Rating: תִּ
East of Eden is a book by John Steinbeck. It is an unbelievably good novel. I read it once before in high school and it has been my answer to “what is your favorite book” since then. I recently realized that I remembered very little of the actual plot, so, slightly worried that I’d think poorly of my high school self, I gave it another whirl. After a re-read, I’m happy to keep my answer the same. It’s not a short book, but it’s hard to find a book that says more with less. Spoilers ahead!
At the center of East of Eden lies the Cain and Abel story. As narrated by Samuel in the book:
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.
And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, “Why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, “Where is Abel thy brother?” And he said, “I know not. Am I my brother’s keeper?” And he said, “What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.” And Cain said unto the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid. And I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass that everyone that findeth me shall slay me.” And the Lord said unto him, “Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
There are two re-tellings of the Cain and Abel story in East of Eden. First, Adam and Charles Trask are the sons of Cyrus, a faux-military man with machismo-infused ideas about what makes a man. In their youth, Cyrus favors Adam. Charles beats Adam almost to death out of jealousy, but they reconcile.
In the bridge between stories, Adam goes to war and then adventures around on trains, ending up escaping a chain gang and landing back with Charles on the family farm. Cathy Ames, later Kate Trask, ends up on their farm, and marries Adam. With inherited wealth from their father, Adam moves with Cathy to the Salinas Valley, CA.
In Salinas, Adam purchases a beautiful plot of land and dreams of creating a bountiful farm. Cathy gives birth to twins and then leaves, shooting Adam in the shoulder on her way out.
Adam’s twins are the brothers of the second Cain-and-Able story. Aron and Caleb (Cal) grow up on the farm and later in Salinas. Adam, and seemingly everyone else, shows a preference for the blonde Aron. At the book’s conclusion, Cal kills his brother by intentionally disturbing him enough for him to enlist himself and be killed in WWI.
This is an extremely shallow view of the plot. There is SO MUCH in this book. I usually review highlighted sections when writing these book reviews, but I about 100 highlights in East of Eden. Covering all of them feels like it would require rewriting much of the novel…
The characters are so ridiculously compelling. Steinbeck can write characters that you hope you never meet and that you mourn never being able to know personally.
Cathy/Kate is a sociopath serial killer. Using her innocent charm and cunning, she enacts devious control over the people around her. She burns her parents to death, causes men to commit suicide, and dies ridden with arthritis, fear, and paranoia amongst soft pillows in the “grey room” lair she created in her brothel. At her core, Kate fears her lack of human compassion, but rather than face her deficiency, she convinces herself that other people are simply weak and unable to do what she does in order to achieve their desires.
Samuel Hamilton is the moral opposite of Kate. An Irish farmer with some of the most barren land in the Salinas Valley, he has a large family and an enormous positive influence on his wider community. He sees people for who they are and uses it to lift them up and explore ideas together. An inventor, scholar, and craftsman, Samuel is a terrible businessman and excellent storyteller.
Lee is a Chinese servant to Adam Trask and friend to Samuel. Lee, self-effacing and wise, uses a Chinese “pidgin” to speak with most people around him. Samuel immediately sees through this and it’s revealed that Lee is one of the most articulate and studied characters in the book. If there was a narrator and ideal father figure in the book, it’s Lee.
Will Hamilton and his father, Samuel, make up a mini Cain-and-Able dynamic, now that I think of it. The practical, business-oriented Will is a bit of an outsider in his family. I thought he was basically a way to represent Steinbeck’s distaste for exploitative business practices, but no, Will is a fully fleshed out character with his own secret hurts and motivations.
Tom and Dessie Hamilton have a short and tragic side story that explores shyness and depression.
Joe, Kate’s henchmen, has a whole side plot to himself as well.
The cycles of Cain and Able demonstrate that even without a religious father to reject us, the dynamic of yearning for acceptance and love and receiving rejection and hurt feelings in its place is what drives evil action. Evil action is unjustified, and must be resisted constantly. As Lee says, “No story has power, nor will it last, unless we feel in ourselves that it is true and true of us. What a great burden of guilt men have!”.
Timshel is a very special word in this book, translated to “thou mayest”. Someone has a whole website dedicated to the passage. I think for it to really hit hard, you should read it in the context of the book.
In high school, I remember being most taken with the Timshel element of East of Eden. This read through, I was at least equally taken with the themes of perseverance through loss and horror, the biblical analogies, human nature, and family.
The one thing I’ll say is that this could come off as a “guy’s book”. Most of the characters are male and I think the free-will based elements of it can dovetail nicely with male influencer “do the thing, have the power” messaging. I actually think that even if this is a guy’s book, it has a super wide portrayal of the ways masculinity plays out, and is often relevant to human nature in general.