East of Eden

Although centered around the lives of just two families, John Steinbeck's East of Eden can be described as a novel of truly epic scope. Set in the period from the United States Civil War until the end of World War I, the story follows the lives of three generations of the Trask family, from Connecticut, and their contact with the Hamilton family on the opposite side of the country in the Salinas Valley in California. For those who have not read the novel, I will give a brief evaluation before getting into more detail for those who have. ***Spoilers are included in the ‘In Detail’ section,*** so you may not want to read past the quick evaluation if you have not read the book already! Quick Evaluation for those Who Have not Read It Starting from the opening chapter, Steinbeck's style is exceptionally vivid. You feel you are right there in all the beauty of the Salinas Valley. At the other extreme, when Steinbeck delves into sordid subjects, you also feel right there. The novel includes some of the most intensely developed characters in all of literature. Their interactions are complex and full of genuine dilemmas. You feel the character's happiness and their sorrow. You cannot help but root for some, hope for a demise that cannot come soon enough for others, and have no idea how things will turn out for the remainder. The themes covered are the most important possible: family, love, good and evil, happiness, sorrow, and the relationship or lack of it between these things and money and success. If these sound like themes of interest, and you are not queasy about a considerable percentage of the book delving into dark themes, then this book is highly recommended and will be hard to point down through most parts. Although, from the description on the cover, I worried that the book might become too overtly and excessively religious, this was not the case. Also, although the book is said to describe something distinctive about American culture, this seems like a stretch since nearly all themes have universal applicability. The only real weaknesses of the book are that, ultimately, some things that happen or fail to happen are rather unbelievable, and some things seem exaggerated compared to real life. These, however, are only minor dings on the overall brilliance of the story. In Detail [Spoilers Begin] Key Themes The key theme of the novel is family. Specifically, what a strong family makes possible and the destructiveness that absence of familial strength, or complete absence of family, can have. This is where the juxtaposition between the Hamilton's and the Trask's is most pronounced. We see that although the Hamilton family is not immune from tragedy, they are generally happy. For me, Samuel's humor and the Hamilton family’s gentle teasing of each other best demonstrate this, along with the scene where Samuel’s daughter Olive courageously takes to flying at an early airshow. Although Samuel has both had bad luck and never seriously set his mind to becoming wealthy, it seems safe to say that because of his devotion to his family, he is the richest man in the novel. With the Trask's, by contrast, there is general unhappiness, struggle, and uneven and even dubious love throughout. It is fascinating to ponder how this may have affected Adam's attraction to Cathy and Charles's repulsion from her. This is in addition to the more obvious replay of the Cain and Abel story through Caleb and Aron. Another central theme is the relationship between family and good and evil. The question of how much someone should worry about inheriting traits, especially undesirable or even evil ones, from their parents is particularly prominent. This, of course, is best exemplified by Caleb. He is already prone to worry that he is not good, and he begins to worry even more after finding out who his mother, Cathy, really is. (Although it is not mentioned in the book, the fact that he worries about this at all tells the reader that he is something much different from her and can avoid her course.) At the same time, although some children inherit traits considerably from their parents, others seem quite different. Caleb's difference from Aron shows this in the positive direction, while Cathy's difference from her parents shows an extreme in the other direction. Deeply Developed Characters Beyond the resonance of the themes, the book's other great strength is the depth of characters. As in real life, there are some very good people, like Samuel and Lee, one very bad one, Cathy, and many such as Adam, Charles, Caleb, and Aron, somewhere in between. All characters are completely three-dimensional. Samuel and Lee have had darkness in their backgrounds but emerge above it and become sources of love and light to those around them. Cathy, by contrast, seems to be a pure psychopath (meaning probably due mainly to genetics versus environment) or, at best, only a hair's width away from it. Despite this, Steinbeck is able to get readers inside her head convincingly. Cathy sees herself as stronger and smarter than others, something she realized very early on. Projecting, she can only see evil in others and their attempts to control her. In her mind, any attempt to control her warrants nearly any retribution, including murder. As she gets older, we even see glimmers of conscience in Cathy in the events leading up to and including her suicide. For instance, she worries that her arthritis is punishment for accepting the inheritance from Charles. Additionally, the reader wonders: did she leave Aron rather than Caleb her money because she ultimately realizes she is missing something Aron has? Nonetheless, even these glimmers of conscience do not prevent her from taking out Joe Valery with her last actions since he foolishly thought he could out-manipulate and harm her. Indeed, whether her decision to give everything to Aron was partly motivated by a desire to stir conflict among the twins is unclear. One even wonders if part of her motivation in committing suicide is because she realizes how weak she is becoming, both mentally and physically, compared to her youth. She can no longer be as competently evil as she once was. All these themes are woven together in a sick intensity in her suicide scene, which competes with the opening chapter for the most vivid in the novel. Some Minor Blemishes on a Great Novel Despite the novel's strengths: the depth of its characters, and the power and universality of its themes, some things in the book are blemishes on its greatness. For example, some things stretch the limits of believability. For instance, it stretches credibility that Adam could have such schizoid traits that learning from Cathy that Charles may be the twins' father does not lead to conflict with him. Similarly, given that Charles does not like Cathy, why would he leave half his money to her instead of giving it all to Adam or leaving it held in trust for the twins? Also stretching the limits of believability, why would Cathy, who seems all about vengeance, not get even with Edwards, who beats her within an inch of her life and leaves her for dead? Finally, although stories exploring good and evil on such a grand scale may inevitably have to take some liberties versus just recounting ordinary people's mundane day-to-day lives, the book overplays some things. One is just how prominent in American life brothels were. Was nearly everyone, married, unmarried, from laborer up to politician and lawyer, really visiting them regularly? To such an extent that nobody gets upset in the slightest upon learning that someone else has. Overall, there is quite a bit of somber reading to get through here. Nevertheless, the strength of the Hamilton family and the rise of Caleb and Abra into adulthood make the story, ultimately, a hopeful one.

