Does that cover everything? And you thought Steinbeck just wrote about fruit. We're talking major themes: the story of Genesis, the creation of the world, and the beginning of humanity. But it's not just important because it helped win Steinbeck the Nobel Prize and all (though that's kind of a big deal) it deals with big ideas too. Throw in an inventive Irish-American farmer and a sage Chinese-American servant as side-characters watching and commenting as this whole train wreck unfolds, and you've got yourself a story.Įast of Eden was Steinbeck's magnum opus (which is Latin for 'really big deal') after The Grapes of Wrath, and it is easily one of his most popular books. Don't remember that happening in Paradise, now do you?īut then we have the story of Adam's twin sons, Aron and Cal, and if you thought Adam's and Charles's daddy issues were bad, then you're about to see them taken to a whole new level.

Adam marries Cathy, brings her out to California, she gives birth to twins, and everything is hunky dory in paradise until Cathy shoots Adam and leaves to go run a brothel.

Cathy is a cold-hearted monster who uses her sexuality to control (read: destroy) people. Tale as old as time and we've heard it all before, right?Įxcept that East of Eden shakes things up a little bit, and by a little bit, we mean that it changes around everything.Īdam and Charles Trask are two competitive brothers with daddy issues. You've probably already got this: Adam and Even live in the Garden of Eden, get expelled thanks to Eve's snake-dealing shenanigans, are exiled, have two sons named Cain and Abel, Cain kills Abel when God likes Abel's gift better, and then Cain is forced to wander the land with a mark on him so that people don't just up and murder him. What, you didn't expect him to change that much, did you?īut let's talk plot.

But even though Steinbeck stepped into religious territory, Easy of Eden is still chock full of all the classic Steinbeck ingredients… by which we mean that it takes place in California's Central Valley. That's right-our man Steinbeck might have been writing in 1952 and based his story during that awkward time when the 19th century became the 20th, but his subject matter comes from way further back. He has written about mice and men, and some wrathful grapes, but in his novel East of Eden, John Steinbeck sets his sights a little higher and takes on the Book of Genesis.

Steinbeck eden