East of Eden Review

Since 1952, East of Eden, by John Steinbeck, has repeatedly been deemed a great read. Centering around the Cain and Abel story form the book of Genesis, Steinbeck beautifully paints a story focusing on two families: the Hamiltons and the Trasks. They struggle with the good and evil within themselves and the world as life throws unforeseen consequences from mistakes going as far back as three generations.

What makes East of Eden such a powerful novel is not only Steinbeck's masterful writing, but his thoughts. Throughout the novel "good" and "evil" could not be defined. He never once implied that any action was better than another; he left that to the reader's interpretation.

Interpretation is the truest hidden beauty of East of Eden. It is commonly compared to the Book ofGenesis, but I (having never read the Book of Genesis) would not have seen that connection aside from direct references to it. There is so much more than a retelling of Cain and Abel. Every type of person is represented in the novel ranging from innocence, bullies, murderers, caring and coldhearted women, good and bad fathers, wise men, and fools. Steinbeck never made any one character strictly evil, everyone has at least two sides that make the reader question how good/bad or weak/strong the character is, even though some characters take more thought to figure out than others. Even the worse character in the story is humanized by the end of the novel (in an abstract way).

Push come to shove, East of Eden is a "thinker's book". If you aren't prepared to read the lines and everything in between this isn't the book for you; but if you want to question everything you've ever known-you should read this book three times over.