East of Eden

"East of Eden is set in Salinas, California – like so much of Steinbeck’s fiction – at the start of the 20th century. It’s a book with a number of narratives in it, starting off with Samuel Hamilton and his wife Lisa, who raise nine children on a piece of very unprepossessing land in Salinas. Then Adam Trask, a wealthy stranger, purchases a nearby ranch. The main brother narrative within the story is that of Adam and Charles Trask. It’s not only about them, there are other families in the narrative as well, notably the Hamilton family, but I want to concentrate on the Trasks. It’s constantly referring back to the Cain and Abel story. The relationship between Charles and Adam Trask is very murderous. Interestingly, and I don’t quite understand why Steinbeck did it this way, Charles and Adam are not really true brothers. Adam is the older step brother, and Charles is the murderous younger one who wants to destroy him. I don’t know why Steinbeck made Charles the younger brother rather than the older one. The murderous impulse normally comes from the older brother – in classical psychology you are dethroned as an older brother when a younger one comes along. Charles Trask is infuriated that his father didn’t want a pen knife that Charles saved up for ages to give him, while Adam gave his father a mongrel puppy that he didn’t even pay for and his father showered him with kisses and affection. Shortly after that, Charles picks up an axe and goes after Adam to kill him. He’s so furious that he was passed over by his father, rather in the way that Cain was passed over by God, that he plans to kill Adam – but Adam hides until he’s gone. Eventually Adam falls in love with Cathy Ames, who is probably one of the most evil characters in literature, and they have twin boys, Caleb and Aron. Interestingly, both Adam and Cathy carry a mark on their foreheads, like the mark of Cain. Let me read you some quotes that I pulled out of the book, which I think are very important and go right to the heart of East of Eden . They are certainly very germane to my book, and inspired me as I was writing. First is the reflection by the character Samuel Hamilton when he’s talking to Lee, a wise Chinese servant of his, about the Trasks: “Two stories that haunt us and follow us from our beginning,” says Samuel. “We carry them along with us like invisible tales. This story of original sin and the story of Cain and Abel. I don’t understand them at all, but I feel them. Here we are, this oldest story. If it troubles us, it must be that we find the trouble in ourselves. Such a little story, to make so deep a wound.” The Chinese character Lee then goes right to the heart of it: “It is the single story of the human soul. It is everybody’s story. The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved and rejection is the hell he fears. I think everyone in the world to a large or small extent has felt rejection, and with rejection comes anger and with the anger some kind of crime in revenge for the rejection, and with the crime guilt and there is the story of mankind. If rejection could be amputated, the human would not be what he is. One child refused love kicks the cat and hides the secret guilt. Another steals, so that money will make him love. A third conquers the world and always the guilt and the revenge and the more guilt. Therefore this old and terrible story is important because it is a chart of the soul. A secret, rejected, guilty soul.” There is such a deep truth in that. I think a huge number of people in this world – and I would not exclude myself – are driven by a sense of rejection. That rejection, for a lot of men, comes in the shape of their brothers. That’s why the Cain and Abel story is so very powerful. I can remember so desperately wanting the love of my brother, but he wanted nothing to do with me whatsoever. That continues to scar me today, to some extent. What interests me in East of Eden above all is the reference to Cain and Abel. That story is absolutely key to the relationship between Adam and Charles."

"One aim of Steinbeck’s epic is to undermine the simplistic binary thinking that twins like the Wakefields symbolize. East of Eden sets up an initially stark contrast between sweet, sensitive, blond Aron and violent, awkward, dark-haired Cal, then progressively complicates it. By the end, it’s Cal who has our sympathies: he’s sincerely worked to escape the legacy of his dark uncle Charles and twisted mother Cathy (your initial letter threatens to determine your destiny in this book!), whereas Aron has proved superficial and spineless, incapable of real intimacy and growth. The philosophical question that’s really animating the story isn’t the drawbacks of polarized thinking, but the limits of human freedom. Aron and Cal are only the latest iteration of a moral struggle that has wracked their family for decades. Their role in the novel is to illustrate the possibility that all of us might escape the confines of our original character and circumstances and reach freely toward either good or evil."