East of Eden

The concept of good and evil traces back into the ancient Zoroastrian faith and is one of the most universal themes in literature today. One author whose works embodies the essence of these two forces is John Steinbeck. Steinbeck incorporates the nature of good and evil through several characters in two of his most renowned books novels: East of Eden and Of Mice and Men. Throughout these two stories, Steinbeck uses characters of evil-- Cathy and Curly’s wife, characters of goodness-- Samuel Hamilton and George, and characters who are a mix of the two-- Caleb and Lennie. With the representation of these two opposing forces through characters, Steinbeck displays how human nature is comprised of good and evil.

To show that man is surrounded by good and evil no matter where they are, Steinbeck describes the setting in a contrasting way to represent the good side and the bad side of nature. He

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

Using his freedom of choice, Adam chooses to be loyal to his brother and chooses good over evil. Years later, after Adam has served in the army and been discharged twice, he wandered around, not wanting to go home yet. He was picked up by sheriff's men who judged him vagrant and he was put on a road gang to serve six months. After his six months were over, two days later he was picked up again and given another six month sentence. However, this time Adam would run away and escape: "It took him five days to cross the short distance into Georgia. He took no chances, held back his impatience with an iron control." (Steinbeck) This passage shows that Adam is still a representation of good at this point because later on Adam explains how he felt like he owed the first six months. He the need to stay and complete those six months of hard labour because he was feeling guilty about not going home where Charles was eagerly awaiting his arrival. The last and best example of Adam utilizing his free will is when he is dying. At the end of East of Eden when Adam is on his deathbed Lee implores him to open his eyes and look at the only son he had left and forgive him. Lee begs Adam to forgive Cal and give him his blessing before he dies so that his son may live. Adam uses his last breath to bless Cal with the realization that he had the gift of free will too: "His whispered word seemed to hang in the air:

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 struggle of sibling rivalry over ability and temperament has taken East of Eden in a whole new perspective. Steinbeck’s portrait on sibling rivalry shows the good vs. evil of each character in the story. The nature of good vs. evil as natural selection is also seen in siblings, as a compete for something physical, mental, or something emotional. The sibling rivalry from the biblical characters embraced Steinbeck’s characters throughout every concept in the novel, the good vs. evil confines the characters personality in every idea of Steinbeck’s novel. From the biblical story of Cain and Abel to Adam and Charles to Cal and Aaron the story continues through out every

Adam was clearly an Abel, good to the core. In contrast, Charles, his jealous brother, was a Cain figure. Adam’s set of twins took on characteristics of good and evil also. Aron, the fair-haired child, was considered the good son throughout most of the novel. He was his father’s favorite and Abra’s true love. The dark Cal, on the other hand, was jealous and mean. He believed throughout most of the novel that he was incapable of goodness and was condemned to the wickedness of his mother. Ironically, by the end of the novel, Cal became a good son and received his father’s blessings. Through the teachings of Lee, the family servant, Cal had learned that he had the freedom to choose goodness over evil.

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

Throughout the story, there have been numerous sightings of an important Biblical allusion— the Garden of Eden. As this is a common folktale, it serves as a Biblical allusion as well. The story is simple: God creates Adam and Eve who are deemed innocent in the beginning of their life span. God tells them not to eat an apple from the tree of knowledge, but when the snake arrives, the snake tells them that simply, they should not comply with God’s requested wishes. While they eat the apple from the tree of knowledge, God shuns them from the Garden of Eden due to the fact that Adam and Eve, are not innocent anymore. The professor speaks about the significance of the Garden of Eden in Chapter 7, and it relates to this part of The Jungle in an indistinguishable way in How to Read Like a Professor. Jurgis, the protagonist in

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men makes numerous biblical allusions to demonstrate how man is incapable of resisting his own primeval desires, revealing humanity's inherent imperfections.

Imagine an eden where “the grass is rich and thick”. The novel opens with visual imagery of a scene of paradise. Unfortunately, over time the streams dry out and “too many cattle feed upon the grass”(Paton.1). This alludes to the Garden of Eden. It was a perfect paradise for Adam and Eve, but because of their sin, they could “not stand upon it”(Paton.1). When Paton is describing the beautiful land, the narrator commands not to “stand upon it[, wearing] shoes, for the ground is holy, being just as it came from God”(Paton.1). This statement represents with the story of Moses in which he could not walk towards the burning bush with his shoes on. He is commanded to remove them before approaching the bush. The first chapter of Cry, the Beloved Country is filled with allusions pertaining to the early Old Testament of the Bible.

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

These minor bits of information may be trivial, but the do create a setting that is rich with religious overtones. And of course, at the end of the second paragraph we discover that the garden of Eden is in the narrator's back yard: "the wild garden behind the house contained a central apple-tree [...] and the late tenant's rusty bicycle pump." Perhpas it is a stretch to read a bicycle pump as the tempting serpent, but a central apple-tree unmistakably suggests the garden of Eden. The story takes place against a backdrop of religious icons and images--all the events occur in a religious "setting," if you will.

Particularly with this questioning on man’s fate, we are asked whether we should live life alongside others or not. We come to realize that this same exact theme has been portrayed in another work, and in this case, the Bible. The question we see in Of Mice and Men simply reflects upon the way Cain asked the Lord, “am I my brother’s keeper?” While looking at East of Eden, we come to realize that this is a story in which the story of Cain and Abel (two brothers) is regurgitated in which Steinbeck has the characters of the novel read parts of the Biblical story aloud and enter deep discussions about the story. “Of Mice and Men is an early Steinbeck variation on this symbol story of the human soul.