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Sep 09, 2020Sean_Exon rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
East of Eden is a fictional novel about the Hamilton and Trask families in central California in the Salinas Valley. Steinbeck used some of his family members as characters in this book. Samuel Hamilton, patriarch of the Hamilton family was a gentle, wise, and honest man. In contrast, Cyrus Trask, patriarch of the Trask family was a sinful man whose success came from deceits and his fortune was likely money he had stolen from the government. Cyrus’s son Adam married the evil Cathy Ames. On their wedding might, she drugged Adam and slept with his brother Charles. Adam and Cathy moved to Salinas and settled near the Hamilton farm. Soon after, Cathy gave birth to twin boys leaving the reader wonder if Adam or his brother was the father. Cathy had no intention of being a wife and a mother so she left to become a prostitute. From here, the story takes the reader through the lives of the twins, Caleb and Aron. Steinbeck used the biblical story of Cain and Able, the good and the bad, to compare the lives of Caleb and Aron. This book is a masterpiece. Steinbeck was an awesome storyteller. I appreciate the theme of good vs evil. The book talks about “timshel”, meaning one’s free will to choose. In the book, Steinbeck suggested that sin is not an inherited trait. People do bad things because they chose to not because they inherited evilness. Similarly in the bible, Cain chose to kill Abel. I cannot think of one bad thing to say about this brilliantly written book.