"East of Eden" covers the time from the Civil War to World War I. The period between these two big wars offered a perfect slate for examining the human condition which becomes clear by showing the personalities, deeds and actions of two families, the Hamiltons and the Trasks. Yet this book is not simply a study of good vs evil but rather an ode to how conflicted and complicated human beings can be. And it is a story of how each action will bring on a reaction and then the consequences of such actions and individual decisions. There are three sets of characters covered in the book: the Hamiltons, a relatively poor but loving family headed up by Sam, the family patriarch, whose dreams and deeds were so often in the clouds though he had great personal strength and integrity. The Hamilton children are each covered individually. Secondly, there are the Trasks, a family led by a father who preaches duty over all else including love. He had two sons, Charles and Adam. The third character is the land itself, both back East (of California) where Charles lives and farms his rocky acres and especially in Salinas Valley, California. Steinbeck himself grew up in Salinas Valley and he must have greatly loved it for his descriptions are so vivid as to put the reader there with a gentle breeze ruffling tree leaves while scents of blossoms fill the air and one's fingers can feel the richness of the earth. Much has been made of the Cain/Abel comparison to the story in the Bible and with good reason. The two Trask sons, Charles and Adam are opposites and often at odds with one another. Charles never married while Adam's two sons, Cal (Caleb) and Aron (he did not like two A's in his name) are also of opposite personalities. So the age old question once again arises of whether humans are shaped by nature or nurture since both sets of boys lived with the same father under the same conditions. But how much consideration should be given to the fact the fathers favored one son over the other while the unfavored son knew of it and felt it? So clever of Steinbeck to build such strong characters for we, the readers, to ponder such questions! As each character is introduced the nature vs nurture question arises several times. For instance was Cathy Ames born with an evil mind which continued to develop and guide her throughout her life because she learned from an early age that she could manipulate people? No one stopped her or called her out on her negative manipulations and carefully crafted lies. No one asked her to be nice instead so she saw no reason to behave any other way. Cathy (who later called herself Kate) was very petite, extremely pretty and very clever making it difficult for those around her to look for negatives and, if any were found, they were disregarded. So was she (and most other people) born blank slates while the environment/nurture shapes the person? Or in the final analysis is it a combination of both nature and nurture? However, even Cathy/Kate had a few positives such as wounding her husband, Adam Trask, rather than killing him which she later admitted she aimed the wounding shot. As long as those around her completed their tasks to her satisfaction, she paid them what she agreed to with no effort to cheat them even though she was so powerful in her position that she could have done so and gotten away with it. Small things to be sure yet out of character for her overall since she had no scruples against cleverly murdering those who had something she wanted. And once meeting both sons at high school age, why did she favor the nicer one over the one who was more like her? Would the one who was more like her overcome his negatives as he matured? Although Steinbeck did an excellent job of developing and showing the personalities of each character perhaps one of the most pronounced was Lee, the Trask's live-in caretaker. Not only was Lee a learned and intelligent man, he had the inner strength to keep Adam and his two sons, Cal and Aron, reasonably functioning while dealing with his own nuances. There is the old adage: 'like likes like' and so it was with Lee and Sam Hamilton. They enjoyed sparing intellectually and respected each other greatly even though their lives otherwise varied significantly. It is through the development of each very different personality that Steinbeck really shines. Each person has his or her own weaknesses and strengths and his or her own individualism. There was also focus on how all the Hamilton children matured into such different individuals. Did those children differ that much from the Trask children and if so how and why? How each character from both families behaved based on their own personality is so realistic as to give the reader pause at times to stop reading and consider how it could be so. "East of Eden" is a book to be savored, to be absorbed and considered and remembered long after one reads the last page. I read modern love stories and mysteries for pleasure while also over the years having read many of the 100 best books of all time (also a pleasure!). Many of those books are 500 pages or more (East of Eden is 600) which gives the author space to develop characters while letting the reader sort through the angst and/or happiness to draw their own conclusions. Such as that cannot be rushed. It is my opinion that Steinbeck, within his characters, covered the majority of personality strengths and weaknesses found among humankind and he is to be commended for that accomplishment. "East of Eden" is highly recommended for those who like personality driven stories. The 600 pages will disappear before you know it and there you will sit strongly disappointed that the story ended while wishing it to continue. Steinbeck is a great story teller, one so deserving of the Nobel Prize for literature. What an honor that he left behind novels like this one for readers to savor for generations to come. This is true apparently due to his understanding of human nature and his eloquent and expressive use of language, also outstanding. The book could not have ended any other way in my opinion. It is after all up to each individual to choose their own path. A review should not give away too much about a story so know that this book is complex and full of showing to build each character through their deeds and many actions toward one another and to others. I loved this book so much that while I had already read "Grapes of Wrath" I will now read his other books and doubtless re-read this book as well, something I rarely ever do. After all, one remembers the good books while the others are easily forgotten. It will be a very long time before John Steinbeck is forgotten. His literary life will parallel that of Dickens and all those other long-lived writers we love so much centuries after their demise!

