East Of Eden Literary Analysis

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 main way in which Steinbeck shows the theme of good versus evil is the character’s divergent personalities. The main good character of the novel is Samuel Hamilton, a poor farmer who raised nine children on little to no income. Despite the fact that his customers do not pay him money for his labor – blacksmithing, well digging – he is still gracious and kind to everyone he meets. He sees through Cathy’s façade to the true core of her evilness. Cathy Ames is the evil character who has no conscious as she uses Adam Trask (protagonist) to move to Salinas after sleeping with his brother, trying to abort her babies, shooting Adam in the shoulder and leaving him alone with their twin sons, and secretly killing a brothel owner so she can take control. She is described as being “as close to pure evil as one is likely to get this side of hell” (Aubrey). Adam is always struggling between these two characters in the novel, representing his personal struggle with good versus evil. He is enamored with Cathy, or who he thinks Cathy is, and is left in an extreme state of depression upon

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.

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 the book East of Eden by John Steinbeck, Caleb and Aron are the twin sons of Adam and Cathy Trask. Adam’s relationship with Cal and Aron closely resembles that of the biblical Cain and Abel parable. Adam, undoubtedly loving Aron more than Cal, is metaphorically shoving Cal into a corner by rejecting so many of his gifts and actions as a son. The relationship between Cal and Adam is a distant one from the beginning, neither making an effort to fully understand the other since Aron is so obviously the perfect child. Cal, jealous of Aron constantly holding his father’s attention, goes through many dilemmas on the journey to gain his father’s acceptance. In striving to ultimately gain his father’s blessing and acceptance, Cal demonstrates

Another biblical allusion in this book that goes along with Eden is of course Adam and Eve. Steinbeck continues the book of Genesis with Adam Trask and Cathy represent Adam and Eve. Which Steinbeck portrays that representation to Adam and Eve throughout the book.

The portrayal of Timshel is apparent throughout East of Eden, giving man the choice between good and evil. While Cal shows signs of it in himself, Tom and Mrs. Trask do not,

The narrator of East of Eden notes that the contest between good and evil stems from the recurring nature of human history. There is a direct correlation to the story of Cain and Abel throughout the entire novel and it is also inferred that mankind has struggled with overcoming evil since the time of Adam and Eve. The narrator states that when someone looks back on their life “will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well or ill?” In this quote the narrator is implying that determining

John Steinbeck’s novel, “East of Eden”, discloses the answer of right and wrong, good versus evil and overcoming sin with a simple Hebrew word “Timshel”, meaning thou mayest, allowing us the freedom to make our individual decisions or choose our path in life; it’s actually God’s perfect gift to everyone. In the beginning, God grants us free will so that we have the ability to love and accept him or not. However, had God not chosen to grant us free will, we would not be human as we know it today, for the original sin would never have occurred. Likewise, people’s inability to experience emotions of any kind, whatsoever, would turn us into mere mundane robots, forced to listen and answer to an authoritarian God. Lee plays an instrumental part in “East of Eden”, by not only bringing into focus “Timshel” and its meaning to the Trask family but through his strength and character as a whole, for without Lee “East of Eden” and the concept of “Timshel” is non-existent.

Cal Trask is the most prominent Cain like figure because he has always been the twin who was looked down upon and he causes his brothers death with an act of jealousy exactly like Cain did to Abel. When Adam says,”You’ll have to give it back” Cal is torn apart and in a state of jealousy and hatred towards his brother(Steinbeck 540). He knows that Aron is the preferred twin and this really makes him upset. This exact thing happens in the bible when Abel’s gift is the one God likes more of the two. This builds up jealousy in Cain and pushes him to the point where he murders Abel. Also when Cal says,”Oh, it’s

When Abra first meets Aron and Cal, she sees two lost children and teases them. Like Adam, the two boys found, “their first experience with the inexorable logic of women [to be] exciting and frightening” (345). Abra is attractive to Aron and fascinating to Cal. However, angelic (compared to Cathy) Abra is kind, motherly, gentle, and loving. Similar to Adam, Aron had no motherly guidance as a child, causing both of them to rely on their partners for motherly warmth.

Cal thinks because of his mother Cathy he is also being a evil person. His mother Cathy was a evil monster in this book. When Aron and Cal was growing up. Cal used to think everyone loves Aron. Then the jealous inside of him came out. He naturally started to hate his twin brother Aaron. And Cal’s thought to this behaviour was his mother Cathy. When it says "I hate her because I know why she went away. I know—because I've got her in me." (38.3.49) it means believed that the jealous, hate and the evil behaviour all that just naturally came from Cathy. His relationship to his dad was a sort of forgiveness, the forgiveness for loving Aron more than him. Just the same way Adam and Charles father Cyrus loved Adam more than Charles. The relationship of Cal to his brother was all about jealousy and hate for his brother on how better he is than Cal. His relationship to Cathy was also a forgiveness for giving an evil monster. Mothers are the one who always play a big role in raising the children. Their behaviour will put a big impact on how the kids are going to grow up. And in this book, Cathy has crossed all her limits of being a worst person. Because of her behaviour Cal had to put himself in a dark place thinking he would also grow up evil has his mother

A person’s life should not be judged until death do they part. During a person’s life, they have the time and chances to change themselves; therefore, judgement of the choices that the person makes during their lifetime should be considered after death. Goodness could be defined as a person who has good intentions in life and know what is morally right. Evil could be interpret as one who behaves upon evil wrongdoings. In the novel East of Eden, John Steinbeck reveals a character that struggles between both roles during his lifetime. Through the idea of timshel, the character has the choice of choosing between right and wrong. Cal Trask is the son of Cathy, who is tainted by malevolence; therefore, Cal Trask embodies the same dark spirits within

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

To determine a character as good or evil, one has to first ascertain the definition of good and evil. While “every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust,” and “[t]hen when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and when it is finished, bringeth for death” (King James Version, James 1: 14-15). James concludes a person becomes evil when they sin. People sin when they succumb to their own lust, and sin, which comes from Lucifer, represents evil. Therefore, John Steinbeck’s character, Cathy Ames, is evil because her heart overflows with greed and selfishness. She also makes wicked decisions which impact her life. John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden reveals the way evil character, Cathy, develops from a young, methodical girl into an irritable, paranoid woman because of her heinous choices, by describing Cathy in the beginning with “a face of innocence” and one who makes calculated decisions, and then as a woman with an “oily-looking bandage… [on] her right forefinger” with a “crooked finger” underneath the bandage and feeling “cold and desolate, alone and desolate,” to portray how beauty passes, yet the choices one makes now can impact them later in life (Steinbeck 73, 462, 552)