Essay on East of Eden: An Interpretation

Meanwhile, Cathy committed terrible acts similar to Lucy by attempting to kill her husband, owning a brothel, and blackmailing. Although, Steinbeck uses allusions to the Bible of the story of Cain and Abel to portray the theme of nature versus nurture. Since Cathy starts with the letter "C", she is destined to become evil due to the connection of Cain's evil act. Cathy's death in East of Eden is similar to Lucy since she is forgiven for the sins that she has committed through purification, "I leave everything I have to my son Aron Trask." She dated the sheet and signed it "Catherine Trask." Her fingers dwelt on the page, and then she got up and left her will face upward on the desk" (Steinbeck 550). In Steinbeck's society, women depict motherly behavior such as protecting their children, however, Cathy's greatest sin was that she left her own children behind and was far from motherly since she almost killed Adam, her former husband as well as deceiving and manipulating men. Despite her treacherous deeds, Cathy's death purifies her since she left a will for Aaron as her last attempt to correct her sins and try to become a mother for once due to a change of heart upon Cal visiting her brothel. Overall, Cathy and Lucy both represent the undesirable social behaviors, but they are forgiven with purification through death.

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 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 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.

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

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.

Judane Carigma Open-ended Prompt Essay 2016 Many works of literature contain a character who intentionally deceives others. The character’s dishonesty may be intended either to help or to hurt. Such a character, for example, may choose to mislead others for personal safety, to spare someone’s feelings, or to carry out a crime. Choose a novel or play in which a character deceives others.

In the book, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, the characters in the book represent Biblical symbols of good and evil. Their interactions demonstrate the influence of good and evil on each other. Each character in the book has their own personality trait that plays onto the other characters when they come together. It is the comparison between good and evil that triggers events leading to violence.

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 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

Q3 Essay The death of a loved one is almost always a critical, clarifying or defining moment in someone’s life. In East of Eden, by John Steinbeck, Adam’s death prompts a moment of realization and illumination in his son, Caleb’s life, as well as the work as a whole. It brought reconciliation and freedom to Caleb’s burdened heart.

A struggling relationship between parent and child is one of the most detrimental situations in which a child can find themselves. It may lead to a child being violent, running away, or even committing suicide. A positive and supporting parental unit is incredibly important in preparing someone for success. Having already lost his mother, Caleb is not in an ideal situation to grow up and have a happy, successful life. In addition, his father Adam, has an obvious preference of Cal’s brother Aron, which completely destroys the parental unit which a child needs to be successful. The conflict between Adam and Cal leads to the death of multiple major characters and allows for numerous themes of East of Eden to develop.

“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.

Adam and Eve were the first man and woman to ever be created by God’s image. In the story of Adam and Eve is to believe that God created two human beings to live in a Paradise on earth, called the Garden of Eden, although they had fell from that state it said to be in history that they began humanity, and the loss of innocence.