ipl-logo

Good Over Evil In John Steinbeck's East Of Eden

1182 Words5 Pages

Each soul born into this life affects people and makes contributions in their sphere of influence. While some people contribute in positive ways striving each day to be kind, caring for others and upholding high morals and standards of society, others seem destined to pass each day hurting people while breaking society's written and unwritten rules for behavior. Free will gives people the capacity to make daily decisions that will determine their destiny and allows people to choose “good over evil.” The idea of free will is also known as tishmel, a Hebrew word meaning “Thou mayest” choose. Tishmel is a significant word to humankind because it offers hope of redemption for all souls. This idea, found in the Bible, is not a promise or an order …show more content…

John Steinbeck’s novel “East of Eden,” is a retelling of the biblical story of brothers, Cain and Abel, from the book of Genesis, with a few subtle differences, including redemption for the “evil brother.” This epic tale of the Trask family is set mostly in the Salinas Valley of California at the turn of the twentieth century and during World War I. Adam Trask favors his son Aron over his son Cal, just as God approved of Abel’s sacrifice over that of Cain’s. Steinbeck uses the allusion of biblical brothers, Cain and Abel, to create characters with familiar good and evil archetypes, then allows the evil brother to find redemption, yet their evil mother is not redeemed, thus supporting the Hebrew idea of tishmel as evidence that every soul can choose their …show more content…

In "Genesis," Adam and Eve's sons, Cain and Abel, offer sacrifices to God. Their son Abel is a shepherd thus he sacrifices his best lamb, while the offering of grain is given to Lord by his brother Cain, the farmer. Since God accepts Abel's gift over Cain's, Cain becomes incensed and murders his brother in a fit of

Show More
Related
147 Words | 1 Pages

In the novel “East ofela Eden,” the author John Steinbeck uses a biblical reference forshadowing the fate of each charicter. Notably, the reacurring names that starts with “A” and “C”, referring to Cain and Abel from the bible, the sons of Adam and Eve. Additionallt, Cain out of spite kills Abel because God accepts Abel’s offering rather than Cains. In the novel the charicters who are sinful have names that begin with C-Caleb, Cathy, Charles, and Cyrus and the “good” charicaters have names start start with A such as Adam, Aron, and Abra. Furthermore the relationship bewteen Cain and Abel is quite similar to Charles and Adam becuase Charles once tries to kill Adam.

Read More
254 Words | 2 Pages

Joseph 1 Steven Joseph Professor Lucia Hodgson English 227 8 Sep 2015 The Implications of Opposite Gender Roles The contrasting gender roles present within both creation narratives show differences in the patriarchal structure within each culture. In the Iroquois narrative, the creator of mankind is a “woman conceived” whose value exceeds Eve’s because the former’s role as the mother of mankind is revered instead of disparaged(9: 23). Rather than honoring women’s ability to procreate, God condemns procreation and punishes Eve for eating the forbidden fruit, stating, “in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children,” (King James Bible, Gen. 3.16).

Read More
2078 Words | 9 Pages

In the novel, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, rhetorical devices are used to illustrate the characters throughout the book to be either be good or evil by the usage of diction, connotation and denotation as well as other rhetorical devices. By using rhetorical devices it allows the audience to gain a better deeper comprehension of the book. The rhetorical devices allow Steinbeck to describe the characteristics of each character to define them as either good or evil which allows the reader to analyze the parallels between one another. In addition, rhetorical devices for example metaphor, tone, diction, simile, imagery, analogy, allegory, and paradox contribute to the author’s style which creates an image for readers to comprehend. Steinbeck uses word choice, tone, anaphora to highlight the juxtaposition between Cathy Ames and Abra Bacon to illustrate how evil and goodness change the perspective about their inherent point.

Read More
981 Words | 4 Pages

In John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Cathy Ames is presented as a monster. She is the most evil character in the novel, and rightfully so. Cathy manipulates other characters into doing her bidding by tapping into their weaknesses and trusting natures. Physically speaking, Cathy had a face of innocence, formed in the shape of a heart, which contrasts with her morally culpable, sinful behaviors. Cathy was born a Catherine, the name meaning “pure” which she is shown not to be from the very beginning.

Read More
587 Words | 3 Pages

Cal’s Internal Struggle Not any one person or character has a single characteristic. Personality is made up of a multitude of different things, good and bad. This holds true in John Steinbeck’s, East of Eden, because even though Cal makes immoral decisions he is still human with other admirable attributes. Cal fights against his nature that was passed down to him by Cathy without ever giving up. He discovers how special Aron is, but keeps his composure, “Cal stared fiercely at his brother, at the pale hair and the wide-set eyes, and he suddenly knew why his father loved Aron, knew it beyond doubt.”