John Steinbeck's American epic, East of Eden, is a complex analysis of good and evil in society. The book follows two families over three generations (from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of World War I) as their lives intertwine and the characters are faced with a series of tough moral decisions. Reading this book is like being caught in a giant moral dilemma; Steinbeck provides the reader with enough information to form opinions on the morality of the characters in the book. This forces the reader to make tough decisions about who is good and who is evil, while Steinbeck never ceases to shock the reader with the actions of his characters. Steinbeck's novel is held together by the complex and highly developed characters he features as the focus of the book. There are several important characters that can all be defined by a very distinct set of qualities. There is the extremely wise Samuel Hamilton, the intelligent, but naive Adam Trask, and the notoriously evil Cathy Ames. Steinbeck spends a great deal of time developing these characters and the reward is a satisfying representation of America in a period of dishevelment as industrialization and west ward expansion are the focus of society. The plethora of characters created by Steinbeck creates a complex and intricate balance in the novel; the actions of one character will undoubtedly affect all of the characters in either a positive or adverse way. These characters are what truly makes this novel an American classic; Steinbeck's ability to create a memorable cast drive the rest of the story. One of these characters, Cathy Ames, may be the most evil, twisted character ever created in all of American literature. The reader is introduced to Ames as she murders her parents by lighting their house on fire. From this point on, it is clear that Ames is the embodiment of evil in the novel. As Ames becomes ingratiated into the main plot, more evil actions ensue, including the attempted murder of her husband and the murder of a madam in charge of a brothel. These actions occur before Ames becomes truly evil by the end of the novel. Another of the more memorable characters in East of Eden is Lee, the Trask family's loyal Asian servant. Lee is meant to play the stereotypical Asian role in the novel, but Steinbeck attempts to break race barriers by incorporating Lee into the main plot of the novel. Lee is extremely intelligent and very wise. He puts up a facade of a stereotypical Asian servant around ignorant and arrogant Americans. However, around people he trusts, such as Samuel Hamilton and Adam Trask, he reveals his intelligence. Lee is very complex and Steinbeck ensures that he plays an important role in the novel. The novel lacks a clearly defined plot; it follows two families over several generations as they struggle to establish themselves in the Salinas Valley in California. However, the novel does act as an allegory to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. There are several obvious references to the book of Genesis throughout the novel (East of Eden, Adam Trask, and the twins Caleb and Aaron, meant to represent Cain and Abel), creating an interesting outlet for Steinbeck to analyze religious and social issues prominent in society during this era of American history. There are times when Steinbeck's commentary is somewhat subtle and there are times when his commentary is blatantly obvious as the narrator provides insight into the state of society during this time. However, unlike other fictitious novels that attempt to tackle heavy topics such as religion, Steinbeck is able to provide this commentary without sounding too pretentious; he doesn't claim to know the answers to some of the more controversial issues regarding religion. This adds depth to Steinbeck's already complex and layered novel, contributing to the intricacy of this intelligently written novel. East of Eden, like all of Steinbeck's novels, is full of descriptive passages that are essential in establishing the setting for the novel. The novel also takes place in the Salinas Valley of California, the same place that Steinbeck grew up in as a child. Steinbeck's knowledge of the region enables him to provide deep, descriptive details of the setting for the story. The setting is almost as important as the characters, as the distinct environment of the Salinas Valley shapes their behavior throughout the novel. In fact, the Salinas Valley is a metaphor for the lives of the Hamiltons and the Trasks. The valley appears to be heavenly and fertile, but as one digs into the soil unexpected layers of clay, dirt, and rock are revealed. The Hamiltons and the Trasks also appear to have it all together, but as the reader is familiarized with these characters, it becomes clear that they struggle with a great deal of internal conflict. Steinbeck's emphasis on setting also adds to the complexity of the novel, creating a memorable multilayered epic that has become an American classic. In writing this novel, Steinbeck took on a nearly impossible challenge; he attempted to write a novel that would encompass ideas about morality, religion, and politics, while remaining intelligible to his audience. Steinbeck deserves to be commended for accomplishing this feat. Reading this book should be a requirement for everyone as it successfully touches the reader emotionally, logically, and ethically. The highly complex, but relatable characters will surely find a way to sneak into one's heart and become a conscious reminder of ethical behavior. This novel will truly change lives and this is what has kept it moderately relevant in today's society. Reading this novel will not disappoint.

