Structure in East of Eden (1952), by John Steinbeck

Two immigrant families:
1 The Hamiltons: produce the narrator of the story (John Steinbeck’s voice)
2 The Trasks: produce the story as an epitome of Biblical myth (Cain and Abel)

The scenery is The Salinas Valley, with a particular garden of Eden to the East.
Myth says that to the East of Eden Hell was, so that from the very title we know
who the protagonists are going to be:


1st generation
Samuel Hamilton: well-educated and well-read - ; inventive, loved by people but keeps on being a poor farmer, a blacksmith, a carpenter, a woodcarver and honest

Cyril Trask: something of a devil, -had always been wild-, joined the Army and developed an excellent military mind; advises Army authorities and manages to get a lot of money from dark origin
2nd generation
Samuel Hamilton’s nine children: Dessie was the beloved… Mollie the pretty kitten, Olive the strong-headed, Una with clouds on her head,
Samuel and his sons Tom and Joe thought big and George and Will thought little. Joseph was a kind of mooning boy
Olive becomes a teacher (it was the germ of intellectuality, necessary for storytelling.
Cyril Trask’s children: Adam and Charles (started to develop the biblical myth). Adam is too good a character and Charles too wild, for both of them to be real, in spite of the fact that Adam’s life course leads him to jail and gets to know deep pain, both in his evolving as an adult and falling in love with someone from a brothel, who he met by chance in poorly condition and took care of, made his wife and she bore him twins.

3rd generation
Olive’s child: becomes the teller of the myth, its voice. In real life, he is the writer, John Steinbeck, though he does not appear in the story but as a 1st person narrator, who uses his memories on real life and myth as a source for his novel.
Adam’s children: Cal and Aron Trask turn the myth into humanity

CALEB vs. ARON
In the third generation we can see how myth is taken over by humanity
Read the following passages and find out what the twins are like.
1 How are they different?
2 How does each of them react to the new knowledge about their mother?

“…And they’re very different. You can’t imagine how different.”
“In what way, Lee?”
“You’ll see when they come home from school. They’re like two sides of a medal. Cal is sharp and dark and watchful, and his brother -well, he’s a boy you like before he speaks and like more afterwards.”
“And you don’t like Cal?”
“I find myself defending him -to myself. He’s fighting for his life and his brother doesn’t have to fight.”
“I have the same thing in my brood,” said Samuel. “I don’t understand it. You’d think with the same training and the same blood they’d be alike, but they’re not -not at all.” p. 296
…/…
Cal said, “Where do you think our mother is?”
“She’s dead.”
“No, she isn’t.”
“She is too.”
“She ran away,” said Cal. “I heard some men talking.”
“They were liars.”
“She ran away.” said Cal. “You won’t tell I told you?”
“I don’t believe it.” said Aron. “Father said she was in Heaven.”
Cal said quietly, “Pretty soon I’m going to run away and find her. I’ll bring her back.
“Where did the men say she is?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll find her.”
“She’s in Heaven,” said Aron. “Why would Father tell a lie?” He looked at his brother, begging him silently to agree. Cal didn’t anser him. “Don’t you think whe’s in Heaven with the angels? Aron insisted. And when Cal still did not answer. ‘Who were the men who said it?”
“Just some men. In the post office at King City. They didn’t think I could hear. But I got good ears. Lee says I can hear the grass grow.”
Aron said, “What would she want to run away for?”
“How do I know? Maybe she didn’t like us.”
Aron inspected this heresy. “No,” he said. “The men were liars. Father said she’s in Heaven. And you know how he don’t like to talk about her.”
“Maybe that’s because she ran away.”
“No. I asked Lee. Know what Lee said? Lee said, ‘Your mother loved you and she still does.’ And Lee gave me a star to look at. He said maybe that was our mother and she would love us as long as that light was there. Do you think Lee is a liar?” Through his gathering tears Aron could see his brother’s eyes, hard and reasonable. There were no tears in Cal’s eyes.
Cal felt pleasantly excited. He had found another implement, another secret tool, to ue for any purpose he needed. He studied Aron, saw his quivering lips, but he noticed in time the flaring nostrils. Aron would cried and fought at the same time he was dangerous. Nothing could hurt him and nothing could stop him. Once Lee had held him in his lap, clasping his still flailing fists to his sides, until after a long time he relaxed. And his nostrils had flared then.
Cal put his new tool away. He could bring it out anytime, and he knew it was the sharpest weapon he had found. He would inspect it at his ease and judge just when and how much to use it. P 338-339



Free will as a choice

Read the passages and answer the questions:

1 Why do you think Lee is chosen as the character in the novel to analyse The Bible as a moral behaviour guide?
2 Analyse the three verb forms ‘shall’, ‘do’ and ‘may’ on your own, and tell the difference among them.
3 Which one do you think is more suitable to be applied in the family stories in the novel? For example, Think about the Caleb and Aaron story, how is free will applied there?

The American Standard translation orders men to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance. The King James translation makes a promise in ‘Thou shalt,’ meaning that men will surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel -”Thou mayest’ -that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’ - it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’ Don’t you see?

Any writing which has influenced the thinking and the lives of innumerable people is important. Now, there are many millions in heir sects and churches who feel the order, ‘Do thou,’ and throw their weight into obedience. And there are millions more who feel predestination in ’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 will.
…/…
That makes a man a man.
(East of Eden, by John Steinbeck, p 395, Pengüin Books)