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Essay on john steinbeck's life
Analysis of John Steinbeck
Essay on john steinbeck's life
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This World War I centered book is called East of Eden, and it was written by
John Steinbeck. East of Eden primariy takes place within the Salinas Valley located in Northern California. The valley is described to have rich odors and lively geological features. These include the Gabilan Mountains and the Salinas River. In the Salinas Valley, an Irish immigrant named Samuel Hamilton moves into the valley with his wife Liza. Although the Hamiltons live on barren land, they earn a comforable and respectable life in America. Samuel works as a blacksmith, and his wife eventually gives birth to four boys and five girls. Years after the Hamilton’s arrival Adam Trask also settles on the Salinas Valley. Adam is a wealthy man with a tragic chidhood. Cyrus Trask, Adam’s father, transmitted a disease called syphilis on to Adam’s mother, soon after Adam’s birth. Consequently, Adam’s mother then proceeded to committ suicide after discovering her illness. Cyrus quickly remarried another young woman named Alice, and they shortly had one child named Charles. Adam is naturally a moral and caring boy, but his intense younger brother is mischevious and hostile. Charles often becomes severely jealous of Adam. Especially, when he discovers their father easily favors Adam instead of Charles. For example, when it was Cyrus’s birthday, Cyrus ultimately preferred Adam’s gift, which was a stray puppy. However he disregarded Charles’ gift of an explensive foreign knife. After discovering this, Charles aggressively beat Adam to the cusp of death, and he left his beaten body on the road side. After this incident, Charles did not reuturn home for several weeks. Adam eventually joins the army, and his father becomes the Secretary of Army. He comes to this postiti...
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...s a wil leaving all of her possesions and fortune to Aron. During this time, Adam, unkowing of Aron’s whereabouts, questions Cal of his brother’s absence. Cal, annoyed, responds by asking if it is his duty to look after Aron. The Trask’s soon discover Aron’s enlistment, and Adam’s health deterioates. Meanwhile, Abra falls in love with Cal, despite his interna war with good and evil. Adam finally starts to become well again, but news comes stating that Aron had died in battle. This mortifying news causes Adam to have a severe stroke. Lee informs Cal of his father’s news and Cal is instantly filled with remorse and guilt. In reaction, Lee takes Cal to his father’s bedside. Lee tells the barely living Adam of Cal’s jealousy and hurt, and he also asks Adam to give Cal his blessing. Adam responds by whispering the crucial word ‘Timshel’. He then closed his eyes and slept.
Dawidowicz, Lucy S.. The war against the Jews, 1933-1945. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975.
My thoughts on Genesis 2 and 3 When I read Genesis 2 I am reminded of Donald Lawrence’s song called, Back to Eden. He sings about going back to live a life that’s full, beautiful, rich and plentiful. He calls everyone to go back to the Eden mindset and live on top of the world. I can see the rivers flowing through the land at ease with the trees and growth they produced. I can understand and appreciate the moment of birth of man and woman.
All quiet On the Western Front, a book written by Erich Maria Remarque tells of the harrowing experiences of the First World War as seen through the eyes of a young German soldier. I think that this novel is a classic anti-war novel that provides an extremely realistic portrayal of war. The novel focuses on a group of German soldier and follows their experiences.
Zieger, Robert H. (2000). America’s Great War: World War I and the American Experience. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck is an optimistic film about a boy becoming a man and trying desperately to earn the love of his father and mother in the troubled times of the Great Depression. Cal, the main character is a troubled teen who lives with his entrepreneur father, and a brother who is following closely in his fathers steps. Cal’s mother left him and his brother to become a madam of a whorehouse. The struggle takes place between Cal and his father due to his fathers lack of compassion for his son. The conflict rises further when Cal tries to help his father repay a debt, his father further isolates his son and this turns to violent outbursts. Steinbeck focuses on Cal in order to suggest the theme that without love people become violent and mean.
Several characters through the course of Steinbeck's novel East of Eden demonstrate a lack of self-knowledge or corruption of the soul. A gap is created between some the character's actions and their true essence as a person. The disparity between a character's conduct and their identity as a human being is often a demonstration of the fight between good and evil within the character's own soul. Caleb, one of Adam Trask's twin boys embodies this struggle vividly throughout his life. This search for self-identity plays into a key theme of the novel, which is that of free will. Despite the fact that there is a variance in the way a character wants to act or the person who they truly are at heart and the way that they actually carry out their lives, free will offers hope. Steinbeck pushes the idea that a person's life and fate is never out of their control and that it is never too late to change the road that you are on. It can be argued either way that this break up of fundamental identity, expression and self-knowledge is the nature of man or simply provoked by the events in the character's lives. It becomes apparent through Caleb's life that the nurture of the individual seems to be the larger factor in causing this separation. Caleb Trask's character demonstrates how the struggle between good and evil within an individual can affect one's self-knowledge, which is catalyzed mainly by the nurture of the character and, ultimately, is amendable through free will.
The color and temperature of a person’s eyes comprise the first layer of his identity. Welcoming, smiling eyes identify their owner as a friend, while angry, bitter eyes warn of a comparably biting personality. A person’s eyes show much at a first glance. In literature, they perform a more significant job, reflecting the character of the soul they guard. In developing the famously complex characters of his novel East of Eden, John Steinbeck heartily subscribed to this literary symbolism by giving special meaning to the eyes of his characters as ‘windows to the soul.’ This can be seen especially in the characters of Adam and Cathy Trask.
Bard, Mitchell G. The Complete Idiot's Guide to world War II, Macmillan Publishing, New York, New York, 1999
Steinbeck uses the biblical story of Cain and Abel in East of Eden to show us that we do not have set fate. Steinbeck uses the Hebrew word “timshel”, which means “thou mayest”, to suggest that man has the ability to choose good or evil. “Timshel” affects the characters in East of Eden such as Cal and Aron and their choice of overcoming good or evil. Steinbeck sees this novel as his most important work, and he uses it as a way to state his personal ideas concerning mankind:“The free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.”(Steinbeck,132). Steinbeck shows God has given humans free will and their ability to choose good or evil, if they so decide. He portrays the “C” characters to be connected to Cain, such as Charles and Cal and the “A” characters to be connected to Abel, such as Aron and Adam.
Elting, Mary and Robert T. Weaver, Battles: How They Are Won. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1944.
Cathy Ames makes choices based on how much it benefits her, and if it ensures that she will prosper from the choice, even if that means destroying everyone else in the process. It appears “that Cathy… was born with tendencies, or lack of them, which drove her and forced her all of her life” (Steinbeck 72). Most humans have natural instincts that allow them to function in a civil society together. Cathy is different, however, and distinct since birth. She plans and decides things unlike how the rest of society does. A chance encounter between the gray James Grew and Cathy leads to one of Cathy’s first evil actions. Nothing happens until Cathy meets him and “[f]or a time it was noticed that a flame leaped in James Grew… and then the flame went out” (Steinbeck 79).
A monster defines “a person who excites horror by wickedness, cruelty, etcetera.” This idea mainly shines through the character of Cathy Ames, a true monster. She lacks all sense of morals and displays this by causing many evils and harm to every being she encounters. Throughout the novel East of Eden, the author, John Steinbeck, demonstrates evil as an innate characteristic which only grows over time due to an amplifying lust for power.
Reynolds, Ann. "The Wars." Masterplots II: British & Commonwealth Fiction Series (1987): 1-4. Literary Reference Center. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
farm to raise a family on. Upon his arrival at Salinas, Adam is willing to
All Quiet on the Western Front. New York: Ballantine Books, 1984.