...In John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden, there is a reoccurring theme of good v evil that appears in all of the characters in this novel. Steinbeck believes that the story of good v evil is the only story in this world that all people struggle with and have to come to a conclusion about. All people will be faced with the final questions; was their life good or bad? Will people remember them as a good person or a bad person? Will their legacy live on or die with them? This struggle is fought by every generation who has to face the same ancient questions time and time again. Steinbeck believes that humans never have and never will learn from the past and overcome this but will continue to fight this battle for all eternity. The theme of good v evil is not of them as polar opposites but as the struggle between them. Every character in this novel struggles with this but some of them give up and decide to go completely one way or another. “But the Hebrew word, 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. That throws it right back on man. For if ‘Thou mayest’— it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not’” (Steinbeck 303). All the characters in this novel that believe in thou mayest struggle the most with good and evil because they know there is a choice and they can choose to go one way or the other. They do not just have to go one way because they think it is in their genes or because they are being pushed...
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...Lee was the most stable character in East of Eden, it is difficult to explain how he was swayed or pulled by the forces of good and evil. There was certainly both good surrounding him and evil surrounding him, but Lee was such a genuine person, that there is no telling how exactly these forces acted upon him. Lee was always a servant to Adam, who views himself as inherently good, actually imposed the most wrongdoings out of all the characters (besides Cathy). Cathy really did not phase Lee or try to pull him in any directions because she, described by the narrator, was a “monster” who “was not like other people,” (72). Lee had acknowledged that there was something amiss about Cathy when he spoke with Samuel Hamilton, but Cathy only affected his life through those around him. The fact that she abandoned Adam and the twins forced Lee to take on the role of not only the twins mother, but their father as well. Adam is the type of man who brings others down with him and while he was never able to bring Lee down, it is obvious that Lee feels slightly used, despite his being a servant, “’I’ll lay aside my Oriental manner. I’m getting old and cantankerous. I am growing impatient. Haven’t you heard of all Chinese servants that when they get old they remain loyal but they turn mean?’” (373). Lee had always offered up his advice for Adam on the whim and by the beginning of their elderly years, Lee seems to become colder and less willing to coddle those around him. Adam Trask is by no means...
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...Shaun C. O’Malley Sociology 310 M&F Novel Analysis East of Eden I must admit that I was not happy when I saw that I had to do a book report. When given the list of books to read, I thought to myself just clothes your eyes, point, and which ever one your finger is on you will read. that finger of mine landed on East of Eden, and wow did I luck out! This saga of two families the Trask family in Connecticut and the Hamilton family in California. This saga of two brothers, Charles and Adam Trask, then Cal and Aron Trask in the next generation. This saga of families and friends, Samuel Hamilton, his wife, his children Will, Olive, Tom and Dessie Hamilton, as well as Lee the Chinese American friend and caretaker of Adam Trask and his sons, did not disappoint. The oldest stories are retold in East of Eden, good versus evil and brother versus brother. There is racism, violence, blindness, betrayal, and deceit. There is love, father to son, brother to brother, man and woman, and friend to friend. The characters are complex no one is totally good or absolutely evil, even Cathy has a human layer. East of Eden is the biblical Cain and Abel story replayed. The conflict of brothers is powerful in both generations. The book begins by describing Samuel and his family living in Salinas Valley. After describing Samuel and his family, we are introduced to the Trask family namely the father of the family Cyrus Trask, who was an army veteran. His wife died after his first child named...
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...Daniel Barton October 27, 2014 Religious Literature Transient and Permanent Qualities in East of Eden: The Relationship Between Good and Evil Torben Grodal talked of art film as possessing two basic elements, transient and permanent, but they are also seen in the novel East of Eden. Steinbeck creates scenes that at first have a transient quality, and then purposefully connects to a permanent nature. These permanent qualities, grappled with by the Trask’s and Lee, examine the never ending battle between good and evil. In the novel East of Eden, John Steinbeck constructs scenes that have an initial transient quality, but then persistently associates these with a permanent nature that examines the conflict between good and evil. Steinbeck portrays Cathy as a very evil character, someone who is just inexplicably evil and makes several allusions to her being a monster and devil. When first introducing the reader to Cathy, Steinbeck writes about the creation of monsters, an obvious parallel. He goes on to say that, “monsters are variations from the accepted normal to a greater or a less degree. As a child may be born without an arm, so one may be born without kindness or the potential of conscience” (72). He wastes no time in comparing a monster to Cathy. He believes that Cathy is not an ordinary evil either, but that she is a very abstract form of evil, the exact idea of evil and that she has no good in her body. Steinbeck does not only believe that Cathy is a monster, but...
