Book Review: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

I’m finding it really hard to portray how intensely I loved this book and how deeply it resonated with me. John Steinbeck’s East of Eden is honestly so clever. I usually don’t write the synopsis of books in my reviews, because I tend to skip over them when reading reviews myself and there are so many online, none of which prepared me for the actual scope of this novel. All that I knew was that it was a family saga following multiple generations, and perhaps that’s best. I was left to enjoy what unfolds without implicit biases. But the plot is so integral to my feelings about the book, since it explores and expands on a biblical story that I myself always pondered. It made me feel validated that the characters in the book also puzzled over it, and I don’t think I can ever think of the biblical story without thinking of this novel. 

The plot in its simplest form is two reiterations of the story of Cain and Abel from the Bible. 

Original Story: 

In the Bible, God prefers Abel’s gift and rejects Cain’s, which lead to Cain killing Abel.

First part of East of Eden (this is early in the book, but *minor spoiler*):

Father Cyrus Trask prefers Adam’s gift and rejects Charles’, which leads to Charles attempting to kill Adam. 

Second part of East of Eden:

Father Adam Trask (the same Adam as above) prefers Aron’s gift and rejects Cal’s, which leads to strife between the brothers and to *major spoiler* Cal very indirectly killing Aron.

That rather simplistic summary may make the plot sound contrived, but it’s not. It reads very naturally, simply like a family saga as most synopses of the book advertise. Steinbeck uses this original story in Genesis to explore rejection, which is one of the worst, most desperate human feelings. It’s only during and afterward you realize the full extent of the connections Steinbeck draws. I find myself wishing I read this in college with a professor so I could hear other people’s opinions and do a deeper analysis.

This novel had such a good blend of philosophy and pure storytelling. The former led to many annotations on my part, and then I just immersed myself in the storytelling. 

Each character was so well developed and strongly characterized all the way through, and the relationships were absolutely fascinating, particularly the dynamic between Adam and Charles. But my favorite character didn’t appear till the latter half (he was part of the second generation). I was craving Cal’s point of view and Cal’s story, and I didn’t want to leave him when the story ended. I truly identified the most with Cal, which says something about how Steinbeck humanized a biblical villain. I really wanted to follow Cal some more, but for literary integrity’s sake, Steinbeck ended the novel at the perfect time. It ends with Cal with two paths for him to follow, to overcome sin or to sink into it, which is the choice Cain had in the Bible.  

And I have to mention the main villain of the novel. I don’t think I’ve ever read such an intriguing female villain. Her character has become the complex female villain I will compare all others to. She was the snake to Adam’s garden of Eden, the temptress towards evil in all of the Trasks’ lives. 

Steinbeck believed that each of our lives are caught up on one thing: the internal struggle of good and evil. I’m always disappointed by the simple conclusion of free will, but Steinbeck tried to impress on his readers its power. The ability to fight genetics, our past sins, and the impossible ideal of perfection is in all of us, and Steinbeck humanized tropey characters to build back our faith in ourselves and in humanity.