Free Will in East of Eden by John Steinbeck

East of Eden, written by John Steinbeck, is a profound, complicated retelling of the biblical story of Cain and Abel, focused around the overall struggle between good and evil . John Steinbeck wrote this for his own sons, John and Tom, to show them not only the history of their family in the Hamiltons, but also the concept of sibling rivalry emerging from the competition over paternal love and acceptance (Shillinglaw). This was first evident in Adam and Charles Trask, and then in Adam’s sons, Aron and Cal Trask. The absence of a true mother figure in these two instances of brotherly contention enhances the need for acknowledgment and love from their parental figures. And yet, both mother figures in East of Eden choose to abandon their

This shows Elie’s change in his thoughts on God and having faith. At the beginning of the story, Elie strives to be a spiritual kid and is fascinated by learning about God. He goes behind his father's back to learn about God with Moishe the Beadle, and has intense prayers everyday which he cries during. However, he becomes bitter towards God, angry about all the pain he has inflicted on the Jewish race. This change in perspective was brought on by the torture, abuse, and inhumane treatment by the Nazis. It causes Elie to question how God, who is supposed to be helpful and good, could ever allow such horror. This connects to loss, and how the traumatic

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, he continuously uses biblical allusions to better express Lennie and George’s loss of paradise. Steinbeck uses biblical allusions from the book of Genesis because they represent the Fall of Man; therefore, supporting his theme of losing paradise. Steinbeck alludes Curley’s wife to the apple of temptation from the story of Adam and Eve because she constantly tempts Lennie which results in his fall. Additionally, George and Lennie are allusions to the sons of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, due to the fact that Cain betrays Abel, similarly to how George betrays Lennie; which results in both Cain and George losing paradise. In using the biblical allusions of the apple of temptation and the brothers, Cain and

Steinbeck’s use of the literary technique of dialogue, the conversation emphasizes that Adam carefully considers his children’s feelings. Adam is faced with the choice of lying to his sons to prevent harm. Therefore, Adam is acting with admirable intentions and wants what is best for his children. Furthermore, during Thanksgiving dinner, Adam rejects Cal’s present, a large sum of money, he has collected with Will Hamilton and Lee’s assistance with the bean industry during the war. “’[Cal], give it to the farmers you robbed… I send boys out’ he said…’Son, do you think I could take a profit on that?”’ (540). This conversation emphasizes that Adam cares about properly educating his children steering them in the appropriate direction. Although the action is cruel, this is a valuable lesson to learn at a young age and it demonstrates that Adam is a reputable person. Instead of accepting money made dishonestly and allowing his children to take pride in ‘crime’, Adam refuses; in the hopes that Cal will understand and view his action as somewhat evil. Through the literary technique of creating suspense, the reader can determine that Adam chooses to be virtuous rather than evil and ultimately reflects this idea of choice known as Timshel.

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

While Tom and Mrs. Trask did not hold the gift of Timshel in themselves, Cal does. Although he suffers from a long term, inner battle with good and evil, Lee is there to show his his true potential and the Timshel inside of him. When he confesses to his father, stating that he “did it” and he’s “responsible for the Aron’s death and” his fathers “sickness” (Steinbeck 595) he questions the good in him. While Lee does not come right out and tell him he’s a good man he makes his father tell him, proving to Cal his true potential. After Lee pesters Adam, while he’s on his deathbed, he utters his last words “Timshel”, giving Cal the freedom he deserves. Although the later actions of Cal are unaware, it can be inferred that he prevails, due to his earlier actions when he’s in such a situation. Proving overall that Timshel is inside of him.

In the novel, East of Eden by John Steinbeck theorizes that all individuals have the freedom to make choices in order to triumph over evil. Steinbeck demonstrates this by his use of the word timshel, the word, which translates to “thou mayest,” is

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

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

In other words, one's character is not changed or defined by a single moment. Timshel also gives the people the sense that they are a mini god, due to their chance for their future. In the lyrics of “Timshel”, “His ladder to the stars” refers to gaining access to God’s ladder and joining him in the stars, while being a god(16). In East of Eden, Lee also uses the phrase “Ladder to the stars” while talking to Cal. There is sense of unity in Timshel, as portrayed in “Timshel” when they say “as brothers we will stand and we'll hold your hand”(9-10). There is also another connection between East of Eden and “Timshel” when they write, “And you are the mother the mother of your baby child the one to whom you gave life”(11-13). This refers to Cathy being a mother, while trying to abandon her child. Having a choice, as seen in Timshel, is not always good, as seen with Cathy and

He struggles with the trying to overcome temptations and tries to live a good moral life. Cal’s cook tells him about timshell, showing him he shouldn’t be afraid because he is the one who ultimately chooses his own moral path in life. After living so many years with this fear, this acceptance enables him to overcome his fear of his mother’s evil being passed down to him. Cal represents Cain in the bible from the second generation of the Trask family, Charles, his uncle, being the first one. Just like Charles, Cal’s jealousy leads him to immense rage many times throughout the novel, one being towards the end when his father rejects his gift.

During our East of Eden reading, we reflect on past reading and find deeper meaning in quotes and paragraphs which we normally would have skipped over. We analyze the causal paragraphs that John Steinbeck puts in between chapters and talk about their meaning in the book and what aspects it is referring to. We learn about the importance of Steinbeck trying to make a change and the views he was trying to amend.

It begins with a father named Cyrus who is incapable of showing admiration towards his sons and telling the truth. His two sons, Adam and Charles are two completely different people. Adam represents good and innocence and Charles symbolizes evil and malice. Steinbeck says, “Maybe we all have in us a secret pond where evil and ugly things germinate and grow strong. But Culture is fenced, and the swimming brood climbs up only to fall back. Might it not be that in the dark pools of some men the evil grows strong enough to wiggle over the fence and swim free.” (13.2.3) This quote is significant because it clearly states, the theme in saying that in every person there is some evil inside of us, but only bad people allow the evil to

Through the imagery found in Steinbeck’s diction, the reader paints a picture of a serene, charming scene where “the golden foothill slopes curve up to the ... mountains” (Of Mice and Men 1) and seemingly nothing could go wrong. But Steinbeck’s novel soon changes, issuing a foreboding sense of future danger when the reader meets the characters. George clearly considers himself Lennie’s caretaker and protector, shielding him from the people in the world who would judge him unfairly due to his inability to understand social situations. George’s insistence in the repetitive “hide in the brush” (Of Mice and Men 15) indicates that at some point in the novel, something will go wrong. George's warning to the readers by instilling this phrase into Lennie's mind gives the reader a sense of wonder about what might happen to George and Lennie.

Although there is no doubt that Steinbeck used the Biblical story of Cain and Abel and readers while reading East of Eden can without any harder searching see the similarities between this story and the original story in the Bible, still, there are several differences. I think that Steinbeck intentionally wrote East of Eden with those differences, to illustrate that the message from the Biblical story should not be that all men are condemned, but rather that all men have a free will and they choose the course of their life. Steinbeck also, when illustrating the differences, wanted to portray that the people cannot be described as purely good or evil, as the characters of Cain and Abel are portrayed. David McCrighty also holds this idea, because he writes in his thesis, “These subtle differences in