East of Eden: Book Review

This is the first of my book reviews! I decided I would start reviewing books. I also figured I’m paying Squarespace for a blog, so I might as well get my money’s worth (not usually the best reason to do things). This will likely be a more relaxed writing form, and a less thought out approach, than my posts for counseling.

I believe God owns the concept of story to its fullest degree. He is the greatest writer. He is the “Author” (Hebrews 12:2) of our faith. By Him, all things hold together (Colossians 1:17). He created all of history and, in a sense, gave human authors the reasoning and emotion to write every book ever. At the risk of being incredibly corny, in a very real way, history is “His story” as Steve Lawson has said. It will result in the ultimate resolution of the glory of Christ. Perfect justice. Perfect redemption. Perfect resolution. For now, we live in the problem, then we will live in the resolution for all eternity. All the parts of movies and books we relate to are all declaring that we are made in the image of God; “Imago Dei” in the Hebrew. We see our emotions, hopes, dreams, trials, suffering, sacrifice, and redemption woven into the story of God.

With that said, I want my book reviews to have a Christian outlook as I hope to have in my own worldview of everything. Greg Bahnsen, one of my favorite Christian philosophers, says “If you are committed to Christ at one point in your life, than you need to be committed to Christ at every point in your life.” Jesus is Lord over every story ever written and I want to point towards that in my reviews.

I realize for most, East of Eden is typically read in high school. I pretty much did everything I could in high school to avoid reading though, unfortunately. I wish I had started earlier, but here I am. This book jumped all over the place so this review may follow suit. With that said, here we go.

What I liked:

The setting

John Steinbeck does a fantastic job of bringing you to the time and place of what is occurring in this era at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. The book begins with a beautiful picture of the Salinas Valley in California, where much of the book takes place. He gives wonderful visuals of the flowing streams and rolling hillsides. The Salinas Valley is supposed to draw similarities to the garden of Eden, although it has its flaws such as land that varies in its fertility for crops. Most of the book takes place on the west coast which was seen at the time as a place of destiny. Making it to the west coast meant that you “made it” in those days for the farmland and possibilities of resources on the land. We see this similarity today, but in different industries such as entertainment and technology.

When you read John’s description of society and the land itself of those days, you feel both the longing for the simplicity and the dread of the time. Much of civilization was small towns surrounded by flowing mountains and forests untouched by mankind. Hospitality was genuine without the forced corporate hospitality that employees have to have today. Justice was rarely served for crimes. Healthcare was minimal. People died often. Communication took a long time to travel. Evil showed itself in different ways than today, but it was allowed to run free in those who could escape the law simply by relocating and changing their name. Literacy was often unattainable by a large portion of the population for the farmers, ranchers, and their children. Steinbeck does a good job of making you feel like you’re surrounded by the setting and society as you read.

Characters I enjoyed

I think Sam Hamilton is usually the most well liked character in the book. That’s just going by the few conversations I’ve had with those who have read. He serves as the archetypal male in the story. He is inspiring and makes everyone around him benefit and improve. There’s a line in the book that says people give up swearing when they’re around him and don’t seem to notice. He just gives clarity of mind and emotional stability to those he comes in contact with.

He does have his flaws though. Sam lives in horrible communication with his wife Eliza. Sam fears her and doesn’t respect her enough to include her in any intellectual discussion. He is terrified of her negative reactions and it was really like watching your heroes fall whenever Sam would discuss his wife with total submission to her whether he believed she was right or wrong. It seemed like they were more roommates, or sometimes hostage and captor, than husband and wife. I think Sam greatly needed an understanding of communication to where wives don’t ever need appeasement, but respect enough to treat as a true equal instead of a sleeping bear.

