East of Eden

Before last week my exposure to Steinbeck consisted of the usual: The Grapes of Wrath (read at PUC) and Of Mice and Men (high school). When I thought of Steinbeck I pictured dust, California, downtrodden farmers, more dust, and mentally unstable giants who suffocate puppies and women (by accident, of course). 

While East of Eden contained all of these elements (except Lennie), it was far more complex than I anticipated. The first 70 pages of the story dragged a bit, but when Cathy Ames (aka Kate) came onstage, I was hooked. Cathy is probably one of the most heinous characters I have ever encountered. She puts Dracula, Dorian Grey, Elkenah Bent, and Mr. Hyde to shame. She is horrible; therefore, she is interesting. Vampirism, magic mirrors, and secret potions are not to blame. She is evil incarnate: malicious, depraved, destructive, and completely human. 

Here's one description of her:

Cathy was chewing a piece of meat, chewing with her front teeth. Samuel had never seen anyone chew that way before. And when she had swallowed, her little tongue flicked around her lips. Samuel's mind repeated, "Something - something -can't find what it is. Something wrong," and the silence hung on the table. (171)

Here's another description of her when she's giving birth to her twins:

Her head jerked up and her sharp teeth fastened on his hand across the back and up into the palm near the little finger. He cried out in pain and tried to pull his hand away, but her jaw was set and her head twisted and turned, mangling his hand the way a terrier worries a sack. A shrill snarling came from her set teeth . . . He stepped back from the bed and looked at the damage her teeth had done. He looked at her with fear. And when he looked, her face was calm again and young and innocent. (191) 


Since we're working with allegory in this novel, her snake-like qualities are intentional. 

East of Eden is set mainly in the Salinas Valley and Steinbeck was aiming for a primordial significance that parallels themes found in the book of Genesis: father/son relationships, redemption, and freedom of choice. I found the most fascinating theme of this book to be the question of inherited sin. Following three generations of characters whose morality ranges from good, bad, evil, and everywhere in-between, the conclusion is that everyone has a choice as to whether they will choose good or choose evil. Humanity is not predestined to make the choices that that their parents made and they are not doomed by genetics to act in a certain way. The philosophy might be a little heavy, but reading this book was effortless. 

I love Steinbeck’s straightforward prose. He’s never over the top with description, yet he still manages to be poetic. 

“It was a deluge of a winter in the Salinas Valley, wet and wonderful. The rains fell gently and soaked in and did not freshet. The feed was deep in January, and in February the hills were fat with grass and the coats of the cattle looked tight and sleek. In March the soft rains continued, and each storm waited courteously until its predecessor sank beneath the ground. The warmth flooded the valley and the earth burst into bloom - yellow and blue and gold” (308).  

I’m not a huge American Literature person, but I do want to read more Steinbeck. When I read Steinbeck I know I am encountering greatness in a novelist.