"East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

"And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the Land of Nod, on the East of Eden"

There is so much about this book that it is really hard to find appropriate words to speak about it. This is one of those books which make you live through a whole new life while you are reading it. Three generations of people, fifty five years and hundreds of events appear before your eyes, evil and good, virtue and vice, love and hatred, happiness and sadness - there is everything life can bring to you and having read the novel you feel that whatever it brings it is wonderful and worth living.

Though the places and people described in the book are all very different, East of Eden deals mostly with the life of small town America. Steinbeck doesn't idealize this life, he shows both sides of it - religious meetings and brothels, poor farmers and rich businessmen, conservative people and those who are not afraid to look into the future. All this gives a very good and detailed picture of life in the period from the Civil War up to the end of World War I. And it's really interesting to read - after all a good novel is the best guide in history. There are several long descriptions of the Salinas Valley - the native land of the writer in which the love towards this place can be seen in every line the author has written.

The narration is focused upon the Trask family and as synopsis suggests it is based upon the legend of Cain and Abel. This legend is repeated twice in the book - first with Adam and his brother Charles and then with Adam's sons - Caleb and Aaron. Actually Cal and Aron have become my favourite characters in this book, somehow they seemed to be much more complex than Adam and Charles.

Adam Trask is very kind and feeling which makes him a weak person sometimes. He loves people generally but it doesn't matter much for him if people love him, though they usually do. Charles is feeling too but unlike Adam this feature doesn't make him weak, it makes him very impulsive. And strangely enough being distrustful towards other people he extremely needs to be loved. What an interesting opposition Steinbeck builds describing two bothers indeed!

As for Cal and Aron it would be difficult to describe hem in several sentences. Neither of them is weak like Adam and neither of them can be defined as purely positive or negative character. Aron is kind and can't see the evil side of people which is not always good for him. However sometimes under the influence of strong emotions he can act rather violently without thinking what his actions may lead to.

Cal is kind to but he sees drawbacks of people around him and what is more important he sees his own drawbacks and evils and wants to rule over them. Sometimes he can be impetuous but he always repents hat he has done in a burst of anger and probably he suffers from it even more than those people he has offended.

Although the main lot like considers these two characters, there are some more others about whom I would like to say a few words as well.

The first is Cathy Ames. This characters scares the reader primarily because you can't possibly understand her. Every man has some desires, needs, ambitions, but Cathy hasn't any because she's anything but a human being. All the ugly and horrible things she does during her life she does not because she wants to do it or because she can gain profit of it. She just does it. Nobody knows what is her life purpose and probably she doesn't know it herself. At first it seems that she is a kind of demon created just to hurt all the people surrounding her and make them unhappy. But in the end of the novel you get to understand that Cathy is just a disabled person - like somebody lacks a leg or eyesight Cathy lacks her soul. She is not able to have any good feelings and breaking the lives of other people she didn't make herself happy...

Another character is Lee who is a kind of symbol of Eastern wisdom in the novel. Interesting fact is that being a simple Chinese servant without any formal education Lee is probably the most intelligent character of East of Eden. Adam was very lucky to have Lee as a servant and a friend as Lee is often ready to give good advice. The other his important feature is kindness and moreover he can see he real essence of any person. It is difficult to explain why I am of so high opinion about Lee without relating to the text, but I think anybody who read the novel would agree with me.

The most jolly and warm pages of the novel describe the Hamilton family. All the numerous members of it have become very dear to me by the end of the novel. The reason for their being so vivid and attractive characters is simple - Steinbeck described his own family. I could say a lot about all of them but the one really worth mentioning is probably Samuel Hamilton, the head of the family. Samuel is described a s a typical Irishman - always cheerful, witty and hard-working but what I liked most about him is that he sees the best features in every person and can bring these features up to the surface so that anybody who ever spoke to him become a little better and a little happier.

Having written so much about the characters I am ready to come up with some conclusion about the idea of this book and that is what I am really eager to say. For the idea is The Choice. Cain killed Abel and became a sinner, but this doesn't mean that we, Cain's children, are all sinners too. "Timshel" - said the Lord to Cain - "you may", you may master the sin if you want to.

In the East of Eden Lee says:
“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.”

And that is what Steinbeck wanted to show the reader. The Lord created the man and gave him a great gift - a choice between good and evil. And we must use this gift with all wisdom we have.