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East Of Eden Theme Essay

825 Words4 Pages

Sahid Conteh
English 12
Mr. Gonzalez
September 7, 2015 The Secret behind The Scars
In the book “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck, we see the author infuses the perspective of christianity, the story of cain and abel in the bible struggling with the idea of good versus evil, the author uses this theme in the bible from the old testament in contrast to life at the Salinas Valley. In this book, there are several significant themes that are derived from the bible, but the most significant one is betrayal.

A key characteristic which we see both Charles and Cathy best embodies. Through comparing and contrasting these two characters, the author reveal the true significance of their scars and their choice “ timshel” to betray Adam.

In the beginning of chapter 8, Steinbeck introduced Cathy as monster “ I believe there are monster born in the world to human parents, some you see, misshapen and horrible, with huge heads or tiny bodies; some are born with no arms, …show more content…

Charles like Cathy both had a scar which symbolises their connection to see through each other; both characters in the book are basically the same as they both embodies similar characteristic such as betrayal towards someone who love them both dearly. Charles excises the meaning of “timshel” when he chose to sleep with his brothers wife “ He breathed harshly. “I already been with a whore. “ You’re a pretty strong boy. Move over a little. ‘ how about your broken arm? “ I’ll take care of that. It’s not your worry” Suddenly Charles laughed. “ the poor bastard, he said and he threw back the blanket to receive her” (pg 125.11). This quote emphasised how Charles exercised the meaning of timshel by sleeping with his brothers wife. Charles betrayed his brother, just like in the bible, Charles betrayal is equivalent to Cain’s betrayal of Abel in the book of

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