Review: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Title: East of Eden
Author: John Steinbeck
Series: Stand-alone
Genre: Classic
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In his journal, John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families–the Trasks and the Hamiltons–whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new, rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives, nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness, enveloped by a mysterious darkness.

East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love’s absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck’s later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis.

There are a few slight spoilers (and one very long quote) in this review, but I don’t think it will ruin it if you haven’t read it.

East of Eden is definitely not my typical kind of read. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have read it, except that it was assigned reading for my English class. I’m glad my teacher assigned it to us because I ended up enjoying it.

The entire story is an allegory for the occurrences in the Garden of Eden. Each character and event mirrors or represents a character in Genesis 4. (Genesis 4 is the chapter in which Cain slays Abel.) In fact, each pairing of characters either have names that start with a C or an A. Even though most of the C characters are meant to represent Cain or evil, I felt like they were more human. The A characters seemed more close-minded, self-righteous, and judgmental. I know those characteristics are human too, but the characters seemed less willing to change or become a better person because they already thought they were better. There are two exceptions (of course) to this rule, Cathy and Adam. Cathy is pure evil and represents the serpent more than Cain, and Adam, although very close-minded, did try and want to change.

It took me a while to get into the book. In fact, it took half the book. It wasn’t until chapters 22 and 24 that I actually started to understand why Steinbeck chose to write this novel. I wish I could quote the entire second section of chapter 24 because it’s so significant to the purpose of the book. In this chapter, one of the characters, Lee, tells the story of how The King James Bible and the American Standard Bible use a different word (translation of the Hebrew word timshel) in one of the verses in Genesis 4. Lee says:

The more I thought about the story [of Cain and Abel], the more profound it became to me. Then I compared the translations we have–and they were fairly close. There was only one place that bothered me. The King James version says this–it is when Jehovah has asked Cain why he is angry. Jehovah says, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” It was the “thou shalt” that struck me, because it was a promise that Cain would conquer sin.

… Then I got a copy of the American Standard Bible. It was very new then. And it was different in this passage. It says, “Do thou rule over him.” Now this is very different. This is not a promise, it is an order. And I began to stew about it. I wondered what the original word of the original writer had been that these very different translations could be made.

… After two years [of studying Hebrew] we [Lee and some scholarly friends] felt that we could approach … the fourth chapter of Genesis. My old gentlemen felt that these words were very important too–”Thou shalt” and “Do thou.” And this was the gold from our mining: “Thou mayest.” “Thou mayest rule over sin.” The old gentlemen smiled and nodded and felt the years were well spent.

… Any writing which has influenced the thinking and the lives of innumerable people is important. Now, there are many millions in their sects and churches who feel the order, “Do thou,” and throw their weight into obedience. And there are millions more who feel the predestination in “Thou shalt.” Nothing they may do can interfere with what will be. 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.”

… It is out of laziness, out of weakness, to throw oneself into the lap of deity, saying, “I couldn’t help it; the way was set.” But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey. There’s no godliness there. … But this–this is a ladder to climb to the stars.

Isn’t that fantastic? How profound! When I read that, I was blown away by Steinbeck’s insight and how he was able to incite such emotion while I read his book. After that, the story opened up and I was able to see the significance of his characters and their story.

I feel the story was quite long and could’ve been pared down by quite a bit and still hold its significance. However, if I were to give this book a letter rating, I’d give it an A-. With the way I give star ratings, I’m only giving it three stars because I doubt I’ll ever read it again, but there’s always that possibility. I’m glad I read it and I thought it was well-written. And, I enjoyed it for its richly symbolic, controversial story. (Did I really just write that? This book did change me a little bit.) It made me think and, every now and then, I like those types of reads.

Content Warning

Personally, I didn’t feel the content as a whole was offensive. However, many students in my class did find several scenes offensive because there’s language and talk of brothels and sex used to gain the upper-hand in situations of other characters’ lives. In my opinion, any scenes involving sex are tastefully written and not graphic.