Read More
1701 Words | 7 Pages

Adam and Eve had a perfect Garden of Eden, until Eve ate the apple and contaminated the garden. In being tricked by the snake, Eve betrayed God’s word. Mankind has often betrayed others because of the darkness in their heart. In A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses Phineas as a sacrificial lamb to portray Gene’s savage side and demonstrate that peace can never be achieved at a worldwide level until man accepts the darkness in his own heart.

Read More
905 Words | 4 Pages

Cain ended up murdering Abel out of envy of his favorable position, and that conflict is reflected through Charles and Adam Trask, and later Adam’s children Caleb and Aaron. The characters struggle with the notions of good and evil. Timshel is a repeating theme. The concept is the biblical depiction of the internal strife between good and evil that lies in each character. Adam Trask is a central character in the novel, who the reader sees mature and struggle as both a son and a father.

Read More
181 Words | 1 Pages

Steinbeck bases his novel, East of Eden, around the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. When Cyrus favors Adam 's birthday gift over Charles ', the jealous Charles nearly beats Adam to death. Similarly, the next generation of brothers, Cal and Aron, are doomed to the same fate and further follow the characteristics of the Cain and Abel fable. In their case, Adam rejects Cal’s birthday present of $15,000, and as a result, Cal kills Aron’s innocence through him showing Aron their mother, a prostitute. Ironically, when Adam first hears of the story of Cain and Abel, he feels outraged at God for favoring Abel at what appears to be at random.

Read More
933 Words | 4 Pages

In the novels, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, and Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, both tackle the issue of racism during the first half of the United States’ 20th century. Acts of prejudice were present, which were frequently rooted from the stereotypes embedded into the minds of a number of Americans. Most of these people, in the “small towns” of each respective novel, would associate an individual with a race (and it’s stereotypes) more often than the actual individuality of the character itself. Although the novels are fictional, it is a nonfiction reflection of societies and its views of minorities at the time. In East of Eden and Snow Falling on Cedars, Steinbeck and

Read More
178 Words | 1 Pages

In the novel, East of Eden, the author John Steinbeck displays the struggle between good and evil as he characterizes two brothers, Adam and Charles. Steinbeck depicts Charles to be violent and manipulative while Adam is sensitive and kind. The two brothers can be alluded to the story of Cain and Abel from the bible. Like Charles, Cain is morbid and evil, while Abel represents goodness like Adam. Charles feels rejected and unloved by his father, Cyrus.

Read More
1556 Words | 7 Pages

East of Eden Rough Draft In the novel, East of Eden John Steinbeck explores the idea of “timshel”, freewill through a reading of Genesis chapter four, the story of Cain and Abel, Steinbeck effectively uses the idea of freewill to demonstrate that people are not bound by their environment, but by their choices. In East of Eden Salinas, was the Eden. John Steinbeck centered most of his works around the Salinas Valley. In 1930 John Steinbeck had married his first wife Carrol and moved to a summer cottage where he wrote about lone ranchers and farmers who failed to live their lives to the fullest.

Read More
975 Words | 4 Pages

Steinbeck examines the repetitive punishment for errors in human choices. Nonetheless, many early critics judged East of Eden a literary disaster, blaming Steinbeck for not understanding the biblical story and the American experience. They assumed the story of Adam to be the story of the fall of Man. But East of Eden is something quite

Read More
502 Words | 3 Pages

Adam represents Finny and Eve represents Gene. Gene commits a sin when he causes Finny to fall off the tree because of his jealousy. Eve commits a sin when she eats an apple from the Tree of Knowledge. Adam and Finny had to bear the consequences of what was done even though they did not actually do anything wrong. Throughout the novel, Gene tries to redeem himself for causing the death of Finny, but he never truly does redeem himself.

Read More
852 Words | 4 Pages

Steinbeck examines the repetitive punishment for errors in human choices. Nonetheless, many early critics judged East of Eden a literary disaster, blaming Steinbeck for not understanding the biblical story and the American experience. They assumed the story of Adam to be the story of the fall of Man. But East of Eden is something quite different: a story of the rise of Man. East of Eden, therefore, is part family history and part fiction.

Read More
505 Words | 3 Pages

“Living is people, not places... I think I have no ‘ place’ home. Home is people and where you work well ”(Steinbeck). As the saying goes “home is where the heart is”, which is entirely true for Steinbeck and some of his characters. Several characters in East of Eden show Steinbeck’s idea that home is in people, not places.

Read More

More about Good Over Evil In John Steinbeck's East Of Eden

Related Topics

Open Document