Theme Of Timshel In East Of Eden

Timshel, the belief that individuals can choose to be good or evil, that individuals may rule over sin, or not, exemplifying that there is a choice, freewill. In the novel, East of Eden by John Steinbeck follows family generation, who seems to be locked in a Cain and Abel cycle. The story spans from late nineteenth century to early twentieth century, where the story frequently jumps to different perceptive of characters. In this piece of literature, it emulates the Cain and Abel story. A biblical story from the Genesis, it centers around jealousy over God's affection that eventually prompts Cain to murder Abel.

This idea of timshel is especially exemplified by a Chinese servant, Lee. With this in mind, the theme of timshel is an apparent in

Who just like Cain becomes spiteful when comes to competing for his father's affection. Especially in one part of the story when Charles gives Cyrus an expensive knife as oppose to Adam who gives Cyrus a mongrel pup. It is this event along with Cyrus's favoritism toward Adam that causes Charles to provoke an altercation. In which Charles, “moved precisely … blow in the stomach … four punches to the head … Adam look at his brother as the condemned look … at the executioner”(Steinbeck 30). In this scene, Charles is implied as the executioner, who sought out to intentionally kill Adam. In doing so, Charles violated two cardinal sins: his actions were motivated by envy, hence wrath developed to a point where he attempted to kill Adam. Which also violates two of the ten commandments, “You Shall not murder”(The Ten Commandments). As the word shall indicates future tense or strong intentions. In addition, the commandments prohibits covet: a desire, in this case their father's affection. Chiefly, Charles could not overcome his tendencies to sin and evil. For this reason, Charles is marked by a scar later on in the novel. This similarly mirrors Cain's mark, in brief Charles had a choice to overcome sin, but ultimately fell short and choose

In addition, the idea of timshel mostly applies to characters with the C letter names as oppose to A letter names. In which the novel primarily focuses on sins with C letter names such as Charles, Cathy, and Cal. However, if the definition of sin was to be expanded to an act that is regarded as regrettable fault, then base on this technicality all characters can overcome sin by the philosophy of timshel. For instance, Adam whose major flaw was his innocence. Such as his blind trust and kindhearted nature allows him to be manipulated by the likes of Cathy. However, Adam would overcome this sin when he confronts Cathy at her whorehouse. Although naive in the past, this meeting allowed Adam to confront his problems. Thus highlights that Adam had a choice to overcome