East of Eden Essay: Criticism of East of Eden

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 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

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.

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

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.

This passage forms a big idea about the tendencies of the character in the story East of Eden, and more importantly about human nature. Steinbeck informs the reader that humans have been and always will be caught in a continuous “net” of good and evil. This same net has influenced civilization and culture since the beginning of mankind, and applies to every human ever born. Just like the biblical story of Adam and Eve the two people blessed with a life without worry, sinned and passed their evil onto their ancestors. The author underscores the importance that all humans must face this struggle; some may choose the path of good or evil, but many find themselves balancing between these two paths, sometimes leaning more towards the light, or perhaps even tipping too far into the darkness. The final line of this quote backs the author’s argument, as it implies that there is no other place for one to find oneself; every person is trapped in this net, a net that ultimately influences your life decisions and

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

East of Eden, a novel written by John Steinbeck, is set in Salinas, California, a place Steinbeck calls home. Steinbeck believes East of Eden to be his most sacred piece of work. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck explores the universal themes that all humans experience, such as: lust, family, sin, and free will. The novel foreshadows the roles that the characters play as they reenact the biblical story of Cain and Abel. Several characters through the course of Steinbeck’s novel, East of Eden, demonstrates a lack of self ability and corruption of the soul.

The author John Steinbeck is known for his many great novels, for example East of Eden. East of Eden is a novel based off of the bible story of Cain and Abel. The main character, Caleb Trask also known as Cal, represents Cain in the bible and his brother, Aaron Trask, represents Abel. This novel takes place in Salinas Valley, California where Adam Trask, father of Caleb and Aaron, moves for a better life. Adam marries Cathy Ames, who beneath her charming face, is a evil woman who manipulates people for her own amusement.

Throughout John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, a common theme is the character’s internal battle between choosing the path of good over the path of evil. Primarily, the evil trait applies to the characters whose names begin with ‘C’, as a homage to Cain, and Cal is no exception. His naturally evil nature causes him to develop feelings of hatred toward himself, because he fears that he will end up making the wrong decisions. However, he does seem fond of Aron and tends to put him first to show his compassion. Due to his own insecurities about which path he should take, Cal actually resents his brother.

“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.

Accomplished novelist, John Steinbeck, born in 1902, serves as a staple of American literature. He grew up in Salinas, California and graduated from Salinas High School in 1919. After attending Stanford University to study English Literature and failing to obtain a degree, Steinbeck moved to New York City and jumped between odd jobs and writing. With no luck in becoming published, he moved back to California, where he spent the rest of his life. As the author of novels, both fiction and nonfiction, along with collections of short stories, Steinbeck can definitely be recognized as a true classic author. His most noteworthy novel, The Grapes of Wrath, rightfully claims both the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. Another famous novel, Of Mice and Men, reveals Steinbeck’s serious tone of writing as well as a tragic story line in his work. As the winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, his novels are still read and appreciated all around the world today. Living and writing during the Great Depression, Steinbeck realized that oftentimes, people need to rely on others in times of need. This, however, can create relationships between people in which there is an unequal balance of power. He utilizes his experiences from the Great Depression to demonstrate these differing amounts of dominance. Power and the absence of power shape the relationships and steer the course of events in Of Mice and Men.