There’s little I can write about John Steinbeck’s East of Eden that no one’s written before, I realize. The classic is about to reach its sixth decade since publication. But that doesn’t mean that you’ve read it. So, hopefully this review will be new to you.

The book is about as epic as books get. The story spans three generations and an entire continent. Adam Trask is the main character, a veteran and Connecticut farmer. He moves to the Salinas Valley of California because he simply can’t get along with his brother Charles. The Trasks needn’t worry about money. Their father Cyrus faked his way to wealth in the aftermath of the Civil War—the first moral ambiguity of Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Although Adam Trask’s father cheated his way to wealth—a comment on the “honesty” of business in the Gilded Age— Adam proves scrupulously honest. (To give one example, toward the end of the book, Adam’s son Cal makes money war profiteering. Adam is furious and refuses to accept any of the money.)

Adam has many weaknesses, however. One is his inability to believe in his father’s corruption. Another come when he falls for Cathy Ames. Cathy is, in my eyes, one of the greatest villains ever created in fiction. She tricks boys into appearing to rape her at age ten. She burns down her own house and kills her parents a few years later. By the end of the story, she runs a brothel featuring a “circus.” Let your imagination run wild. Her only joys in life come from money and holding power over others. Sounds like a former boss of mine.

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Other Characters in Steinbeck’s East of Eden

Alongside the Trask family for most of the story is the Hamilton family. They are, perhaps, the antithesis of the Trask family. Adam, with his wealth, buys land in the rich lowlands of the Salinas Valley. He has all the advantages, yet proves a poor father in many respects. The Hamilton farm must scratch a living from the thin soils of the foothills. Yet Samuel Hamilton, the family patriarch, is in some ways a great man. He fathers a large family and raises them well. Samuel never loses his humanity, his decency, or his joy in life despite his poverty.

Then there is Lee, the Chinese servant employed by Adam. Other than Cathy and Samuel, perhaps, Lee is the most memorable character in Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Although a servant, he possesses great wisdom and is faithful. Lee loves books and scholarship and runs the Trask household every bit as much as Adam does. He’s a philosopher and a humanitarian who is honest about his own faults. His greatness is all the more remarkable when the reader learns the circumstances of his birth.

Timshel, or “Thou Mayest”

This is the key phrase of the book. It could have been the title, but I guess East of Eden had a better ring. It’s Steinbeck’s commentary on destiny, I suppose, or the idea that one is not bound to be like one’s parents. People have a choice. They might not be able to choose their circumstances, but they can choose their reaction to their circumstances. In that choice lies the potential for greatness.

Enter Adam’s twin sons whom he fathers with Cathy, Caleb and Aron. Aron is the good son. His intentions are good, and his actions match. His flaw is that he can only envision his life following one channel. Anything that deviates from that one channel, therefore, shocks and disorients him. Caleb, or Cal, however, is more the worldly son. He’s aware of evil, sometimes embraces it, and is not above using his knowledge of evil to hurt others, even if he regrets it later. Aron tends to be like his father, Cal his mother.

Whence the Title, Then?

The book has clear religious overtones, as the title implies. The biblical Garden of Eden is perfect until Eve is tempted to sin. The title implies a location near to Eden (and California, with all its sunshine, might indeed look edenic at times) but outside its boundaries and thus imperfect even before the story begins. It’s also true that the main character is named Adam, and his sons Cal (Cain) and Aron (Abel). Steinbeck even gives characters disfiguring scars (marks of Cain). If you want to find more biblical references when reading, it won’t be tough.

East of Eden also refers to the location of the Hamilton family farm. It’s found on the eastern side of the Salinas Valley, located on the shallow soils of the foothills. Life is tougher there, yet the Hamilton family is tight-knit whereas the Trask family never is. Both experience tragedy. The Hamiltons largely overcome the tragedy, however. The Trasks struggle to do so.

Evaluation of Steinbeck’s East of Eden

Most observers consider Steinbeck’s East of Eden a classic, and rightly so. It’s not as famous, perhaps, as The Grapes of Wrath but equally epic and memorable in its own way. It does run to about 600 pages in my hardcover edition, but it’s worth the time. John Steinbeck, along with Mark Twain perhaps, are the two classic American authors I’ve read with the greatest ability to create believable, human characters. Their characters are complex yet believable rather than stock or stereotyped. They feel like people you’ve met before. Not that other authors can’t do this well, but Steinbeck renders human complexity into fictional characters in a way that escapes most authors.

The story also references a number of interesting historical events, like the prison labor system of the South, that the reader must read carefully in order to not miss. Perhaps the most interesting part for me, however, was that the main character, Adam Trask, is hardly heroic. The reader wants to like him and usually does. His flaws are believable, but all Adam amounts to is a decent guy who has his ups and downs in California. The fact that a classic book can feature such a person as its main character shows Steinbeck’s ability to craft a story and characters.

This book should appeal to a wide array of readers, assuming they like stories about the American past. If you like family stories with epic scope, the book is worth reading. Likewise if you’re drawn to female villains and stories with a broad array of characters. The story has plenty of symbolism if you enjoy that in a book. But most of all, it’s an exceptional story featuring unexceptional characters.

To check out my other recent reviews, please read:

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte

Killing for Coal, by Thomas Andrews

After the Fog, by Kathleen Shoop

(To learn more about the author, John Steinbeck, you can visit the Steinbeck Center here.)

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