East of Eden

A detailed Summary of East of Eden

Throughout history we have classified people into two categories, good an evil, but it is all too obvious that this method of classification is flawed, for there are recesses of the human spirit that no empirical method could quantify and no mind could comprehend. In East of Eden, John Steinbeck uses an allegory of the story of Cain and Abel to analyze the influences of good and evil upon humanity and their eternal battle for dominance.

The characters of the story are designed and set up in a very interesting fashion. They are evenly split between good and evil with the power of both sides exact balanced. Charles and Adam are nearly exact opposites, with Charles being the evil one and Adam being the good one, but both are naive and impulsive. While both are pure of force, neither of them has the ability to change for they view the world in a very simplistic manner, either good or evil. Cathy and Lee are also exact opposites, with Cathy being evil and Lee being good, but they are able to see the world for what it truly is and they see themselves for what they are, thus possessing the ability to change. While all the characters of the novel are archetypes of either good or evil, the addition of Caleb tips the balance of power betw

Caleb endures many trials and tribulations as he is exposed to varying degrees of both good and evil. Although Caleb has always been weighed down upon by his mother's evil, he is never harmed by it, and ironically, he is later strengthened by his confrontation with Cathy in which Cathy attempts to manipulate him and control him, it is then that he realizes that he had nothing in common with Cathy and that the righteousness within him is far more powerful than he had predicted. But what is even more ironic was that the greatest harm inflicted upon Caleb was by the one he had loved and adored the most, his own father, Adam. When Adam rejected the birthday present that Caleb gave him and asked Caleb to give it back to the people he "stole" it from, Caleb's evil side took over, and he was overwhelmed by envy and hatred. Something that he had worked so hard on and for so long was disregarded and scrapped by merely a few words. This shows that they are all humans, humans have flaws, humans are spontaneous, and humans are fallible and that nothing could stop mistakes from occurring, whether you are good or evil. Caleb's actions after the incident was totally based on impulse, his attempt to destroy Aaron was very similar to Charles' attempt to kill Adam. However, Adam's response to Caleb's present is a natural human reaction and Caleb in turn responded in kind by harming Aaron, and by hur

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 937
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English