East Of Eden Essays : Adam's Own Enemy

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.

Charles, throughout his time in the novel, rages with jealousy from the acceptance and love he sees his father give Adam while all Charles receives is contempt and rejection. An example of Charles’ rejection of parental love can be seen in the birthday gifts the brothers gave to their father, Cyrus. While Charles spent six bits on a pearl-handled German knife for his father that Cyrus never ended up using, Adam gave him a free mongrel pup from a woodlot as a present and, “That dog sleeps in [Cyrus’] room. He plays with it while he’s reading. He’s got it all trained.” (Steinbeck Chapter 3) This shows how just like Cain, Charles’ gift was disrespected in the eyes of the Lord, or in this case, his father Cyrus, while just like Abel, Adam’s gift was respected and appreciated. Charles is consistently vying for his father’s love, only to be rejected by his father, and sees Cyrus give love and attention to Adam. He watches as Cyrus pressures Adam to join the army and give Adam long talks on private walks. Charles takes out his revenge due to his parental rejection on his brother, as, “If [Cyrus] liked [the knife] [Charles] wouldn’t have taken it out after [Adam].” (Chapter 3) Cal struggled with the same parental rejection in his own family with his twin brother Aron and his father Adam. Cal was made to feel as if he was "no good" by his father Adam. Thus, the same circumstance

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

In East of Eden (1952) John Steinbeck creates a powerful novel using biblical allegories. By doing this, he can deliver a clear message by describing something unfamiliar to his audience and comparing it to something more familiar. Set in modern times, East of Eden retells the famous story of the downfall of Adam and Eve, and the jealous rivalry between Cain and Able. Steinbeck also creates many other characters throug his novel, that capture a biblical sense and help portray an image of the vast confusion of life.

Adam’s goodness may be the preferred trait one would prefer to inherit, however it ends up being the downfall of him because it prevents him from seeing a person for who they really are. His kind nature ultimately is the reason he is able to be tricked by Cathy’s manipulative ways. However, after believing he is left with nothing and letting himself wallow in self pity, the honorable and wise Samuel Hamilton reminds him of an important story. Mr. Hamilton reminds Adam that King James of the bible once said, “thou salt prevail over sin”, however it is up to the man to rise above his pain and mistakes. Adam, still feeling sorry for himself, is hesitant to believe Samuel’s advice. However, after making a visit to his wife Cathy in her new life as a whore, he finally realizes he can be okay with out her. He realizes that his children deserve a father better than one who is in love with a whore. He sees through Cathy’s manipulation and decides that he can live happily with what he has. Adam confirms his choice to overcome Cathy saying, “I seemed to come out of a sleep, in some strange way my eyes have been cleared. A weight is off me”(Steinbeck 328). Adam rises above the Cathy he once idolized and allows himself to see who she really is. In result not only does he realize the improved Eden he can build with his sons, he proves that the power to overcome his destiny lays within one self. Adam, however is not the only Trask who proves this possible, Cal

Josh Allen Mrs.King English 3 Honors 8.19.2014 Chapters 1-7 Free Will and Fate: “He moured the fact he could not be a permenat soilder… but he could not imagine any any career for his sons except the army.” (Steinbeck 19) This qoute is foreshadowing the fate that one of cyrus’s sons will be force to join the army because of cyrus’s wishes. Later we learn that son is Adam because Cyrus feels the army will let loose things in charles that he feels needs to be contained. “They’ll first strip off your clothes…

1. Pleasantville most closely parallels the story of Adam and Eve. The similarity presents itself using symbols and themes. Both stories naive to knowledge in the world, caring only about their lives. Both stories have individuals that are close minded to accepting values and experiences out of their comfort zone. A theme included in both stories is temptation. The temptation presents itself in Adam and Eve by the snake offering the couple an apple, the apple will give them knowledge. After eating the apple they gain both knowledge good and bad. Temptation presents itself in Pleasantville, by using Mary Sue to tempt Skip into kissing her. This opens up the door for civilians to new experiences and knowledge. Also in both stories, the

accept his offering for it was all that he had and did not know how to

Adam and Charles were taught to respect their father and look at him as a role model for the perfect man and what they should strive to be. However, early on, Adam realizes that “…[Cyrus] was, indeed, a very strong-willed and concentrated little man wearing a huge busby,” (p.20). When Adam is sent into the army against his will but by his father’s wishes, he knows that Cyrus only sent him in to live out his army career that was cut short by losing a leg. As Adam pays his time, he does every job he can that does not involve fighting, which could very easily be argued as a way to quietly rebel against his father, because in Cyrus’ eyes, Adam was a frail and weak man that needed to be strengthened. Given this experience, Adam lacks a solid father and the lessons that come along with that