Cal is my second favorite character in the book. Cal had the most time in the book during Part 3 which deals mainly with him, his brother Aaron, their parents Adam and Kate/Cathy, Lee, and their love interest Abra. He is played by James Dean in the 1955 movie adaptation to the third act of the book. I imagine the casting director was looking for angst and found it in James’s portrayal of Cal. Cal thinks he can earn his father’s affection through a money gift that he makes in an investment. He thinks everyone loves Aaron more than him. His ending scene in the book is probably my second favorite scene. He is still serving his father while while his father is bedridden and had already rejected his money offering for love. He does have rough circumstances oftentimes but tries to make the best of them. He’s a highly motivated man, although his motivations are mostly selfish. I believe like many of us, his motivations in his love for his father are mixed.

Charles Trask might be my favorite character. In the lineage of the book, the Trask family is a heavy focus. Cyrus Trask, the father of brothers Charles and Adam, shows up for short spurts throughout the book until he passes, leaving a fortune to Charles and Adam. Cyrus is implied to have lied his way to fame and fortune getting high up in politics and the military without doing seemingly any of the work he said he did. The brothers disagree about whether or not the fortune they received was legitimately gained. Charles is a man of conviction (besides the use of brothels). He is torn by this question. Charles is always grateful for whatever he has. He loves the ranch that he and Adam inherited and works hard at keeping it and being a productive part of the community. The book describes his use of “the whore house” as its commonly referred to in the book, almost as a sense of dignity versus the difficulties of loving another person. Sex to Charles is grotesquely like an oil change. He just uses it methodically as a way to refocus. Charles is in stark contrast to Adam, though both brothers are submitted to worshiping sex, whether coldly with Charles or through romance with Adam.

Side Note

It’s important to note this at this point, that he bases the major themes of man and God off the story of Cain and Abel. Anyone with a name that starts with “C” is supposed to characterize Cain. Anyone with a name that starts with “A” is supposed to, in some way, characterize Abel. The problem with this is that Steinbeck is showing the unbiblical idea that man is neutral in relation to God and He just picks some offerings over others without perfect wisdom, without knowing the hearts of men fully. Man being an enemy and rebel against his Creator is an incredibly important Christian doctrine of anthropology in this book.

The whole book contains some good thoughts mixed in with the poignant undertone, and sometimes overtone, that God is cruel and man is a victim of his Creator if anything bad happens to him. The theme is Cain and Abel gave equal offerings and God was cruel towards Cain. Christians reading this book know this is a foolish and arrogant take. It shows Steinbeck’s, and mankind’s tendency to pass his blame immediately. We do this for others as well, since we relate more to mankind than to God in our sin. God is Holy. We are not. We tend to use those of us who appear innocent almost as tokens to say “this person was a victim with no choice, therefore God is cruel and has no right to judge me.” Christian, I pray you see the pure Holiness of God and understand the foolish arrogance of this statement. We are to love mankind, but through truth of warning him of that we “have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” (Psalm‬ ‭14:3‬)

The main theme in this book is Steinbeck’s arrogance towards God for the real and difficult pain he sees in the world. Suffering is real, but only the Biblical view of the Bible can account for it. I pray this book is a warning to Christians to beware of this kind of pride and arrogance to possibly have anyone stand before the Creator of the universe without Christ’s righteousness covering his sin and rebellion. The book of Job comes to mind in Chapters 37-42. We have 36 chapters of Job’s friends giving him horrible counsel about why his life is so incredibly difficult. He finally gives in and echoes the theme of this book of “How can bad things possibly happen to good people?!” God silences him. I highly recommend reading thoughts chapters linked above.

Genealogy

The family lines are a massive theme in this book to show the way things are learned and taught. We see Adam and Charles Trask battle with the same difficulties their father did. Whether they literally labor over the same farm they inherited like Charles, or try to outrun their plight, like Adam, they will run into suffering in life. Charles is taken from the book and we find him later on after he passed away from cancer. The book mainly follows Adam Trask as he gets married to the main antagonist of the book, Cathy/Kate, and has twin boys with her (that she tried to kill before they were born), raises the boys with the help of his servant Lee and ultimately passes at the end of the book. As far as Adam goes, one of my favorite character developments was Adam’s completely blind infatuation over Cathy turn to his eventual escape from her schemes. It only takes her shooting him in the shoulder and running away for it to become clear to him that she’s bad news. That’s relatable to most people I assume who have wanted to believe that someone they have initial affection for is very good down to their core. When any information contrary to that idea is exposed, it tends to be interpreted as a one time mistake or not who they “really” are. Seeing Adam, later in the book, blow off her attempts to continue to manipulate him was incredibly rewarding. The story goes through 2 generations of brothers; Adam and Charles, and Adam’s twins Cal snd Aaron. It’s cool to know character’s fathers and grandfathers before meeting them. It’s cool to follow along a father before his children’s birth and as they grow to become the main characters of the story themselves.

