Steinbeck was inspired by the gleaming Salinas hills and the roiling Pacific. Steinbeck, like other great American authors like Thoreau, Faulkner, and Cather, gave readers a glimpse into the world in which he grew up. Letters or journals he produced as “warm-ups” to his daily writing served as a map for his subsequent works. Steinbeck aimed for his writing to have the innocence of a child’s perspective “more vivid hues, more pronounced flavors,… I’d like to record my thoughts on what it’s like to experience an “afternoon” and how it makes me feel to think of a bird singing in the tree at sunset.”
He asks that his readers pay respectful attention to a natural environment. “Orange and speckled and fluted nudibranchs glide gently across the rocks, their skirts flowing like the costumes of Spanish dancers,” he writes. By doing so, he tempts us to investigate further. Throughout his body of work, Steinbeck includes descriptions of the natural world that are both beautiful in their simplicity and a testament to the author’s rapt attention.
Now he wants us to change our point of view. John Smith as the Virginia cavalier, Natty Bumppo as the pioneer, and Ernest Hemingway as the sharpshooter. These are just a few of the many literary heroes in American conquest stories. On the other hand, John Steinbeck does not view wildlife as a product. He believes that animals should not be used as food. Because in his view, humans are just another species that is intrinsically linked to the locations where they make their homes, raise their families, consume their food, experience joy and sorrow, and catch frogs.
East of Eden is one of John Steinbeck’s Masterpieces
John Steinbeck’s epic, east of eden summary, is full of emotion and adventure. It reimagines the foundational episodes of Genesis through the lives of two American families. As a result, we get a uniquely American narrative set in the place where Steinbeck spent his formative years, the Salinas Valley of northern California. This valley, like all human settlements, is the site of as much sorrow as victory. And Steinbeck sings to it with a personal yearning that is tinged with this understanding.
The novel opens with the story of the Hamilton family, headed by poet-patriarch Samuel Hamilton. He is an Irish immigrant who manages to raise a big and loud family on a cruel and unyielding tract of land through a combination of charisma, creativity, and adaptation. The Hamiltons have no money, but their nine children are full of love and potential thanks to Samuel and Liza’s solid and conventional marriage. The kids play out the many potential outcomes of their lives in the United States: some success in business and advertising, while others look for love and stable family life. In contrast, yet others give up completely on their quest to make sense of the chaos that is the twenty-first century.
The Trasks are the second family we meet. They consist of a Connecticut father (a fake war hero with a fortune of unknown provenance). His exhausted wife, and their two sons, Charles (a murderer) and Adam (a sensitive, inquiring thinker). Adam serves his country for a while. Then wanders aimlessly as a vagrant before finding true love. He relocates to Salinas to establish his own Garden of Eden. He is the only parent of twins Caleb and Aron after his marriage to the inexplicable and devious Catherine Ames ended. Catherine, or Kate as she is more commonly known, is a symbol of global evil. While the Trasks and Hamiltons strive for greatness, she has settled into a small, petty existence in the valley.
The Book is a Great Re-read
Steinbeck considers the Trasks to be his “symbol people,”. Their story is a retelling of the Cain and Abel saga. This is widely regarded as one of the finest tales of love, rejection, jealousy, and redemption. However, Chinese-American philosopher-servant Lee is the glue that keeps Adam and his sons together. The conflict between the characters’ desires to bow to God and tradition. And their yearning for self-realization and fulfillment drives them to work together. They aim to create personal paradises that can resist the inevitable hardships of human existence. Like the early United States, which had to come to terms with its European heritage. Even as it welcomed immigrants from all over the world to help build a new nation. The pioneering Americans of East of Eden are motivated by a desire for independence.
East of Eden is a tale of ideas. It tries to explain some of humanity’s fundamental problems, and it succeeds brilliantly. While it is a celebration of tenacity, undying love, and the admirable will to better oneself. It is also brutally honest about people’s power to hurt themselves and others. The book is full of hope for the human race and its ability to overcome adversity and chart its own course. Both the characters and the reader gain a new appreciation for “that brilliant instrument, the human spirit” because of Steinbeck’s ethereal yet stately words. It’s a beautiful and one-of-a-kind addition to the cosmos. Constant attacks fail to bring it down.
A Cyborg Manifesto
Haraway introduces the idea of the cyborg, a synthesis of three boundary breakdowns: between human and animal (a result of evolution and shifting human attitudes toward the relationship between humans and other animals), between human and machine (a result of the development of machine technology in the late 20th century), and between the physical and the non-physical (brought about by microelectronic devices and the political invisibility of cyborgs).
Haraway proposes the concept of the cyborg as a synthesis of three boundary breakdowns: between human and animal (as a result of evolution and shifting human attitudes toward the relationship between humans and other animals), between human and machine (as a result of the development of machine technology in the late 20th century), and between the physical and the non-physical (brought about by microelectronic devices and the political invisibility of cyborgs).
She criticizes Western civilization for its emphasis on dualism and binary opposites. They serve to categorize people according to their race, socioeconomic status, or gender. Her cyborg concept advocates for coding the world with boundaries. It can be pierced with information through communication. Haraway attacks feminism for falling into old dualities and essentialisms that should be rejected.
She talks about the challenges that women of color face. Society defines them rather than letting them choose their own identities. According to Haraway, cyborgs use a form of writing. That isn’t confined to a single universal code for all written exchanges. A cyborg woman is a woman who does not hold rigid beliefs. But she is open to new information and experiences, never allowing herself to be defined as a victim. Identity, categories, and connections are more difficult to theoretically pin down. Thanks to the cyborg perspective’s permission to rethink and recreate classical dualistic perspectives.
And here I make a rule – a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and the foreign is not interesting – only the deeply personal and familiar”. East of Eden, John Steinbeck
The language in this book captivated me from the first page to the last. There were times when I wondered whether I’d ever finish reading it, but the ending was so satisfying that it was all worth it. This is a timeless book that can be read over and over again with new meanings each time. If I read it again, I’m sure I’ll find something more to praise.
Without giving too much away, I’ll just say that East of Eden provides so much for its readers that it’s like they’ve been fed a complete meal. The book is required reading for serious readers and those who wonder why we bother living.
