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.

Cruelty can be a major conflict within a story, whether it destroys the characters physically or mentally. Perpetrators who attempt to diminish a victim’s humanity want to gain the power that would give them a sense of control over certain situations by draining happiness from them. Doing this contributes to the energy source that the perpetrators use in order to live a fulfilling life. These actions reveal that they not only want to cause chaos, but that they believe it will help their victims comprehend where they stand in society. In East of Eden, the theme of good versus evil opens the doors for cruelty, as seen through Cathy’s abandonment and Adam’s favoritism, causing the destruction of family members and unlocking the characters’ path

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 includes more of the tale of Genesis: 4 than is actually told in the bible.  The basis of this is a Jewish story involving twin sisters of both Cain and Abel.  The two disputed over Abel’s twin whom Abel was to marry.  Cain murdered Abel and wed the twin sister of his brother (Fonterose, Joseph. p.3380).  The story differs also in that it is Abel who leaves his home instead of Cain.  Abel found his Eden, represented by Salinas Valley, but lost it after fathering a second generation very similar to the first, Caleb representing Cain and Aron representing Abel (Fonterose, Joseph. p.3379).  The story is changed by Steinbeck to illustrate

In the novel, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, biblical allusion is a literary device that references characteristics of judeo christian doctrine. Steinbeck alludes to the bible with his characters and setting in East of Eden. Salinas Valley and Adam Trask’s garden allude to the Garden of Eden. Steinbeck portrays the biblical allusion of the chapter Genesis from the bible throughout the book. The characters in the novel are allude to those in the book of Genesis. Steinbeck’s characters alluded to Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, and Seth. All the conflicts in the book of Genesis, parallel the conflicts in the novel. The conflicts of represent the same fundamental theme of the choice between good and evil. Which is how the research question, To what extent does biblical allusion impact the structure and theme in John Steinbeck, East of Eden, shows its significance. To answer the research question, the investigation will look at the biblical allusion to the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Lilith. The investigation will further seek to explain how each biblical allusion impacts the structure and theme of the novel.

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

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.

The novel, East of Eden, by John Steinbeck references to the bible quite a bit when describing some of the characters. Steinbeck refers to the story of Cain and Abel, two brothers who lived in peace until Cain slaughtered Abel. One day the two boys were to offer sacrifices to god; Abel offers his best lamb and Cain offers grain to god. God prefers Abel’s gift over Cain’s and in a jealous fit of anger Cain murders Abel. After this God comes to talk to Cain about what he had just done and in doing so he banishes Cain to “the land of Nod, east of Eden”(Genesis 4:16). Steinbeck uses a few Cain like characters throughout the novel to illustrate the reality of humanity; jealousy and favorability shapes our society and the way people act. There is no place to escape one's baser nature besides death’s home; steinbeck shows this through Cal Trask, Charles Trask, and Tom Hamilton.

The personalities of the two most influential women in John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden, Cathy and Abra, are complex. One is evil, and the other is good. Despite their different personalities, they are surprisingly similar. Moreover, the women’s involvement in the story portrays the cycle of good conquering evil. Steinbeck describes Cathy as the “Eve” of the Trask family and depicts her as serpentlike and catlike.

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

He can’t be grouped with a certain biblical character because he has traits that match more than one person, he can’t be tied down to being good or evil. From the ongoing game of tug a war going on with his head and heart Cal had grown up confused and was tricked into thinking that he must be the bad brother because that’s how everyone sees it. He fails to give himself credit for attempting to be good. Cal even says that there is no point in trying: “It’s like you said about knowing people. I hate her because I know why she went away. I know- because I’ve got her in me’ His head was down and his voice was heartbroken. Lee jumped up. ‘You stop that!’ he said sharply. ‘You hear me? Don’t let me catch you doing that. Of course you may have that in you. Everybody has. But you’ve got the other to” (Steinbeck 449). His head is constantly trying to get him to do the wrong things but his heart is trying to break through all the darkness and find his morals. Especially after Cal had learned that his mother wasn’t dead and she had worked with prostitutes and learned about her devilish ways he jumped to the conclusion he took after her in that way. I think that Cal has such a hard time understanding that he can be good too because he can’t see past the bad things he has done, he can’t forgive himself for it. Cals whole character brings a relatable feeling to all readers, one

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

Throughout Steinbeck's novel East of Eden, he captures the idea of Timshel through different characters. Many believe that Timshel is left in open, giving the character the choice. However, Timshel is actually developed in one, they either fight evil with Timshel or give into the dark side. The biblical story of Cain and Abel has been written in more than one way. The King James version of the Bible states that when God speaks to Cain after he had murdered his brother Abel, God said, "Thou shalt" overcome sin. In the standard American version of the Bible, God says "Do thou" which means Cain will certainly overcome sin. The Hebrew word “timshel” means “thou mayest” which are the two most important words in John Steinbeck's novel East of

“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.

Naked Lunch Analysis The book Naked Lunch could be measured as at times, poetic, but the belligerent content, troubling images, duplication of sentences, and its nonexistence story plot makes it something unquestionably dreadful to read. The novel is organized as a series of poorly linked portions. Throughout the book, readers can sometimes begin to feel uncomfortable with the alarming content flipping from page to page. Although some readers may think Naked Lunch is insightful and humorous, taking each unsettling paragraph as a “grain of salt,” I will argue that the novel has misleading content and seems to be very bias with the upsetting metaphors throughout the book.