More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay about the life of john steinbeck
How does literature affect our society
How does literature affect our society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
East of Eden
Some of the most aspiring and influential authors show to be American novelists. American novelists brought about a new style of writing, which became very popular. John Steinbeck shows this style of writing in his novel, East of Eden. This makes Steinbeck one of the most significant American novelists in the twentieth century. East of Eden contains many parts, which add detail and interest to the novel. Many of Steinbeck’s novels and other works remain and continue to be nationally acclaimed. Many elements exist in East of Eden that bring about the meaning and concept of the novel. The study of John Steinbeck and his book, East of Eden, will help the reader better understand the element of fiction and interpret the meaning of the work.
John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. Between 1919 and 1925 Steinbeck was acknowledged as a special student at Stanford University. According to Peter Lisac, “Variously employed as a had-carrier, fruit-picker, apprentice printer, laboratory assistant, caretaker, surveyor, reporter, writer, and foreign correspondent let him acquire knowledge in many areas.” (1) Even in his youth, Steinbeck developed a love of the natural world and diverse cultures. Steinbeck produced two children from his second wife, Elaine Scott. The early 1930’s became a struggle for Steinbeck, both in his
Long 2
attempts to improve his writing and his day-to-day existence. Yet, in the 1940’s he turned his main interest from sociology and biology to individual ethics. Steinbeck was honored in 1962 with the Nobel Prize in Literature. He regarded East of Eden as the accumulation of his career. Steinbeck died of heart disease in New York on November 20, 1968.
In addition to East of Eden, Steinbeck produced many other novels and several volumes of short fiction in his early career. Most of Steinbeck’s novels and stories are set in the Salinas Valley in California where he spent most of his life. Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel, Grapes of Wrath which makes him best known. According to John Timmerman, ”Grapes of Wrath studies the problems migrant workers encountered while traveling from Oklahoma to California.” (1) Steinbeck wrote eighteen books through his life span. Some of his novels included Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, Tortilla Flat, The Moon is Down, The Red Pony, and many others. Of Mice and Men gained Steinbeck national recognition. Saint Katy the Virgin, Nothing So Monstrous, The Long Valley, How Edith McGillcuddy, and The Crapshooter are Steinbeck’s volumes of short stories.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath, The Moon is Down, Cannery Row, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men. New York: Heinemann/Octopus, 1979. pp.475 - 896.
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.
Throughout the novel, East of Eden, John Steinbeck puts forth many literary techniques in the book to make it utterly vivid. His defined techniques of writing allow the reader to unveil the author’s intentions. Steinbeck’s usage of allegories and alliteration through metaphoric language effectively creates a style that is certain to captivate an audience.
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.
John Steinbeck's novel, East of Eden is the epic story of a California family who struggle to overcome issues of betrayal, infidelity, and the age old battle between good and evil and sibling rivalry. The story centers around two generations of brothers in the Trask family-Adam and Charles, and Adam's sons Aron and Cal. In each generation, one of the Trask brothers is moral and good while the other brother behaves badly and immorally. Because the good Trask brothers are favored, the bad Trask brothers develop envious tendencies and a recurrent theme of sibling rivalry appears throughout the book. Steinbeck's dramatic account of the Trask brothers and their rivalry in East of Eden is an impressive tale, but it is also a familiar one that closely echoes a
John Steinbeck was born in 1902, in California's Salinas Valley, a region that would eventually serve as the setting for Of Mice and Men, as well as many of his other works. He studied literature and writing at Stanford University. He then moved to New York City and worked as a laborer and journalist for five years, until he completed his first novel in 1929, Cup of Gold. With the publication of Tortilla Flat in 1935, Steinbeck achieved fame and became a popular author. He wrote many novels about the California laboring class. Two of his more famous novels included Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck got the title for Of Mice and Men from a line of Robert Burns, a Scottish poet, “The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry." In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck includes the theme of loyalty and sacrifice between friends. Steinbeck illustrates the loyalty and sacrifice between friends through the friendship of Lennie and George.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck, is a fictional novel that details the lives of five main characters, Cal Trask, Aron Trask, Adam Trask, Cathy Ames, and Samuel Hamilton. John Steinbeck pivots the five characters against each other with biblical references from the story of Cain and Abel. The novel’s protagonist Adam Trask has a half brother Charles and is portrayed generally as a good man throughout the novel. The antagonist Charles Trask is jealous and similar to Cain in the biblical story of Cain and Abel. The novel can be split into two parts with the first part focussing on the first generation Trask family and the second part focussing on the second generation Trask family with both following the same story line of rejection and favoritism.
Hayashi, Tetsumaro. A New Study Guide to Steinbeck's Major Works, with Critical Explications. Scarecrow Press, Jan 1, 1993
Noble, Donald R. ed. The Steinbeck Question: New Essays in Criticism. Troy, New York, 1993.
Levant, Howard. "The Fully Matured Art: The Grapes of Wrath." John Steinbeck, Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 35-62.
John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden was inspired by a message he wished to send to his sons. Steinbeck created this epic story to carry his voice and advice to the two young boys whom he loved immensely. He wrote the story of good and evil, including love and hate, demonstrating how they are inseparable. ("East of Eden", Kirjasto) Steinbeck wanted to describe to Thom and John IV, the Salinas Valley, the treasured place in which he grew up. He aspired to detail every element from sights and sounds to colors and smells. He placed East of Eden here, in the Salinas Valley, not because of its significance to the story but the importance intended for his sons. ("East of Eden Summary") This setting includes more than memories from Steinbeck's childhood, it shows the history of the time period. Different waves of immigrants to California, new inventions including Ford automobiles and new windmills, an attempt at shipping lettuce in icebox train cars and organized prostitution across the West are some of the real occurrences that took place during this period of history. As his children grew Steinbeck hoped that East of Eden would show them their roots. The families created in the novel contributed to this significance. The Hamilton's were immigrants from Ireland, Steinbeck's true ancestors. The Trask family was fictional, helping to tell the story Steinbeck felt was important to every man. This universal family living next to a universal neighbor had meaning to his sons as well as to anyone who picked up the work. John Steinbeck calls the novel the story of my country and the story of me. East of Eden tells of a boy becoming a man as he overcomes jealousy and realizes self worth; this being achieved by the realization that everyone possesses good and evil. A quote from Steinbeck himself expresses the desire he had to instill this in the lives of his sons, "this is for my sons" to read when they are grown...And so I will tell one of the greatest-The story of good and evil, of strength and weakness, of love and hate, of beauty and ugliness." John Steinbeck's meaningful novel displays good and evil, while questioning the reader of whether evil is fated or if our lives are ruled by moral choice. (Pearson; "The Novel: East of Eden")
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.
Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. John Steinbeck centennial ed. New York: Penguin Books, 2002. Print.
Steinbeck got the inspiration to write this book in the summer of 1922 through his experience at Spreckels Sugar Company Ranch. He worked there with Filipino and Mexican labor. The landscape of the book was familiar to where he worked. He worked in an oasis type river and renamed the location to a place called Soledad which meant solitude (Hays)...
Gandhi once said, “I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul”.