Steinbeck believed moral agency is not only what makes us human, but what makes humans extraordinary. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou mayest rule over him (Steinbeck’s interpretation).” The choice given to Cain is the choice we all have. In Genesis 4:7b, God speaks to Cain before his infamous crime: “sin lieth at the door. Steinbeck derived his optimistic response from the biblical text itself. At more than one point, characters in the novel question what chance man ever had with such a violent past. We all have Cain’s blood in our veins, and his murder is our ancestry. For Steinbeck, every human participates in this ancient narrative. It seems Steinbeck wrote in this way because of his views on the biblical account of Cain and Abel-the subject of the introductory quotation.

The story may not be real, but it is true. Readers are not exposed to something foreign, but something in which they intimately participate. Thus, not only does the story feel historical, it feels like our story. The unfiltered-even brutal-recounting of tragedy, triumph, and the quiet anxiety or numbness that lies between provides a robust depiction of life as we know it. Steinbeck’s vivid description of Salinas Valley and her residents is noticeably familiar, and he conveys this familiarity in such a way that readers seem to join in reminiscence. East of Eden is so reflective of the human experience that even the shocking and unbelievable events therein feel historical. Evidence for Steinbeck’s personal belief in such a claim is unmistakable in his writing. John Steinbeck wrote those words in the novel he identified as his grandest work, East of Eden. Urn:oclc:867602763 Scandate 20110216181940 Scanner .“No story has power, nor will it last, unless we feel in ourselves that it is true and true of us.” OL23166W Page-progression lr Page_number_confidence 96.73 Pages 614 Ppi 500 Related-external-id urn:isbn:067000278X OL27900620M Openlibrary_subject openlibrary_staff_picks Openlibrary_work Peninsulalibrarysystem Edition John Steinbeck centennial ed. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 19:25:55 Bookplateleaf 0004 Boxid IA1618919 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City New York Comment Set Scanfee to 100 on all Pre-June IA Sponsored Books as per Robert Donor

Steinbeck east of eden