East of Eden Dialectical Journal
Quote: Make sure you cite
parenthetically.
“I remember that the
Galiban Mountains to the
east of the valley were light
gay mountains full of sun
and loveliness….The Santa
Lucias stood up against the
sky to the west…and they
were dark and broodingunfriendly and dangerous”
(1).
Context: Who said it?
Under what circumstances
was it said?
Meaning: What does the
quote show about good and
evil or freewill in
humanity? What universal
truth or philosophy is
Steinbeck trying to
communicate through this
quote?
At the very beginning of the
The two mountain ranges
novel, the narrator describes represent the two opposing
these two opposing sets of forces in humans- good and
mountain ranges to
evil. The fact that the
establish the setting which
Salinas Valley is caught in
is the Salinas Valley, an
between these two forces
area sandwiched in between suggests that the characters
the Galibans and the Santa
residing in this setting will
Lucias.
also be influenced by these
two fundamentally opposed
aspects of human existence.