Barnes and Noble is one of my favorite places to spend time. Fortunately, there is one not too out of the way on our drive home from church. One of these afternoons I spent perusing the shelves. After taking probably more books than I should have to the counter, I walk up for a quick exchange. That is when the guy at the counter looks at me and says, “East of Eden is one of my favorite books. It changed my life. After I read it, I dropped out of law school.” The great big grin on my face slowly descended as I confusedly tried to work out how on earth the Barnes and Noble counter guy considers his whole situation a win.
What You Need to Know
As the back of the book indicates, East of Eden is a retelling of sorts of the book of Genesis. The story is about Adam and his brother Charles, and Adam gives birth to two sons: Aaron and Caleb, who end up going by Aron and Cal.
John Steinbeck’s East of Eden is full of lively characters. I loved Samuel Hamilton and Lee. I found them to be quite intriguing. I would actually consider them the Elijah and Elisha, respectively, of the story. While Samuel doesn’t chop off anyone’s head, he does get pissed and get in a fist fight.
East of Eden is also a dark book. Steinbeck does not shy away from the depths of evil and creates one of the evilest characters I could imagine.
What I Want You to Know
As I mentioned above, East of Eden retells the story of Genesis, especially the story of Cain and Abel. Steinbeck explores whether the good or evil in a man or woman is inherent or somehow developed. In one of the key moments of the book, Adam, Samuel, and Lee are talking about the passage in Genesis 4, specifically verse 7 and particularly the American Standard Version’s translation.
“Now, there are many millions in their 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 shalt.’ Nothing they may do can interfere with what will be. But ‘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 win.”[1]
And this is the primary lens for the life of the characters. “Thou mayest” gives the characters their decision on whether or not they will choose to fight. Steinbeck does a brilliant job in making each character’s journey come to life. There are gut punches along the way, but I found the whole experience riveting.
While I wouldn’t exactly subscribe to the ideas in the excerpt, there is still and always a tension in life. Many of us want to do the right thing, but often realize that we let our anger, or some other emotion, get the best of us. I am reminded of Jesus who in his weakness, chose his course, fought it through, and won. Because He did that, we have our own true “thou mayest” by faith.
How I Scored It
As you can tell, I found East of Eden to be tremendous. As I mentioned, the characters were compelling. Whether it was a good or bad character, I was always intrigued. I appreciated Steinbeck’s way of discussing the story of good and evil and man’s free will in all of it. I will definitely re-read this in the next few years and we will see if it holds up to a second read. But at this time, it’s a 5.0.
How About a Taste
“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one, that has frightened and inspired us, so that we live in a Pearl White serial of continuing thought and wonder. Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. I think this is the only story we have and that it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence. Virtue and vice were warp and woof of our first consciousness, and they will be the fabric of our last, and this despite any changes we may impose on field and river and mountain, on economy and manners. There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?”[2]
“Did she mean to kill you?
I’ve thought of that more than anything else. No, I don’t think she meant to kill me. She didn’t allow me that dignity. There was no hatred in her, no passion at all. I learned about that in the army. If you want to kill a man, you shoot at head or heart or stomach. No, she hit me where she intended. I can see the gun barrel moving over. I guess I wouldn’t have minded so much if she had wanted my death. That would have been a kind of love. But I was an annoyance, not an enemy.”[3]
[1] John Steinbeck, East of Eden (New York: Penguin Books, 1992), 303.
[2] Ibid., 413.
[3] Ibid., 262.