Charles never kills his brother, but his jealousy and hatred remains with him throughout the book. Adam joins the army and leaves the farm, but after serving his time and wandering for many months he finally returns to the farm. It is at the farm where Adam first encounters Cathy Ames. The narrator calls Cathy a monster, a person with no morals, as a young girl burned her parents alive in their house and stole their money. Cathy ends up at the Trask farm after being beaten and left for dead by her lover. Adam nurses her back to health and finds himself falling in love with her. He marries her and they move to California. Cathy becomes pregnant and gives birth to twin boys: Caleb and Aaron. After giving birth to the twins, she shoots Adam in the shoulder and escapes to Salinas to become a madam of a whorehouse after murdering her predecessor. Caleb and Aaron (Aron) enact the second generation of Cain and Abel in the Trask family. Caleb, called Cal, is dark and conniving and Aron is handsome and liked by everyone. Just as it was with their father and Charles, Caleb yearns for his father's love and attention, but it is Aron who receives his father's love. Adam never tells his sons about their mother but Cal finds out. When Cal is rejected by his father, he seeks revenge against his brother by taking him to see their mother at the whorehouse.

Adam sees in Cathy only the good things because he is blinded by her looks to see what she really is. Others, like Lee, see right through her and can see the evil within her. Adam and Cathy seem to be doing fine and move to King City to have a life together. One day Cathy is found lying on the floor with blood everywhere so Adam calls the doctor. He finds out that Cathy was trying to kill her baby that she was pregnant with and says “ ‘Have you met Mrs. Laurel? She’s wasting and crying for a baby. Everything she has or can get she would give to have a baby , and you-you try to stab yours with a knitting needle’ ”(135). Cathy lied to the doctor and said she didn’t want to pass down her Epilepsy which runs in the family. She lied to trick him into believing that she didn’t want her sons to suffer but really wanted to kill her kids to not have them at all. Any other woman would’ve loved to have kids and would’ve wanted the best for them. But Cathy, she didn’t want kids and hated the fact that she was going to have some and this rejection propelled the plot of East of Eden by unintentionally disturbing the future of the kids because of this

In John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Adam’s son Cal reflects the character of Cain in the Bible. Cain is born to Adam and Eve. When Cain and Abel present gifts to God, God favors Abel’s gift. Cain grows jealous and kills his brother out of jealousy. Though similar to Cain, John Steinbeck uses the choices Cal makes to contrast his character to Cain in the Bible and to demonstrate that, despite being evil, people can choose their course in life.

He needs to know he is and why his mother did not make him feel like a man. With the absence of experience Adam does not step up with regards to any of his activities. Adam has no conscience and this causes him to experience a character emergency as a young person. He has still not discovered somebody to love him and this causes him to have part disarray. Adam turns out to be surprisingly close, bigoted, and savage to other people who vary in skin shading, social foundation, and in other insignificant ways (Ryckman, 2013). Adam will begin admiring groups and other negative impacts to fit in and to pick up a comprehension of

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.

East of Eden, By John Steinbeck, is a classical novel set in the post civil war and mid World War 1 era. The novel centers on two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, living in the Salinas valley in California. The main protagonist is Adam Trask, a passive man who marries the main antagonist, Cathy, a cruel and evil woman who manipulates others for her own gain. Cathy gives birth to two sons, Caleb and Aron, and chooses to leave Adam after his usefulness to her is through. Adam, heartbroken, moves to the town of Salinas with his sons hoping to start a new life. Several years later when the two boys are men, Caleb vindictively reveals who their mother is to his brother Aron, resulting in Aron’s death and Adam’s choice to Caleb to repent for his crimes or to succumb to them. The novel touches many topics, issues, and themes that are still prevalent in today's society. It deals with the societal issues of the battle between good and evil, the power we have as humans to choose between wrong and right, and the struggle of finding our character.