East of Eden. John Steinbeck.

East of Eden
John Steinbeck
New York: Bantam Books
1952/1961

Why read it? Parallel to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. Steinbeck's philosophical musings are interesting. Themes of evil vs. good and heredity vs. free will. Vivid portrait of California farming.

Novel. Summary. A plot outline: Adam represents good and Charles, evil. Adam marries Cathy who is vicious. She bears twins, Aron and Cal.

Aron is an idealist, is completely good. Cal commits evil, even if he does not want to. He believes he does this because he has inherited his evil inclinations from his mother. Cathy seems to commit evil because she wants to. Cathy owns a whore house. Adam finally sees the kind of person she is and is resigned not to love her.

Cal takes Aron to meet his mother Cathy who owns a whore house. Aron is so shocked that he goes off to war and dies. Adam, his father, has a stroke and is paralyzed. Cal blames himself for what happened to Aron and to his father because he had taken Aron to see his mother in the whore house, but in the end, on his death bed, Adam forgives Cal, who can now choose between good and evil and not feel that he is biologically determined to commit evil. Got that?

Reflections: Abra loves Cal because he has sinned. Aron was too perfect, too idealistic, too unreal. [Hawthorne: the good characters produce evil. The sinner gains redemption. You can’t be human without sinning.] On the other hand, Cathy is all sin. Cal thinks he is mean and sins because he has inherited evil from his mother.

“Timshel,” the last word by Adam on his death bed to Cal, the Hebrew word for “Thou mayest,” as in man has the power to change the path of good or evil. Thus Cal is freed from his belief that he is biologically determined to be evil because of his mother Cathy.

In this novel, Steinbeck is a philosopher masquerading as a novelist. Lee, the Chinaman, is his mouthpiece. Cathy appears to be completely evil. Everything she touches is destroyed. She seems to have no sensitivity, compassion or sympathy for other human beings. Aron, the idealist, who sees the world only in one way and cannot accept the evil of the world, is too good to live. A battle between idealism and evil. The idealists are kicked around and die and evil-doers accept their destruction as inevitable anyway. In the end, they both are destroyed. The survivor is the philosopher.

A sympathetic study of the character of Cain. Cain and Cal struggle not to sin.

Here are some examples of Steinbeck’s “philosophy”:

Fear: “ ‘Look, son,’ Cyrus said earnestly, ‘nearly all men are afraid, and they don’t even know what causes their fear—shadows, perplexities, dangers without names or numbers, fear of a faceless death. But if you can bring yourself to face not shadows but real death, described and recognizable, by bullet or saber, arrow or lance, then you need never be afraid again, at least the same way you were before. Then you will be a man set apart from other men, safe where other men may cry in terror. This is the great reward. Maybe this is the only reward.’ ” p. 30.

Military: “It has always seemed strange to me that it is usually men like Adam who have to do the soldiering. He did not like fighting to start with, and far from learning to love it, as some men do, he felt an increasing revulsion for violence.” p. 39.

Irish: “They [the Irish] condemn themselves before they are charged, and this makes them defensive, always.” p. 46.

People: “Two men alone are constantly on the verge of fighting, and they know it.” p. 115.

Individuality: “And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to face any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion or government which limits or destroys the individual.” p. 151.

People: “…we are capable of many things in all directions, of great virtues and great sins. And who in his mind has not probed the black water?” p. 152.

Advice: “I guess the last bad habit a man will give up is advising.” p. 248.

Achievement: “So often men trip by being in a rush. If one were properly to perform a difficult and subtle act, he should first inspect the end to be achieved and then, once he had accepted the end as desirable, he should forget it completely and concentrate solely on the means. By this method he would not be moved to false action by anxiety or hurry or fear. Very few people learn this.” p. 275.

Specialists: “Old Sam Hamilton saw this coming. He said there couldn’t be any more universal philosophers. The weight of knowledge is too great for one mind to absorb. He saw a time when one man would know only one little fragment, but he would know it well.” p, 619.

Specialists: Lee: “…maybe men are growing too small…. Maybe, kneeling down to atoms, they’re becoming atom-sized in their souls. Maybe a specialist is only a coward, afraid to look out of his little cage. And think what any specialist misses—the whole world over his fence.” p. 619.

Credo: “These were my stupidities: I thought the good are destroyed while the evil survive and prosper.” p. 688.

Lies: “I know sometimes a lie is used in kindness. I don’t believe it ever works kindly. The quick pain of truth can pass away, but the slow, eating agony of a lie is never lost.” p. 492.

Loneliness: “All great and precious things are lonely.” p. 598.

Truth: “There’s more beauty in the truth even if it is a dreadful beauty.” p. 414.

Youth: “No one who is young is ever going to be old.” p. 104.