Discuss The Similarities Between East Of Eden And Nole Trask

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.

In East of Eden, Steinbeck explores the inherent power of choice over evil by characterizing Cal Trask and his struggle to recognize this power within himself. From a young age, Cal feels condemned to act on his sinful impulses because of his mother’s evil constitution. Despite this, he wishes to lead a pure, honest life, highlighting the complexity, difficulty, and importance of choosing good over evil.

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

The struggle of sibling rivalry over ability and temperament has taken East of Eden in a whole new perspective. Steinbeck’s portrait on sibling rivalry shows the good vs. evil of each character in the story. The nature of good vs. evil as natural selection is also seen in siblings, as a compete for something physical, mental, or something emotional. The sibling rivalry from the biblical characters embraced Steinbeck’s characters throughout every concept in the novel, the good vs. evil confines the characters personality in every idea of Steinbeck’s novel. From the biblical story of Cain and Abel to Adam and Charles to Cal and Aaron the story continues through out every

Although Cal is seemingly “born” into evil, he struggles against what he sees as his inherited evil from his mother and is eventually able to break out of the cycle of generational sin and conduct himself as good. Cal prays to God and “moved his lips in the darkness and made the words silently in his head… ‘Dear Lord,’ … ‘let me be like Aron. Don’t make me mean. I don’t want to be. If you will let everybody like me, why, I’ll give you anything in the world, and if I haven’t got it, why, I’ll go for to get it. I don’t want to be mean. I don’t want to be lonely’” (Steinbeck 379). By actively praying to God, he recognizes that he wants to rise above his darkness and be good, offering his whole self in order to have his prayer granted. After Cal discovers the truth about his mother, Cathy, he speaks to Lee of it and says, “‘I hate her because I know why she went away. I know-because I’ve got her in me.’ ‘Of course you may have that in you. Everybody has. But you’ve got the other too … You wouldn’t even be wondering if you didn’t have it. Don’t you dare take the lazy way. It’s too easy to excuse yourself because of your

In Steinbeck's book, “East of Eden,” he created many characters that struggled with the “light and dark” aspects of their personalities and actions, battling their dark intrusive thoughts, and stay true to the light. Throughout his life, Aron Trask as lead a pure life, in the eyes of his envious brother, Cal. Aron didn’t struggle with his conscience until Cal revealed something about his mother, his heritage, that he couldn't deal with. With the control he thought he had on his life slipping out of his grasp, he turned to the extremes and ran away from his family and his inner dilemma. The author shows the theme of “light and dark,” within Aron near the close of his story, to help convey his message: the dark parts of humanity’s heart don’t

Does knowledge really bring true happiness? In the story Flowers for Algernon Charlie Gordon is a 37 year old, mentally challenged man, who wants nothing more than to be smart. Well he got his chance to be smart and he took it; he was chosen for an operation that could change his life and make him much more intelligent than he actually was. Charlie thought being smart would make him “normal” but the operation ended up being unsuccessful. He went back to the way he was. In the story The Garden Of Eden, Adam and Eve were chosen to be the first humans. They chose to bite from the tree of knowledge and disobey God. They were punished to live life and then die. Both Charlie Gordon, and Adam and eve resemble each other in many ways.

These examples give the novel complexity and is ultimately why John Steinbeck received a nobel prize for the creation of it. Characterization is used throughout the novel to give insight on the characters thoughts. Cyrus Trask was viewed to be a very distant parent through indirect characterization. The reader may have picked this up through the acts of his children fighting for affection. Another example of characterization would be shown through Cal Trask. Cal was known to be the most dynamic character. Both direct and indirect characterization were used to illustrate Cal’s thoughts and actions. Allusion is another figurative device used in this novel. The novel is discretely based around the Book of Genesis. Cain and Abel is the main story that this novel is based off of. Their relationship of jealousy shines through both Adam and Charles and Aron and Cal. In Aron and Cal’s relationship, the similarity to Cain and Abel starts to lose its shine. Cal grows a conscience and becomes more dynamic and eventually defeating the odds of himself turning into a true Cain. These different figurative devices used in this novel speak to the readers in a way to grab their attention long enough to

John Steinbeck once wrote, “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” (301). As explained in his book East of Eden, Timshel is the idea that one makes conscious choices about their lives rather than taking what they get. Because Adam Trask is rejected by those he trusts most and lets those rejections inhibit him, the comfort of Timshel does not appear to him until late in his life.

Cal is known to be the most complex character in the book East of Eden and also the one who always embodies the Timshel more directly. The end of the novel and the future of the Trasks seems to rest with Cal, this son least liked and least understood by his father and his town. Cal had a different understanding about his relationship to his past and to every each member of his family. Also considering to the other characters, like for Lee the most dangerous response from Cal about Aron’s death will be just a sympathy. In the end of the book, the last scene between Adam and Cal was momentous, it can be more described as a relationship of acceptance and forgiveness which makes a hopeful

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 tone of East of Eden is nostalgic. Steinbeck writes about his childhood with fond memories of a better time. He often accounts his favorite memories of his youth and describes them to be simpler times that he still longs for. The tone is most apparent as Steinbeck describes the setting and his family members.

In East of Eden, John Steinbeck explores how the personality trait of jealousy affects an individual. He shows this through Cal Trask’s resulting transformation into a kind person and reprimanding by others for not being himself.

In the novel Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson there are many cases of friendship and trust. During most of the novel the characters are on a wagon train headed for California. Along the way, there are many hardships that they must face, and their dilemmas are easier to overcome if they trust each other and look to one another for help. Even in the beginning of the novel the main character Lee looks to her best friend Jefferson for help when her parents are murdered. If the characters in the novel had not become friends or trusted each other their whole journey would have been even more difficult than it already was.

History, is the story among which all literary works are linked to, and this statement is true more than any other in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Whether one believes that all stories in the Bible have actually happened or not, at least some concepts of them did. How would a writer arrive at the ideas of two brothers and jealousy of love, without having seen it or felt it before? Yet again, how would these ideas survive for so long, unless many people felt them as well and connected to them. The story of Cain and Abel has been around a long time, but the feelings of jealousy between siblings longer still. What stories offer, are not only a feeling of understanding to a child, but a lesson to be learned as well. It is a common cliche, that without knowledge of it history is destined to repeat itself, but if stories are born from past experiences and these too are contained in the archives of history than is it possible to say the same for those as well? What John Steinbeck does in his book is show that without the understanding of the possibility in choices, some of history 's greatest and oldest stories are able to continue to new generations to haunt their lives. In the use of metaphors, analogies, and symbolism, John Steinbeck displays the Cain and Abel story in two generations, and the horrors along with the beauties that the possibility of choice creates.