I didn't know quite what to expect from this novel claimed by many people today as a classic masterpiece. I had read many Steinbeck novels fifty years ago but not this one. On the whole, the prose was crisp and easy to read. The language Steinbeck used to paint the Salinas Valley was lushly beautiful; I felt like I was there. The Hamilton family story, while sketchy, was tender and sweet. The Trask family story, on the other hand, predominated the narrative and was particularly mesmerizing and dark. The patriarch, Cyrus, was an imaginative liar and a cheat. The sons, Adam and Charles, were depicted as rather bleek souls who were neither truthful nor kind to themselves or to one another; they seemed to be rather unloved and unloving, wanton souls. I kept hoping for an impelling breakthrough of character for the twin boys of Adam, Cal and Aaron. The Biblical Cain and Abel myth permeated the story in an overarching way but I came away wondering whether the author had ever come to believe in a benevolent, loving Spirit at work in the lives of the people in the narrative or in his own. i suspect not. Was Steinbeck a realist or a pessimist? That was also hard to tell. There was a paucity of joy and other deep emotions expressed in the story., except when induced by alcoholic beverages imbibed by the men in a secretly ritualistic fashion. The psychological darkness of the Trask family legacy seemed to overshadow the beauty of the more kind and generously loving souls, Lee and Samuel Hamilton. Women were not depicted in any depth in the novel, with the exception of one character, Cathy Ames, who was considered a "monster" by the narrator. Cathy was a dominant demonic character who had done one monstrous thing after another throughout the novel's six hundred pages. She was portrayed as having not one shred of conscience or benevolence. I felt saddened not to have seen a bit more evidence of hope and healing in the grinding out of this mesmerizing and dark saga. The ending is truly bittersweet.