Love and Lust

This book uses the word love a lot. All throughout the book, people seem to being falling in love the moment they lay eyes on one another. If they are not falling in love, Steinbeck describes them habitually using the brothels in town as a reset of lust to be able to return to their lives. Adam is the main culprit in mistaking lust for love. He discusses his worship of Cathy as love. There’s a few minor characters who Cathy sexually and romantically frustrates to the point of insanity who both felt they loved Cathy. For the first time in their lives, they thought they were in love when really they just had a sick selfish lust for Cathy.

This is probably worth an entire blog post, but I think the Biblical worldview is the only one that accounts for true Love as God defines it. Jesus says you love others if you lay down your lives for them. This rids people of the question of “what does this relationship do for me?” To “what can i give to this relationship?” without expecting some reciprocation. The Christ figure in literature is a common term for those who reflect Christ in some way. This points back to my original point above, that Christ owns story. Love is only displayed through giving up things for another. Francais Schaeffer, when talking about the destruction of definitions of words in the modern era, says “I love you often means, more precisely, I want to sleep with you.” This is true throughout this book. Most men who interact with Cathy believe they love her. She believes she loves her power. Her power is only a lust. There’s no true love. The only true love we see is Lee’s ability to adopt Abra to give her a home and a father she didn’t have. Every other relationship in the book is self serving.

The World Fails

I think the best part of the book to me was a vivid picture of how much the world fails to satisfy. You have constant efforts to get rich, get laid, get property, get the upper hand, prolong comfort, find pity from others, find praise from others, receive awards, abuse power, abuse victimhood, get revenge, find lifelong affection, etc. and every time, its a complete failure. The conclusion that I wish had come from this realization is the need for a Savior in Jesus Christ. It’s sort of like the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes differs in it’s conclusion after surveying the meaninglessness of life with Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” We see in Ecclesiastes, before Christ was revealed, that we need Christ to follow this conclusion. He did this perfectly. No one had done this perfectly before Christ. Yet, God does not change. He was treating His chosen people based on their hearts instead of perfect obedience (Psalm 51:16-17). They needed Christ and He treated them based on their faith. Just like the characters in this book who found nothing in the world, we need to realize our efforts to find satisfaction are null. Our duty is to Fear God, obey Him, and trust in His revealed Messiah Jesus Christ who is reigning over the Earth now, as He has been, since before it’s foundation.

What I didn’t like:

A ton of looking at the camera

There were a ton of moments where it seemed like Steinbeck just threw subtlety out the window and started sharing his frustrations and views on life to his captive audience. It was like “Now that Ive got you here, time to hear exactly what I want you to take from this exchange.” He mostly does this through the servant Lee or Sam Hamilton. I almost picture it as if they were acting in the middle of the scene and then stopped to address the camera filming. They would say things that just didn’t line up with their character and it just felt like Steinbeck venting. Lee literally reads out the story of Cain and Abel.

There’s a scene where Adam, Sam, and Lee are discussing life and its meant to be a down to earth moment of men just trying to figure out why they’re alive. It turns into a humanistic sermon about how mankind’s greatest obstacle is not believing in himself with some other cliches sprinkled in. I can almost picture Sam turning towards the camera to talk to us about how we can be anything we want to be if we believe in ourselves. This sounds nice, but ill go into it more in the last heading of Butchering Timshel down below. Some people may be a fan of this breaking the story to preach Steinbeck’s philosophy to the reader, but it took me out of the story.

