Analysis Of John Steinbeck's 'East Of Eden'

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Summer Reading Assignment Part 1 1. The general setting of East of Eden is the Salinas Valley, California. This story also takes place in Connecticut as well. 2. The protagonist of the story is Adam Trask. In the beginning when he was a young teenager, John Steinbeck described him as obedient and non-violent. 3. An important intellectual conflict in the book is between Adam and his brother Charles when they are teenagers. Charles was always fighting him, mainly out of jealousy, and purposely tried to beat him to death at one point. An important moral conflict is when Cathy Ames, wife of Adam Trask, just walks away from her husband and leaves him with their newborn twins. Caleb, one of the twins, thinks that he has inherited his…show more content…
A major character in this story is Charles Trask. What motivates his actions is the fact that he thinks their father, Cyrus, loves his stepbrother more than him. An inner conflict that Charles has is jealousy. He would always beat Adam up when they were young teenagers but once Adam left for the Army, Charles realized that he actually missed him. Once Adam comes back, he tells Charles that he escaped from jail which makes Charles feel better about himself. Later on in the story, Adam falls in love with Cathy but Charles knows there’s something wrong about her. Because of the past, Adam thinks he is just jealous but this time Charles is actually trying to look out for his brother. Charles tries to seclude himself from everyone, especially when Adam is away in the Army. He got into a routine of going to the brothel a couple times a week, which shows that he uses women. He also betrays Adam by sleeping with…show more content…
The significance of the novel’s title is that it is a direct reference to the story of “The Garden of Eden” in the Bible. Adam Trask and Cathy Ames can be compared to Adam and Eve. Eve was a sinner and convinces Adam to eat the apple. Adam never questioned her because of his loyalty. In East of Eden, Cathy is a sinner who can basically control people’s minds. Adam Trask feels like Cathy is the perfect woman that he has been looking for and does not see the true evil in her until it is too late. Caleb and Aron can be compared to Cain and Abel. Because Abel was doing all of his work in the fields better, Cain got jealous and killed him with a rock. In East of Eden, Charles got jealous of Adam because he thought their dad loved Adam more than him. He began to beat Adam with the intention of killing him because he did not want to lose his father’s
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