East of Eden is a monster of a book in more ways than one. Not only is the book, written by the wonderful John
Steinbeck, over 600 pages, but those pages are bursting with a
multitude of characters and overlapping, flip-flopping plots.
The
most prominent character is Adam, son of a manipulative farm owner and
faux war hero, who is one of the only characters (if not THE only) to be
in the entire book. Steinbeck shapes Adam in to a well developed
character by constantly changing the reading feeling towards him.
Initially, the reader feels horrible for Adam who is beaten near death
by his brother over something as silly as a present and as important as
their father’s love. That changes to frustration when Adam refuses to
give up on his destructive relationship with Kate, one of the novel’s
villainess. As the book progresses the reader’s feelings continue to
change, just as a person’s feeling change would toward someone in their
everyday life. Adam also creates conflict with other characters, and
especially with his son, Cal. Adam’s obvious preference for his other
son, Aaron, causes Cal to begin an intense inner struggle on whether
his is naturally bad or if he gets it from his mother, Kate. This inner struggle continues the novel’s major theme of “timshel”
The
idea of timsel is an absolutely essential aspect of the novel as it is
an aspect in one of the two major plots. This plot is based off the
biblical story of Cain and Abel, two brothers who fight for their
father’s affections, and ends in the death of Abel and the expulsion of
Cain from Eden. The Cain and Abel story is the basis for Steinbeck’s
plot with Charles and Adam and Cal and Aaron. This plot is contrasted
with Steinbeck’s loose family history on coming to California and the
generations after. These two major plot lines provide interest to the
reader and, in addition to countless plot spin-off and side stories,
keep the reader wondering “what will happen next?”
Over all East of Eden
is a smashing success by employing wild characters to spark interest
and relatable characters to hold it, and about as many story lines as
there are characters. Just make sure you have enough time to dedicate to
this monster because it definitely deserves it.
4 comments:
Caroline,
East of Eden is really a monster of book! But I love it and I enjoyed your review because you explained how major plot points contributed to the entire novel's theme. This was a tricky book to write about because it's like multiple stories combined into one but your review really concentrated on the important things.
-Rachel S.
I really liked your review because you let your personality show while writing it, it gives the review a warmer feeling.
I really like the font of your review, first of all, I'm really glad you included the timshel since it's a major part of the book.
Caroline,
I love that you start by describing East of Eden as a monster - nice metaphor! You relied a lot on plot development which you don't need as much of, especially since you have striking and descriptive statements like, "a smashing success" and "make sure you have enough time to dedicate...". You end this review so nicely! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
- Mrs. Jaffe
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