Characters I didn’t like

Adam Trask is probably my least favorite character in the book. He gets better by the end, but still is selfish to the point of neglecting Cal and Aaron. He loses them both because of it. Adam is always ungrateful. He is antsy and always needs something more. He gullible to near delusion when it comes to Cathy, and just overall is a true cuckold most of the book. He’s so self consumed and doesn’t care at all what anyone else wants or needs.

Cathy/Kate is a good antagonist, but ultimately falls flat and is inconsistent to me. The book introduces Cathy as a “monster” at the beginning of chapter 8. She then goes on to literally burn her family alive in their house and leave town. At this point, I was thinking “wow we have a true villain on our hands.” Then she loses all her cruelty and just goes after money. She even makes relationships along the way. It just frustrated me that after her grand introduction into the story as a great evil, she turns to more or less a mean person that might kill if she had to, but is usually just after money. As a villain, I put Cathy on a totally different scale than the rest of these characters. If she was a good villain, and I really didn’t like her because of that, she would make it on the list of characters that I like, because stories need villains. Here’s a link to a podcast I like about the spiritual side of stories and the role villains play. (Stories are Soul Food Podcast, ep 9 “Villains and Villainy”)

One of my favorite villains is the White Witch in the Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. You may be thinking “of course it is since that’s a Christian allegory.” You are correct. I am hapoy to admit this is the reason. I think the White Witch portrays Satan very well. Ultimately I think villains portray the Biblical satan in one way or another. They can try to humanize Satan as a way to kind of make him an anti-hero but it’s inescapable because Satan literally does that in the Bible. He tries to imitate God.

As a villain, Cathy was evil, but I was hoping for the fullest extent so we could see her downfall in the redemption of her victims. A spoiler is coming here so if you’re still reading this sentence at this point I hope you’ve stopped so you can skip to the next paragraph. In Cathy’s final scene, when she is overdosing to end her life, it describes her as drifting off into a calm. This was incredibly unsatisfying to me. I realize villains can show us that justice is never served to its fullest degree in this world, but I really wanted a redemption for her victims personally. I don’t hold this final part against Steinbeck.

The last character on this list is Lee. Lee is the character I struggled with the most on this list. I wanted to put him on the list of characters I enjoyed. He has a lot of pros; such as caring for the vulnerable, being careful with his words, loyalty, and being able to see through Cathy’s manipulation of the other characters. He’s the most consistent character in the book, since he’s in Part 2 when Adam and Cathy move out to the Hamiltons, and in Part 3 when the boys grow up until the end of the book.

The part about Lee just puts him here instead of above, is sadly, because he’s the main instrument Steinbeck used to preach humanism in the book. If you took away his sermons of mankind, he would be my favorite character without question. Unfortunately, he introduces us to “Timshel” (which I’ll explain below) and really harps on it the whole book. He doesn’t necessarily give the impression that he think’s he’s better than everyone else, but does give the impression that everyone else is idiotic, which he’s right of course, but he’s the main instrument of pointing it out through Part 2 and 3 of the book. I just couldn’t get past this singular point. It was obnoxious and took me out of the story.

The final two characters worth mentioning are the Aaron, brother of Cal, and Abra. The reason I’m placing them together is because I feel like I didn’t get to know them well at all. Aaron and Abra just kind of fell flat to me. Their development was sort of existing in the book as placeholders for the other Characters. If I weren’t tired of writing about them already, I might have more to say if I drew it out.

Butchering Timshel (Timshol)

East of Eden is a book that came out of what is reported to be a dark time in John Steinbeck’s life. He had recently suffered the loss of a close friend who’s car was hit by a train. Shortly after, his wife Gwyn at the time, asked for a divorce. He is said to have researched different rabbis’ interpretations of Bible passages while writing this book to look for some form of hope. The story is a multi-generational look at the nature of mankind. The title references the place “East of Eden” where mankind was placed after Adam and Eve were banned from the Garden due to the original sin. It shows how our sin is imputed from Adam throughout history down to you and me.

