and Eve twice. Once with Adam and Charles and once with Aron and Cal. The story of Cain and Abel is so pertinent that there is literally a scene where they sort of break the fourth wall and read aloud the story of Cain

Beginning at a young age, people are taught to pursue a pure conscience and a bond of trust between close friends and family, all the while turning a blind eye to sin. Children most often learn from their parents and, as a result, believe that their parents are the quintessence of virtue. This concept is one that sticks with them until they catch an adult out for the first time; consequently, their beliefs begin to falter and the realization of a false perfect entity harms the child more than if the illusion were never created. Likewise, many adults struggle with realizing that society is built upon deceit due to masks of decency and credibility, while others deceive themselves by living in a world of illusions because of the pleasure and protection provided. That said, once the illusion is destroyed, it also destroys him. Similarly, John Steinbeck explores the double-edged sword of deception, wielded by both children and adults, in his novel East of Eden. Just as the masks that society wears, multiple characters throughout the story at first originally incapable of committing a sin as great as deceit due to their innocent introductions. Despite this initial virtuosity, Steinbeck’s East of Eden evinces humanity’s contrasting and inherent dependence upon selfish uses of deception, whether it be for self-empowerment, safety, or otherwise, with paltry consideration about the consequences of truth.

Imagine an eden where “the grass is rich and thick”. The novel opens with visual imagery of a scene of paradise. Unfortunately, over time the streams dry out and “too many cattle feed upon the grass”(Paton.1). This alludes to the Garden of Eden. It was a perfect paradise for Adam and Eve, but because of their sin, they could “not stand upon it”(Paton.1). When Paton is describing the beautiful land, the narrator commands not to “stand upon it[, wearing] shoes, for the ground is holy, being just as it came from God”(Paton.1). This statement represents with the story of Moses in which he could not walk towards the burning bush with his shoes on. He is commanded to remove them before approaching the bush. The first chapter of Cry, the Beloved Country is filled with allusions pertaining to the early Old Testament of the Bible.

The novel East of Eden by John Steinbeck is an allegory to the biblical story of Cain and Abel, and many of its characters become embodiments of both good and evil. As they struggle to overcome what has been decided for them they are taught they hold the power to overcome and rise above their destiny’s. When the Hebrew idea of “timshel” is introduced to the allegory of Cain and Abel, it become apparent that whether life is predestined or not; mankind holds the ultimate ability of deciding what will become of himself. Adam’s choice to move on from Cathy, Cal’s decision to

Adam and his younger brother Charles are half brothers and are only one year apart, Adams birth mother Mrs. Trask, whose name we do not learn, committed suicide after obtaining syphilis from Cyrus. Cyrus soon after tried to find any obedient young women to take Mrs. Trasks place; Alice Trask, Charles birth mother, was a quite, emotionless women which I believe Steinbeck made this way to be the antithesis of her son. Alice never spoke out of place and always did what was asked of her,

Have you ever wondered if anyone in the world has the same personality, traits as you? Do you think they have done similar things like you? John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men shows a similarity between characters in Genesis 2 and in the novella. As Emma Lee states in her article, “Five reasons that the Bible will help you understand Of Mice and Men”, Steinbeck makes allusion to The Garden of Eden as it’s presented in the story of Genesis 2 when Eve was deliberately compared to Curley’s wife as both suffered terrible consequences. Steinbeck makes these allusions with the sole purpose to show the comparison of the different characters in The Garden of Eden and Of Mice and Men. Moreover, the characters are similar in the way they represent

“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.

The allusion of profession in East of Eden is not as important and prevalent as are the other allusions, but there are still some interesting similarities between the original Biblical story and the story in East of Eden.