The edition of East of Eden that I read was the Penguin Modern Classics Edition, published in 1992. I have read three of Steinbeck’s works previously: The Grapes of Wrath when I was about thirteen, and again last year; Cannery Row; Of Mice and Men. The latter was one I studied at school, a book I was forced to read seven times in a row before having something approaching a breakdown. The fact that I still adore John Steinbeck and am still thirsty for his works is a testament to his brilliance! The parallels between Genesis and East of Eden are totally impossible to ignore and it is from this angle that I intend to examine this novel.
The most striking way in which East of Eden resembles Genesis is in what it has to say about brotherhood. An echo of the story of Cain and Abel is repeated twice in the novel – first between Adam and his half-brother Charles, and then again between Adam’s twin sons, Caleb (Cal) and Aron. The story of Cain and Abel is of course very well known – brothers who both present a gift to God (in Cain’s case, the fruits of his farming and in Abel’s case, a new-born lamb). However, God does not appreciate Cain’s sacrifice, instead preferring Abel’s. Cain turns his feelings on his brother, believing that there has been a huge injustice and, in a rage, he murders his brother. Charles has exactly the same feelings, having saved to buy his father a pocket-knife as a birthday present and finding that his father preferred the gift from Adam – a stray puppy he had found. This episode is to haunt Charles, causing him to physically attack (and even attempt to murder) his brother. Charles finds himself completely consumed by his jealousy and perceived injustice. Indeed, as God marked Cain, Charles is involved with an accident, in which his head becomes scarred. This echo is impossible to ignore, especially as Charles himself writes to his brother, saying, “It just seems like I was marked”p.49. When Adam is in the army, Charles ‘missed his brother more than he missed his mother and father. He remembered quite inaccurately the time before Adam went away as the happy time, and he wanted it to come again.’p.43 Adam has a different view of ‘home’. ‘He didn’t want to go home and he put it off as long as possible. Home was not a pleasant place in his mind.’p.50 Charles ‘had more respect for Adam after he knew about the prison. He felt the warmth for his brother you feel only for one who is not perfect and therefore no target for your hatred.’p.112 Even so, the incident surrounding the knife still haunts their relationship.
The second brotherly relationship is that of Adam’s (non-identical) twin sons, Cal and Aron. The parallels with Cain and Abel are made even more obvious when Samuel Hamilton points out that, since they are the first sons of Adam, it is a shame “that the proper names for them they cannot have.”p.267 In this case, it is Aron who is held on a pedestal. We find that ‘From his first memory Cal had craved warmth and affection, just as everyone does. If he had been an only child or if Aron had been a different kind of boy, Cal might have achieved his relationship normally and easily. But from the very first people were won instantly to Aron…’p.442This time around, however, the other son does not drive himself to distraction in the same way, as ‘Cal did not question the fact that people liked his brother better, but he had developed a means for making it all right with himself. He planned and waited until one time the admiring person exposed himself, and then something happened and the victim never knew how or why. Out of revenge Cal extracted a fluid of power, and out of power, joy. It was the strongest, purest emotion he knew.’p.349 From this, perhaps, comes Cal’s strange idea that he is in some way ‘bad’, in spite of all the good he tries to do for his brother. Caleb attempts to buy his father’s love with what is actually an act of incredible thoughtfulness, when he works hard to save up money to replace what his father lost in an ill-advised scheme. Meanwhile, Adam spends the entire time bemoaning the embarrassment of their father’s actions. However, when Cal presents Adam with the money, Adam tells him “I won’t want it ever. I would have been happy if you could have given me – well, what your brother has – pride in the thing he’s doing, gladness in his progress. Money, even clean money, doesn’t stack up with that.”p.543 The injustice of this causes Cal to hurt his brother in a very telling way – he does not attack him but instead removes the buffer that his own secret-keeping has been, exposing his brother to the full truth of their mother’s situation. Afterwards, when asked of his brother’s whereabouts, Cal echoes the words of Cain when he replies “How do I know?... Am I supposed to look after him?”p.563
In East of Eden, the themes of faith in fathers and faith in God are strongly intertwined. When Charles begins to lose faith with his father’s honesty and integrity, his brother Adam likens his own faith remaining to a belief in God, saying “The proofs that God does not exist are very strong, but in lots of people they are not as strong as the feeling He does.”p.72 In addition, Adam feels that he does not truly love his father, but instead “had the kind of feeling you have in church, and not a little fear in it.”p.170 The difficulty Charles faces when considering his father’s career and stories, and the possibility that they are untruthful, is very similar to the Hamilton offspring struggling to accept that their father has grown old. They all need to preserve an image of their fathers – be that through preserving ideas of his goodness, or ideas of his immortality and strength. These problems with faith relate well to problems with the estimations one feels God or one’s father has of one. For example, Tom Hamilton, wracked with guilt, speaks to the imaged figure of his dead father, saying “My father, I’m sorry. I can’t help it. You overestimated me. You were wrong. I wish I could justify the love and the pride you squandered on me.”p.408 This sounds very much like a Christian confessional, complete with feelings of unworthiness. In this sense, it is interesting to look at the characters of Charles and his nephew Cal. The former has a strong belief that he deserves his father’s love and approval – he cannot comprehend his father’s rejection. Cal on the other hand, accepts readily that he is not as good as his brother, and instead does his best to achieve his father’s approval. This is much like how Cain in Genesis should have been; keen to better himself before God, instead of reacting jealously like Charles and taking it out on his brother. Adam seems to view the Cain and Abel story rather differently, saying that he remembers “being a little outraged at God. Both Cain and Abel gave what they had and God accepted Abel and rejected Cain. I never thought that was a just thing.”p.270 However, it is not the gift that God rejects, but the feelings in Cain’s heart. In other words, his murderous reaction is a manifestation of those feelings of entitlement and resentment, which were exactly why God felt displeased with him.
Cathy (or Kate) is the typical sociopath – Steinbeck goes so far as to suggest that she was born missing something, in much the same way some people are born missing limbs. Indeed, he himself said that “Kate is a total representative of Satan. If you believe in saints you can believe that somebody can be all good, you’ve got to believe that somebody can be all bad.” intro. ix She certainly embodies almost every sin possible: she commits adultery, she is a prostitute, she attempts an abortion, she utterly fails to honour her mother and father and, on top of all this, she is a murderer. It is interesting to examine the fact that when she bites Samuel Hamilton it is noted that her poison is worse than that of a snake – another hark back to the story of Genesis, with the serpent which causes man’s downfall. So, Cathy is worse than Eve, as she is worse and more dangerous than the serpent - the mastermind and puppeteer behind the entire scenario. In spite of Cathy’s almost unbelievable ‘badness’, the narrator encourages the reader not to judge her too harshly, something which I personally associate with New Testament ideals and messages.
In some ways the parallels between East of Eden and Genesis are overwhelming; even the title of Steinbeck’s novel comes from the final line of the Cain and Abel story. Steinbeck wrote East of Eden believing it to be his ‘one novel’ and it does not disappoint. This is a miserably short post, but East of Eden is a beautiful book and almost certainly one of my favourite novels. My next post will be on the subject of Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley, so check back next week. As always, thanks for reading and feel free to tweet, e-mail, or comment!
- K
@00KVortex
greeninliterature@gmail.com
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