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...“But the Hebrew word timshel—'Thou mayest'—that gives a choice. For if 'Thou mayest'—it is also true that 'Thou mayest not.' That makes a man great and that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.” -Lee (chapter 24) Lee has a huge role in the novel East of Eden, as he plays the maternal role for the boys, the loyal philosophic friend for Adam, and a major character for the novel. In the Trask house Lee is portrayed as nothing more than a low class servant, but as we look further into the novel we see the impact Lee had on everyone. For example, he was responsible for keeping the Trask family together. His interpretation of timshel, thou mayest, is an evident theme throughout the novel. He believes that one has the right of choosing between the two paths of right and wrong. Throughout, we watch as some characters fall into the path of evil while others take the other route of good. The Trasks grow closer to Lee and it becomes without him the family would crumble apart as he took over the role of father figure. Lee is the most important character of the novel because he serves to embody and epitomize the concept of timshel, bringing it out from each of the other characters. Lee was portrayed as stereotypical Chinese servant, he wore a que, traditional clothing, and spoke with a heavy Chinese accent. He lived in Salinas in about the...
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...considered to be an evil person. In literature, however, fictional characters can be made out to be exactly how the author wants them to be, and they do not have to exhibit any human characteristics at all. Cathy is used in the novel East of Eden by John Steinbeck to portray the evil and inhumanity in people. Her character shows greed, lust, and darkness and the novel, and she represents the majority of the corruption in the novel as a whole. East of Eden is most widely known for being a biblical allusion. Cathy’s role in the allusion can be argued as two biblical figures: The Devil and Lilith. One common similarity shared between the devil and Cathy is having multiple faces or forms. According to the Bible, the Devil started in Heaven and then was sent to Earth as a serpent. When the serpent deceived Eve, he was damned to Hell and became known as Satan. Cathy follows a...
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...The first chapter of East of Eden is devoted to explaining the principle setting of the novel, Salinas Valley. This chapter does not just establish the geography and other physical feature of Salinas Valley, but also the nature of the people who lived there. “I have spoken of the rich years when the rain was plentiful. But there were dry years too, and the put a terror on the valley. … And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always this way.” (5). This quote is among the most important in the chapter book because it gives the reader a connection to the people living in the valley. It establishes that humans in the Salinas are the same as people all over the world. Human nature seems to ensure that during times of plenty people forget times of hardship while forgetting the times the prosperity...
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...East of Eden’s story mainly revolves around a man named Adam Trask and his twin sons, Caleb, who is nicknamed Cal, and Aron. The lives of other people are included in the story as well, but everything leads back to Adam and his sons. One of the other stories involved is that of a man named Samuel Hamilton. Samuel Hamilton settles in the Salinas Valley in northern California with his wife, Liza, in the late 1800’s. Samuel and Liza go on to have nine children, and the Hamilton family becomes an important and respected family in the community. Adam Trask also moves to Salinas around the same time with Cathy, his pregnant wife. Adam Trask lived in Connecticut with his half-brother, Charles, before moving to California. Charles didn’t like Adam, because he felt like their father favored Adam over him. When Adam and Charles’ father died he left them a very large fortune. Adam ends up marrying Cathy, who...
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...Eric Burdon, an influential songwriter involved in the band “The Animals” once proclaimed: “‘Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil: It's a constant struggle as to which one will win, and one cannot exist without the other”’ (Burdon). Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck, in one of his most ambitious novels, East of Eden, explores this concept through the lives and decisions of regular people in a poor town setting during the 20th century. While many of Steinbeck’s characters fit the criteria of purely evil or purely good, one character that is neither purely good nor purely evil plays a pivotal role. Caleb Trask, the son of Adam Trask, is morally ambiguous through his possession of both good and evil, and because of his moral...
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...In our society, a family can be defined in many ways. Whether it may be a traditional family, with a mother and father, a single parent, or even two moms or dads, a family is not defined by how many members it consists of, but the way that they care for each other. In John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, The Hamilton’s are foils of the Trask Family. The Hamilton’s are a large and loving traditional family who care and support each other. Meanwhile, the Trasks are smaller, less caring, and are quite divided. The fact that Steinbeck includes the Hamilton’s in his novel, even though it is portrayed by the Trask Family, is quite interesting. Steinbeck’s purpose of this is to show the importance of a father figure in a family. In the novel, it is clear...
