East of Eden in Classics Without All the Class

Jul 23, 2012 Jeff Curtis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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This is the second time I have read this book. John Steinbeck was an incredible writer. Every time I read this book I pick up something different. A different message about life. This book covers several decades of mainly two families, the Hamilton's and the Trask families. There are a few other people who get mentioned as they interact with either families. In East of Eden, Steinbeck reverberates around the theme of good and evil many times calling upon the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. The This is the second time I have read this book. John Steinbeck was an incredible writer. Every time I read this book I pick up something different. A different message about life. This book covers several decades of mainly two families, the Hamilton's and the Trask families. There are a few other people who get mentioned as they interact with either families. In East of Eden, Steinbeck reverberates around the theme of good and evil many times calling upon the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. The book begins by describing Samuel and his family living in Salinas Valley. Samuel was a very creative man who invented many things. Even though any one of his inventions could have carried him to fortune, he remained a poor farmer because the fact was that even though he was a creative inventor, he was a bad business man. Sam was known around his area to be wise and people came to him for advice. He had a wife and nine kids.

Steinbeck then takes us to a family living on a farm in Connecticut. The father of the family, Cyrus Trask, was an army veteran. His wife died after his first child whom he named Adam. Cyrus married again and had another son, one year younger than Adam, named Charles. The boys grew up close to each other. On one of Cyrus’ birthdays, Adam gave his father a stray puppy while Charles gave him an expensive Swiss knife. Cyrus never used the knife but was always played with the dog. Charles grew very bitter at Adam for this. Adam, at eighteen, was sent into the Calvary by his father. Adam didn't want to go, and after the death of his farther he got out of the Calvary and traveled around lost. He was afraid to go back home to Charles. But, his traveling only got him into trouble so he was forced to return home.

Steinbeck jumps once again and moves to the Ames family. The Ames had one daughter who was very beautiful named Cathy. Through her beauty, she learned to manipulate people. Cathy made an elaborate plan to kill her parents and does so one day by locking them in the house while burning it down. The townspeople believe Cathy had died in that fire too. However, Cathy didn't and left to work as a prostitute for Mr. Edwards. Mr. Edwards fell in love with her but eventually found out about her past. He took Cathy to her old town to play a little psychological warfare, same as she had done to him. At Cathy’s old town he beat her nearly to death but left her on the ground bleeding. Cathy crawled to the Trask house. This is where she met Adam and changed his life forever.

Adam fell in love with her and married her, not knowing she was pregnant with Charles’ child. I should point out at this time that Cathy didn't love Adam and slept with Charles the very same night she married Adam. She made a sleeping potion of tea and gave it to Adam and then climbed into Charles be. Adam and Cathy move to Salinas Valley where they bought a large farm and got a Chinese housekeeper named Lee.. Adam needed to build a well for his farm and was introduced by some of the residents to Samuel Ames. Later, when Cathy was in labor, Samuel was sent for to deliver the baby which turned out to be fraternal twins, both boys. Soon after Cathy was well, she pulled a gun on Adam and shot him in the shoulder. She left to work in a whore house owned by a lady named Fay. She later became owner of said whore house after killing Fay.

Steinbeck’s characters were all fully developed and could have made for an interesting story by themselves. I felt that I really knew the Trask household including Adam, his kids, Cathy and Lee.
The Hamilton's including Samuel, Lisa, and their nine children.

There are a couple of recurring themes also in this book such as, Adam’s accepted gift of the puppy and Charles’ rejected gift of the knife, just like Abel’s accepted gift and Cain’s rejected one. The Charles’ beat his brother like Cain killed his. The same thing happens in the following generation with Aron’s accepted gift and Cal’s rejected one. Then Cal kills Aron, figuratively by telling and showing him that his mother was still alive but a whore. Aron ran away and joined the Army and was killed during a battle.

The most basic, rudimentary theme of all. A theme that was talked about since creation. Good and evil. His use of Cain and Abel and the word "Timshel" brought about ideas of sin. Cathy in this book could be seen as filled with evil. No shred of good. But good did seem to penetrate through her cold heart near the end of the book. Is man responsible for his actions or not? This was a question Lee pondered with his ancient relative. He fought for the answer which was Timshel. The correct translation was not thou must which is a command from God, or thou shalt which would imply that you didn’t have to worry about sin, you would eventually conquer it, but it was "thou mayest". You are responsible for your action. If you want to be good you can and if you want to be evil you can. It's your choice. Your decision. And, whatever you decide to do you will have to live with those results of your choice. ...more

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