East Of Eden Literary Analysis

839 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The human condition in literature

East of Eden: A Timeless Classic An old saying is to never judge a book by its cover. Some stories require deeper thought than just what is offered to the readers on the surface. Many people may suggest that these kinds of stories are somewhat challenging; however, I deeply enjoy discovering the true meanings behind them. One book I recently analyzed for my AP English IV class was East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I have never stumbled upon a book that emphasizes and illustrates the classic controversies of human nature, as well as East of Eden. The book projects an excellent and surprising plot, motifs, themes and symbols. The setting of the book is portrayed around the time of World War I in the Salinas Valley, and the novel is divided into two vital parts. The protagonist family is the Trask family. At the beginning of the first part of the book, the Trask household consists of two brothers, Adam and Charles, and their father, Cyrus. Cyrus Trask inspires the novel by showing more affection for Adam, than for Charles. Once in adulthood, Adam Trask falls in love with a prostitute named Cathy Aims. Cathy is described as the devil itself, and she believes that only evil remains. After Adam and Cathy are married, they move …show more content…

The most obvious fact that links the motif of Cain and Able are the names; first Adam and Charles, and later Aaron and Caleb. In both generations the father prefers one son over the other; in the novel, the preferred sons are Adam and Aaron. Even the personalities of Adam and Charles reflect Cain and Able. However, a fascinating plot twist follows Caleb. Despite the traditional story, Caleb realizes that choice determines actions, rather than personality or lineage. I greatly enjoyed this change in events that the reader were anticipating. I was glad that Caleb was able to receive his fathers blessing, instead of living in

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Allusions In A Separate Peace

    568 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the chapters of John Knowles novel “A Separate Peace” there are many biblical allusions. In particular, the story of Cain and Abel. Phineas and Gene are based on story of Cain and Able. Cain and Abel are brothers such as Genes and Phineas’ friendship. In the story one is filled with jealousy like Gene and one brother kills the other also like Gene.

    Read More

  • Isolation Form Love In The Film "east Of Eden"

    640 Words  | 2 Pages

    East of Eden by John Steinbeck is an optimistic film about a boy becoming a man and trying desperately to earn the love of his father and mother in the troubled times of the Great Depression. Cal, the main character is a troubled teen who lives with his entrepreneur father, and a brother who is following closely in his fathers steps. Cal’s mother left him and his brother to become a madam of a whorehouse. The struggle takes place between Cal and his father due to his fathers lack of compassion for his son. The conflict rises further when Cal tries to help his father repay a debt, his father further isolates his son and this turns to violent outbursts. Steinbeck focuses on Cal in order to suggest the theme that without love people become violent and mean.

    Read More

  • TKAM: Literary Analysis Paper

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic novel written by Harper Lee. The novel is set in the depths of the Great Depression. A lawyer named Atticus Finch is called to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. The story is told from one of Atticus’s children, the mature Scout’s point of view. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, the Finch Family faces many struggles and difficulties. In To Kill a Mockingbird, theme plays an important role during the course of the novel. Theme is a central idea in a work of literature that contains more than one word. It is usually based off an author’s opinion about a subject. The theme innocence should be protected is found in conflicts, characters, and symbols.

    Read More

  • A Separate Peace

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    Symbolism is very prominent over the course of this story, giving it that much more meaning. Knowles makes not only one, but several instances to religious principles and more precisely in this case, Adam and Eve. These of jealousy, greed, and selfishness are prominent throughout both stories as well is a significant fall whether it would be as monstrous as humanity or on the smaller scale of relationships. The disruption of peace and harmony are also evident in the two. In addition, it is interesting how the author finds a way to tie them all into each other.

    Read More

  • East Of Eden Symbolism

    1395 Words  | 3 Pages

    The color and temperature of a person’s eyes comprise the first layer of his identity. Welcoming, smiling eyes identify their owner as a friend, while angry, bitter eyes warn of a comparably biting personality. A person’s eyes show much at a first glance. In literature, they perform a more significant job, reflecting the character of the soul they guard. In developing the famously complex characters of his novel East of Eden, John Steinbeck heartily subscribed to this literary symbolism by giving special meaning to the eyes of his characters as ‘windows to the soul.’ This can be seen especially in the characters of Adam and Cathy Trask.

    Read More

  • A Lesson Before Dying Literary Analysis

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thomas Paine once said “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” Conflict is an obstacle that many characters in books go through. It is what drives the reader to continue reading and make the book enjoyable. Additionally, authors use symbolism to connect their novels to real life, personal experience, or even a life lesson. In “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee and “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines, both take place during a time where colored people were being looked down upon and not treated with the same rights as white people. However, both novels portray the conflict and symbolism many ways that are similar and different. Additionally, both of these novels have many similarities and differences that connect as well as differentiate them to one

    Read More

  • Song Of Solomon Literary Analysis

    1043 Words  | 3 Pages

    Once upon a time, castles watched the seas and pigs could fly. Often, when we are young fairy tales are read to us to offer happy endings in a world of darkness. They give us one specific ending and put our minds at rest knowing that Belle found her Beast. In Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, Milkman Dead is not afforded the luxury of his journey having one specific pathway of going through life. Milkman’s story can be seen as a fairy tale with elements of good and bad. His world is trapped in a bubble, and it is not until the fairy tales of other people and books end that he becomes his own fairytale. He finds himself through the twists and turns of his own story. Because of the magical elements within Milkman’s life,

    Read More

  • Free Glass Menagerie Essays: The Destruction of Laura

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every time the family comes to a confrontation someone retreats to the past and reflects on life as it was back then, not dealing with life as it is for them today. Tom, assuming the macho role of the man of the house, babies and shelters Laura from the outside world. His mother reminds him that he is to feel a responsibility for his sister. He carries this burden throughout the play. His mother knows if it were not for his sisters needs he would have been long gone. Laura must pickup on some of this, she is so sensitive she must sense Toms feeling of being trapped. Tom dreams of going away to learn of the world, Laura is aware of this and she is frightened of what may become of them if he were to leave.