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...An archetype is a character based on universally shared roles. In East of Eden by John Steinbeck, Adam could be considered a dreamer archetype because of his childlike view of the world, blatant rejection of reality, and his idealized image of the world around him. Adam’s ignorance of reality causes him numerous conflicts throughout the novel, however; these traits humanize him. All individuals have these tendencies which is what makes being a dreamer an archetype. From the beginning of the novel, Adam is portrayed with a childlike innocence to him. This innocence allows him to feel moral and pure while obtaining what he desires. Even when Adam is presented with contradicting evidence that threatens to tear down his reality, he dismisses it. For example, when Charles finds papers that seem to implicate his father acquired their inheritance dubiously, Adam completely rejects this thought. “Can you see that I don’t think our father was a thief? I don’t believe he was a liar...He did not steal it. He couldn’t have stolen it” (Steinbeck 71). Although Adam never loved his father he still defends his character because it supports his ideal reality. Adam sees the...
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...In the novel, East of Eden, John Steinbeck explores various ways of going about love and how it is good or bad. The longer the story continues the more Steinbeck shows the reader how deadly love may be. The author voices multiple ideas, however, the strongest is the idea of love and the beneficial and pernicious that comes with it. Although love is treated as the most valuable item for everyone, it can also lead to the vulnerability and demise of all. The idea of death by someone who you loved is expressed all throughout the novel by Adam’s heart being torn out by Cathy and the love conclusively leading to his demise. As Adam starts to feel settled into his new life with the love of his life, his heart is torn out. The few days after Cathy gave birth “her steps on the porch, on the crisp dry oak leaves on the path, and then (Adam) could hear her no more” she had every intention to leave Adam (Steinbeck 202). The idea of being completely in love “then he could hear her no more” is...
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...Power is strived from many, but not many know how to obtain it. In the novel East of Eden, John Steinbeck wants to propose that self awareness affects the amount of power one exhibits. Steinbeck displays this by describing the relationship between brothers and the perspective of Cathy. He uses allusion,analogy, and diction to present the idea that power is in a one’s own self control which can lead to either good or bad power. In the book the female character Cathy is aware of her own evil strength. She uses her own body to manipulate many men and gain power over them. However, Cathy is a "symbol of the human evil that will always be present in the world," and her loss of power over Adam and Cal strengthens East of Eden's message that individuals...
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...John Steinbeck, in his novel, East of Eden, utilizes different literary strategies to describe the nature of humans and ... Steinbeck conveys his purpose by including biblical allegories and biblical illusions … He uses a … tone to influence the readers to ... Biblical allusions and allegories best define the good versus evil behaviors of the characters seen in the novel. The Trask family and the Hamilton family, allegories for the good and evil in the world, demonstrate their ability to resist temptation or succumbing to it. Samuel Hamilton represents the good and pure nature of humans; many people would act if they did not listen to tempting evil influences. Samuel parallels God, his pure kind behavior and ability to make friends with Adam and Lee allows for others to accept his influence as many accept the influence of God in...
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...Lex Cornia LI 532 Final Paper March 15, 2008 East of Eden: The Discovery of Innocence on the Western Frontier The western clouds divided and subdivided themselves into pink flakes modulated with tints of such unspeakable softness that it was a pain to come within the doors of civilization… How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements! Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature The West captivates people. The West both as a direction of navigation and as an idea occupies a magical realm where boundaries become blurred and what is light becomes twilight and dark. Just as the East represents the arrival of sun with its light and rationality—of darkness dispelled— so too does the West embody the loss of that sun’s light and logic and the commencement of night. However, there are more boundaries between East and West than merely the presence or absence of light. After the time of Columbus, the people who looked toward the West, and particularly the North American continent, saw more than just land. The West was a sacred place where magic, hallowed, and even treacherous experiences were possible. This idea that possibilities existed in the West that did not exist elsewhere motivated millions to leave the Old World for the new and redefine themselves in a Western landscape of unlimited possibilities. What is the West? These early settlers, religionists, and explorers to the West came to the shores of the Atlantic seaboard unsure of what to expect from the new...
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