EAST OF EDEN
A Novel By: John Steinbeck
JOHN STEINBECK
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
 1902-1968, Salinas, California
 Family of moderate means
 Worked through college (taking literature and writing courses)
Stanford University
 1925- moved to NYC where he tried freelance writing but was
unsuccessful
 Became popular in 1935 with Tortilla Flat
 Focus was social novels dealing with economic problems of rural
labor
BOOKS
 Tortilla Flat- humorous novel about Monterey paisanos
 In Dubious Battle- deals with the strikes of migratory fruit pickers in California
 Of Mice and Men- About the imbecile giant Lennie
 The Grapes of Wrath- Oklahoma tenant farmers who are unable to earn a living from the land migrate to
California; this book was banned well into WW2-1940- Won the Pulitzer Prize
 East of Eden- he now writes a novel about people-a story about a wife, husband, family and fatherhoodHe described it as a novel about himself
EAST OF EDEN: SETTING
NEW ENGLAND
Cyrus Trask and his family live in Connecticut. As the novel progresses Adam
decides to move to the Salinas Valley in California. At this point the Trask and
Hamilton (the two major families in the novel) families meet.
SALINAS VALLEY
 Steinbeck begins-description of the valley
 Recalls the sights and smells of his Salinas childhood
 Valley-described as an arena for the struggle between good and evil. The valley is
enclosed by the inviting Gabilan Mountains to the east—”light gay mountains full of
sun and loveliness” –and the “dark and brooding” Santa Lucia Mountains to the
west.
 Mountains symbolize the human struggle between good and evil.
SALINAS VALLEY REPRESENTATION
 The land between the Salinas Valley is the representation of the lands where the
biblical Adam and Eve live after God banishes them from Eden
 After being driven from Eden, Adam and Eve are forced to live in a world in which the
dangers and temptations of evil are ever-present.
 Likewise, the main characters in East of Eden struggle to exercise free will in the face
of the inherited evils of their ancestors.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
 EDEN
Adam and Eve are exiled from the Garden of Eden for disobeying God by
eating from the Tree of Knowledge.
The summary of the story of Eden
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oldtestament/section1.rhtml
 TIMSHEL
In Hebrew timshel means ‘thou mayest’, in East of Eden it means to triumph
over sin
THE STORY OF CAIN AND ABEL
 The beginning of sin
 Cain and Abel where the closest
humans, apart from their parents,
to being “perfect in sin”
 Understood and grasped the
concept of love and salvation
 Understood heaven, angels, good
and evil
 Cain’s personality and character
seemed evil from the beginning
 He didn’t know that his sacrifice
was not in line with what God
wanted.
 This makes the reader
sympathetic towards him
MAJOR CHARACTERS
Steinbeck of Course!
Narrator and son of Olive Hamilton
Eden is considered a semi autobiographical novel
The story of his family and the Trasks
Trask Family
Cyrus Trask
* Patriarch of the Trask family
*Father of Adam and Charles
*A LIFE BASED ON A LIE- military heroics-government appoints him to an
important office in the Army administration
*Leaves fortune (most likely stolen) of more than $100,000 to his sons
Adam Trask
*Father of Aron and Caleb
*Good heart but impractical
*Innocence leads him to fall in love with Cathy Ames
*Abel role in the 1st generation of the Trask family
Charles Trask
*Son of Cyrus Trask and the half brother of Adam. Violent, cynical, manipulative man
who works his father’s farm and amasses a large fortune
* Plays the Cain role in the first generation of the Trasks
Other Trask Family Members
Mrs. Trask
*First wife to Cyrus-mother to Adam
Alice
*17 year old Trask neighbor-2nd wife to Cyrus-mother to Charles
Caleb
*Trask twin-son of Adam(?) and Cathy
Aaron
*Trask twin-son of Adam(?) and Cathy
Cathy
* Wife to Adam-EVIL
Lee
* Adam Trask’s cook and servant in California
Hamilton Family
Samuel Hamilton
*Patriarch of the Hamilton Family
*Joyous, self-educated Irishman-moves his family to the Salinas Valley in
California
*Remains a joyous man until the death of his daughter Una
*Never a rich man- although well respected in the community
Liza Hamilton
*Samuel’s wife and mother of their 9 children
*small, extremely morally strict
*focus-raising all of her children (feeding, clothing) and instilling them with
good morals
Other Hamilton Family Members
George Hamilton
*eldest son-virtuous
Will Hamilton
*2nd son, conservative, rich
Tom Hamilton
*3rd son-like his father
Joe Hamilton
*4th son-lazy, college type
Una Hamilton
*eldest girl-thoughtful, studious
Lizzie Hamilton
*next girl-hateful
Dessie Hamilton
*next girl-always laughing,
dressmaker
Olive Hamilton
*Author’s mother-a teacher
Mollie Hamilton
*Youngest-violet eyes, very pretty
EVIL, EVIL, EVIL……
Cathy Ames
*the epitome of evil-described as a moral monster
*most static of all the characters in the novel
*to be consistent we will refer to her as Cathy although she is referred to as
Catherine and Kate at various points in the novel
Themes, Motifs and Symbols…
Good vs. Evil
Paternal Rejection
Sibling Rivalry
Timshel/Freewill
Salinas Valley
Charles’ scar
Cathy’s hands
Inheritance (tainted money)
The story of Cain and Abel
CAN YOU OVERCOME THE
INHERITED TRAITS OF YOUR
FAMILY??