    Read More

  • The Editing of Hemingway's The Garden of Eden

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    One deceased master author, one 1500 page manuscript, three previously unsuccessful editing attempts. This equation would scare away most editors. At first, it even scared away Tom Jenks. When his bosses at Scribner’s Publishing asked him to revise Hemingway’s 1500 page manuscript, Jenks initially declined. He told the company, “'I don't care if I never see another Hemingway story again’” (http://narrativemagazine.org/html/eden.htm). For Jenks, “Publishing more Hemingway seemed less interesting than publishing new writers, which is what I came to Scribner's to do” (http://narrativemagazine.org/html/eden.htm). Ultimately Jenks did take on the impossible task of editing Hemingway. One would expect a Hemingway expert to do the editing of The Garden of Eden, however for Jenks, editing Hemingway was an entirely new experience. Eric Pooley, a writer for New York Magazine, states, “[Jenks] hadn't read a Hemingway novel in years. He didn't review the Hemingway canon before he started, and he still hasn't read Islands in the Stream. Preparing to edit, he asked no one for advice”( http://narrativemagazine.org/html/eden.htm). Yet Charles Scribner Jr., one of the three editors who tried and failed to edit the book before Jenks, believes that Jenks’ lack of Hemingway “worship” made editing the book easier. He states, “coming to the task fresh, without a long personal association with Hemingway, Tom was less inhibited” (http://narrativemagazine.org/html/eden.htm). Jenks could not afford to be enamored with the work of Hemingway. In front of him lay the task of removing hundreds of pages from one of the world’s most respected authors.

    Read More

  • Paradise Of The Blind Literary Analysis

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    Coming of age is essential to the theme of many major novels in the literary world. A characters journey through any route to self-discovery outlines a part of the readers own emotional perception of their own self-awareness. This represents a bridge between the book itself and the reader for the stimulating connection amongst the two. It is seen throughout Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong, Hang’s coming of age represents her development as a woman, her changing process of thinking, and her ability to connect to the reader on a personal level.

    Read More

  • The Color Purple Literary Analysis

    1380 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alice Walker has distilled some of the most controversial literature of her time. Her work has been the foundation for many colored writer's ambitions as well as many others. Her work has stroked passion and evoked a copious amount of different emotion among not only Americans but people around the world. Her story The Color Purple is a prime example of the essence of her persona and the messages she tried to portray. Walkers ideas embedded into this story great strike the souls of Americans, even to the point where this story is being banned from high schools around the country. Jacqueline Bobo states in her book, “This analysis will show

    Read More

  • East of Eden

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    A monster defines “a person who excites horror by wickedness, cruelty, etcetera.” This idea mainly shines through the character of Cathy Ames, a true monster. She lacks all sense of morals and displays this by causing many evils and harm to every being she encounters. Throughout the novel East of Eden, the author, John Steinbeck, demonstrates evil as an innate characteristic which only grows over time due to an amplifying lust for power.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis

    685 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher, the character Roderick Usher exhibits severe mental illness. Most of Poe’s writings are psychological in nature. The Fall of the House of Usher is a great example of this. Poe’s life was filled with many tragic events. The unpleasant outcome of his early years resulted in a great Gothic Romantic writer. He is a master of writing psychological thrillers, adding suspense and mystery in his stories. The topics of his writings are a concoction of unpleasant, austere, and grotesque things, thus the reader can be left feeling squeamish and susceptible. We are drawn into Poe’s stories by our intrinsic human nature of curiosity and intrigue. This paper gives examples of Poe’s literary style as we examine Roderick’s metal state through his words and appearance.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis

    1267 Words  | 3 Pages

    Poverty and homelessness are often, intertwined with the idea of gross mentality. illness and innate evil. In urban areas all across the United States, just like that of Seattle. in Sherman Alexie’s New Yorker piece, What You Pawn I Will Redeem, the downtrodden. are stereotyped as vicious addicts who would rob a child of its last penny if it meant a bottle of whiskey.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Epiphany In Araby By James Joyce

    1298 Words  | 3 Pages

    The boy is haplessly subject to the city’s dark, despondent conformity, and his tragic thirst for the unusual in the face of a monotonous, disagreeable reality, forms the heart of the story. The narrator’s ultimate disappointment occurs as a result of his awakening to the world around him and his eventual recognition and awareness of his own existence within that miserable setting. The gaudy superficiality of the bazaar, which in the boy’s mind had been an “oriental enchantment,” shreds away his protective blindness and leaves him alone with the realization that life and love contrast sharply from his dream (Joyce). Just as the bazaar is dark and empty, flourishing through the same profit motivation of the market place, love is represented as an empty, fleeting illusion. Similarly, the nameless narrator can no longer view his world passively, incapable of continually ignoring the hypocrisy and pretension of his neighborhood. No longer can the boy overlook the surrounding prejudice, dramatized by his aunt’s hopes that Araby, the bazaar he visited, is not “some Freemason affair,” and by the satirical and ironic gossiping of Mrs. Mercer while collecting stamps for “some pious purpose” (Joyce). The house, in the same fashion as the aunt, the uncle, and the entire neighborhood, reflects people

    Read More

More about East Of Eden Literary Analysis

Open Document