This story is amazingly rich and multi-leveled; I believe that it would take many readings to truly mine the depth of all of the nuances. I enjoyed it and will now explore more of Steinbeck’s writings.

Best book ever! Characters so well written and presented I felt as though I was part of the story. This book will be with me a very long time. I am not sure anything can top it. John Steinbeck is a genius. I fell totally in love with Lee.

This is a story about the endurance of the human soul, about choosing to be who you would like to be rather than believing you were cut with a mold that can’t be broken. But also it’s a story about forgiveness, the freedom of choice and the long road one must walk between one’s beginning and one’s end, and all the causes and effects in-between. Steinbeck’s masterpiece, for to call it anything less is impossible, has left me with a sense of loss. When I came to the end of this epic tale of family and humanity, I felt abandoned simply because I ran out of words to read. I wanted to carry on in his characters’ lives, spying on their darkness, watching them evolve and bloom and outrun the forces haunting them. No book has made me feel quite so much sadness and excitement at once. Perhaps because I’m a writer, I relished the painterliness of Steinbeck’s prose. I turned every single one of its six-hundred and one pages at a furious pace, and yet I indulged and languished and roamed the landscape he had painted for me, and me alone. The story is so personal, a reader might feel it is written for her. It is a story we must hear, a story we know, a story with which we can connect, as we do with all the ones passed down from civilization to civilization. We commune with great stories, religious accounts, epic tales, because we see ourselves most readily in them, and as Lee (one of "Eden’s" finest characters) says, that’s why we keep telling, and retelling, them from one generation to the next. Steinbeck draws on the "Old Testament," turning over the story of Cain and Abel and making it his, for us anew. And because we see ourselves in it—our good and evil—we devour his retelling as though it were medicine to save our soul, the cure for all our ails. But perhaps I exaggerate, indulging in the power of the writer a little too much. Or maybe I do feel my soul a little shaken by my experience, swept up in the writer’s magic. Either way, I am satisfied to credit Steinbeck for my joy at venturing into his Eden. And it is the great landscape, the backdrop of his tale that speaks most readily to the reader. Steinbeck’s setting is in fact a large part of the whole. Like the characters he unearths, the soil on which they stand seems to reach for the sky, yearning to live too. You can’t read "East of Eden" without experiencing the tan valleys of Northern California and the lush green dales of Connecticut. You see his East and his West, you practically smell the air of each, and you believe the world he creates to be the same one in which you live. The opening of the book sets you up for that, tells you, dear reader, you will feel every ounce of nature’s beauty just as the narrator does; her dangerous flirtations, her permanency, her changeability, her gales, her forces, her perpetual and enduring spirit. We do not simply live in nature, but come from it. We embody it; all her forces. I think Steinbeck reminds us of this in such subtle and rare ways it seeps into the subconscious as we follow his narrator through the story of Adam Trask, Samuel Hamilton, and all the characters in-between and after. “I remember my childhood names for the grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer—and what trees and seasons smelled like—how people looked and walked and smelled even. The memory of odors is very rich.” Effortlessly, Steinbeck strings you along with his prose, fooling you into not seeing the great and gargantuan task he is laying before you. “Timshel,” he teaches you. “Thou mayest,” the two words from "Genesis" that seem to speak most profoundly, for they admit to free will, and your ability to choose to rule over sin. John Milton’s "Paradise Lost" also speaks of this freedom, one in which man has often stumbled, misunderstanding his disobedience, his choice between good and evil. Steinbeck examines this idea throughout the narrative, and shows you the outcomes of those who struggle with the same, and it is in their differences that choice becomes apparent. I have said little about the characters, the plot, the style and themes, and yet I have said everything I can about a work that has touched me so deeply. I will leave you with this short quote, said once again by Lee, the Chinese American who is the most philosophical, and enlightened of Steinbeck’s family of characters, the sage most inborn to the writer: “But ‘Thou mayest’! Why, that makes a man great, 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.”

This book was painful and beautiful. It was deep and emotional. I am so thankful I read this masterpiece. The message of then applies to today..

Very long book but amazing

good

Very pretty book with a beautiful deckeled edge. Only flaw it came with is a slightly smashed corner on the top left - barely noticeable. It is a bit smaller than I was expecting but the size doesn't take away the beauty of this edition.

Güzel bir kitap..tavsiye ederim

Excellent