East of Eden
In the year of 1952, John Steinbeck published the novel that "I have been practicing for all my life" (McCarthy, p.117), East of Eden. He decided to hold nothing back from the reader and scrutinize the very aspect of human nature using the Biblical stories of Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel as a backdrop. This story of good and evil and man's downfall is centered on the dark and twisted figure of Cathy Ames, later Kate Trask. Through this pure embodiment of evil, Steinbeck demonstrates how the characters of Charles, Caleb, and Samuel come to discover the good and evil that dwells within each of their souls. Although the character of Cathy seems unnaturally vicious and cruel, Steinbeck didn't have to go far to find the inspiration for her existence. Steinbeck's first marriage to Carol Henning was unhappy and bitter, filled with quarrels and arguments. In 1942, he divorced her and turned around in 1943 to marry Gwen Verdon, the mother of his two boys. This marriage proved to be more unsuccessful than the first and "she became a kind of monster in John's mind" (Wyatt, p. xi), thus making the explicit correlation to Cathy. Steinbeck speaks of Gwyn and reflects that "she killed my love of her with little cruelties...American marri
Although his narrative presence in East of Eden is relatively brief, that presence hovers like a benedictory spirit over all the action" (Timmerman, p. As opposed to the story of Charles and Adam, the characters of the novel begin to see the parallels between the twins and the Biblical brothers. It was the strongest, purest emotion he knew" (p. Samuel brings and creates life as Kate strives to mangle it. He chooses to tell this story of the world once again in the novel East of Eden and in so doing wrote the book that he was practicing for his entire life. Kate is consistently described as a serpent, the form the devil chose to lure Adam and Eve out of purity and into transgression. Samuel senses Kate's arrival to the small town. His only comparison is his angelic brother and by looking at Aaron's qualities, he sees only his own faults. He is blinded by his love to clearly see her. Samuel sees the association to the characters in the Bible but Lee refuses to acknowledge it, thinking it cruel to condemn either to Cain's or Abel's later fate. Before their encounter, Charles feels no remorse about almost killing his brother, Adam. In Kate there is no remorse and she is happy causing destruction. I think this is the only story we have and that it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence.
Common topics in this essay:
Caleb Aaron,
Salinas Sam,
Lord God,
Charles Adam,
Cain's Abel's,
Cain Abel,
East Eden,
Initially Steinbeck,
Cathy Steinbeck,
John Steinbeck,
cain abel,
adam eve,
east eden,
story cain abel,
story cain,
charles adam,
story world,
sharp teeth,
evil dwells,
boys world,
recognize own,
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Acceptance Essays