Sadly, as far as hope is concerned, John stopped short in the Old Testament. He settled for a failed hope looking to the Hebrew word for “Timshel” which he translates (incorrectly) as “Thou Mayest” overcome sin, when God is talking to Cain. I admit that Timshel was a new word for me. I figured it was wrongly interpreted, unless Steinbeck was a scholar in Hebrew, I doubt that he cared what it really meant. It just inspired him to write. That’s not a slight toward’s John Steinbeck. He’s free to do this, as it’s described by a character in a time where scholarship was minimal. The servant Lee is about the only character in the book with any scholarship. He’s the one that somewhat breaks the fourth wall (which I wasn’t a fan of) to read directly from the story of Cain and Able, with Sam Hamilton (My favorite character in the book), and Adam Trask (The most frequent character in the book). I really felt that the book could have been much better without the somewhat cringeworthy proclamation of exactly what John Steinbeck wanted the reader to get from it. This would be okay as a side part in the story but making it the foundation of the entire story seemed to leave a bad taste when I finished it.

There are many problems with this interpretation of “Timshol” as its accurately translated “Thou shalt rule” (since Christ was coming to defeat sin), but the reason this book left me with just a sad feeling for those who hope outside of Christ, is because “Thou Mayest” is not comforting at all.
If there’s one theme in the Old Testament, it’s that apart from Christ, man is entirely hopeless to do good. We do not have a “choice” to do it outside of Christ. “Anything that is not done in faith is sin to the one doing it.” If the Old Testament is taken for what it is as a whole, the character Lee, would have to account for Isaiah 64:6-7 which says:
“We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.”

Taking one verse and drawing it out of the context of the entire Bible is pretty much a surefire way to misuse whichever passage you are pulling. Before Christ arrived “at the right time” (Romans 5:6), this is the whole story of the Old Testament. The purpose of the entire Old Testament of the Bible, from the Protestant Christian view is to foretell the coming of Christ. John Steinbeck looking to Cain and Able, the major theme in East of Eden, for comfort is sad. I genuinely mean I feel bad for him. The Old Testament seemingly goes out of it’s way to show how man’s attempt to remedy for Adam’s sin, always results in failure. The world was collectively and helplessly looking for a remedy to sin. God chose Abraham and His descendents "(one of them being Isreal the person) according to the inscrutable counsel of His will to be His chosen people and to ultimately produce Christ who actually would overcome sin in the world through His perfect obedience to God’s Law, which all the Old Testament Kings, Judges, and Prophets failed to do.

Takeaway

I pray that this book, if read by non-Christians, would produce a sadness in the meaninglessness of its conclusions; that man’s ultimate good is a belief that he can be good by his own choice. I pray that they would see it’s not true in their own life. That they would come to the end of their own quest for goodness and throw themselves entirely onto Christ for His. He died for His people to be righteous by His conquering of sin and death. He died for what we, and every character in this book deserves, trampling over death by His own death in our place. We now no longer have to be slaves to our sins or “vices” as the book calls them.

For Christians reading this book, I pray that you would see that your life is so much more than overcoming your family’s dispositional personality. Your only familial hereditary condition you need saving from is the one you received in Adam as imputed sin. The greatness of this book is that you have been delivered from this futility of effort and choice. The characters flaws are very much relatable to our own, but like all efforts outside of Christ, every character failed. Christ has defeated your every sin ever as you trust in Him. Persevere!

Some quotes I highlighted while reading:

“Nobody knows why you go to a picnic to be uncomfortable, when its so easy and pleasant to eat at home.” Chapter 12

“The direction of a big act will warp history, but probably all acts do the same in their degree, down to a stone stepped over in the path.” Chapter 4

“The ways of sin are curious,” Samuel observed. “I guess if a man had to shuck off everything he had, inside and out, he’d manage to hide a few little sins somewhere for his own discomfort. They’re the last things we’ll give up. Maybe that’s a good thing to keep us humble. The fear of God in us.” “I guess so said Samuel. “And I guess humility must be a good thing, since it’s a rare man who has not a piece of it, but when you look at humbleness it’s hard to see where its value rests unless you grant that it is a pleasurable pain and very precious. Suffering-I wonder has it been properly looked at.” Chapter 15