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East of Eden religious symbolism
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East of Eden: A Biblical Allegory
In East of Eden (1952) John Steinbeck creates a powerful novel using biblical allegories. By doing this, he can deliver a clear message by describing something unfamiliar to his audience and comparing it to something more familiar. Set in modern times, East of Eden retells the famous story of the downfall of Adam and Eve, and the jealous rivalry between Cain and Able. Steinbeck also creates many other characters throug his novel, that capture a biblical sense and help portray an image of the vast confusion of life.
One character that resembles a biblical character is Cathy Ames. Throughout the entirety of the novel, her character portrays that of a monstrous almost inhuman creature. "... just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or malformed egg can produce malformed soul? To a criminal, honesty is foolish. You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous" (72). These abilities Cathy possessed allowed her to manipulate and control nearly everyone. Her inborn talent enabled her to repress normal emotions of love and thus posses many devil like characteristics. One being the manipulation of sex. In the second half of the story Cathy has married and unintentionally bears the lives of her two unborn sons. Before arriving in their destination of King City, Cathy deviously attempts to abort the lives within her. "He [Dr. Tilson] looked around the room. He stepped to the bureau and picked up a knitting needle. He shook it in her face. 'The old offender - the old criminal. You're a fool. You've nearly killed yourself and you haven't lost y...
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...ch children can spend a lifetime trying to decipher the expressions of their love. Sometime later Adam becomes deathly ill. While on his death bed Lee pleads with Adam to forgive Caleb and bless him. "'Don't crush him with your rejection. Give him your blessing! ... That's all a man has over the beasts. Free him! Bless him!" (602). Slowly and with much effort Adam raises his right hand, displaying his act of blessing on Caleb.
Like all strong allegories, East of Eden draws one into a world of fictious characters that seem to take on a life of familiarity. The bible, which Steinbeck has chosen to build his novel on, is a book that interests itself not in causes, but in actions and their consequences. By creating biblical allegories, Steinbeck gives a new meaning to an old chapter.
Works Cited:
Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. Penguin Books USA Inc. (1992).
The idea of good versus evil is illustrated in several ways in John Steinbeck's East of Eden. This is seen through the external conflicts in the novel, the internal conflicts of the characters, and a universal understanding of the battle between good and evil.
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.
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.
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.
In this book, there were no characters so I chose to write about the most interesting topic in chapter one called “excuses, excuses.” The author here explains about the very first fight between husband and wife and the excuses Adam and Eve gave to cover up their sin in the Garden of Eden. When God asked them of their crime, they tried to put the blame on each other. In all fairness neither of them lied but they did try to cover up the truth, literally. (Genesis 3) Both of their excuses were true but they were very lame. They both refused to take responsibility for their actions and lied straight to God’s face.
Question 1: In what way is the novel an allegory of The Garden of Eden?
Author Jonathan Swift states, “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others”. Known as the greatest painter of his time, Masaccio, the brilliant artist, produces artwork with purity and language. Through Masaccio’s detailed artwork, The Expulsion of Eden, constructs a painting bursting with emotion that touches the viewer. The story of Adam and Eve depicts two people of opposite gender, and their journey through discovering the root of guilt, and the consequences of knowledge. After Eve (and eventually Adam) eats the attractive forbidden fruit from the tree of life - being tempted by the serpent, Adam and Eve are forever punished from the Garden of Eden, liberating both from innocence. Due to Masaccio's genius paintwork, he portrays the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden with precise detail and emotion that matches and, in some parts, enhances the actual Biblical story.
Homelessness in the United States has been an important subject that the government needs to turn its attention to. There has been announced in the news that the number of the homeless people in many major cities in the United States has been increasing enormously. According to United States Interagency Council on Homelessness reported that there was an estimation of 83,170 individuals have experienced chronic homelessness on the streets of the United States’ streets and shelters on only a single night of January 2015, which is a small decrease of only 1% from the previous year (People Experiencing Chronic Homelessness, n.d.). The United States must consider this subject that most of the people underestimate it and not pay attention
Hypothermia is a cause for concern when temperatures are in the 32 degrees to 50 degrees range. Since winter shelters are only available once temperatures drop way under, those without homes have to suffer in the cold winter weather. This shows how homeless people must be strong enough to endure the harsh weather and only those with stronger immune systems will be able to survive. The cold winter weather affects everyone and only the fittest survive. “While some called her a thorn in their side, others called her their friend and a ‘special soul.’ At the end of December, she died from exposure on a bench outside of a coffee shop,” (Lives of the Homeless). The harsh conditions made it hard for this lady to survive. She, like many others, had a life and a story to tell but the weather was unsuitable to be homeless in. Many like her die because of the weather. The
McNamara, Robert Hartmann. "Homelessness." Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues. Ed. Michael Shally-Jensen. Vol. 3: Family and Society. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. 1024-1031. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 May 2014. .
East of Eden was a novel that explored the roots of evil in its most primal form. Through intricate plot lines and complex characters, John Steinbeck weaved a tale of brutality, cruelty, and isolation. One important character that helped to illustrate the presence of evil throughout the book was Cathy Ames, an intelligent woman who ruthlessly used other people to serve her own needs. When reflecting upon East of Eden, a debate that often surfaces is whether Cathy's evil was a result of nature or nurture. Arguments for and against both sides are in the book. At some times, Cathy is portrayed as a wicked fiend who's aggression stems from nowhere but her own empty heart. Other times, Cathy appears weak and afraid of people who aren't the least bit intimidating. Those are the moments in the book where one must question whether Cathy is truly evil, or just an impatient and self-centered individual.
The many causes of the homelessness issue has arisen from global conflict, unemployment increase, education tuition costs rising, and the increase of poverty. Homelessness is affecting all ages, ethnicities, and religions striking in both urban and rural communities. “Just last year, the national poverty rate rose to include 13.2% of the population. 1 in 7 people were at risk of suffering from hunger in the United States. In addition, 3.5 million people were forced to sleep in parks, under bridges, in shelters or cars.”
It’s quite evident that one can hardly tell which of these principles of effective intervention are more effective or important than the other when it comes to community corrections. Nonetheless, the best results can only be obtained if these principles are applied together; by reinforcing one principle with the others (Anstiss, 2013; Cullen & Gendreau, 2011).
This book discusses how women during the late 19th century and early 20th century were educated and emerged as leaders. The book describes the onset of Japanese colonization in the Korean peninsula, and how female students adapted Korean culture to meet the new social changes introduced by the West. It also describes how women in this period attempted to bridge the traditional and the contemporary.
Arnold Gessell developed the milestones at which one progress through normal development (Cook, Lyon, and Blacher, 2007). Developmental delay is apparent when an infant or child fails to reach the developmental milestones within a reasonable time period (Cook, Lyon, and Blacher, 2007). Children develop at varying rates so a doctor will take into consideration the time period at which it takes for a child to reach a milestone before determining if delay is apparent. An example of a child not reaching a developmental milestone would be if a child was not saying any words by the time the child was two. According to the Center for Disease Control a child will usually start to say single words at about eighteen months.