EAST OF EDEN

As an allegorical story East of Eden is a modern-day retelling of the first four chapters of the Book of Genesis in the Christian Bible. Steinbecks story explores universal feelings such as jealousy and the theme of what characters inherit from past generations. Adam Trask is a clear Adam figure—the biblical first man who means to build a fruitful life for future generations in the Eden of California the state where he takes up residence after moving from Connecticut: Look Samuel I mean to make a garden of my land. Remember my name is Adam. However as an Eve figure—the biblical first woman—Cathy represents an evil extreme perhaps closer to the serpent or devil figure who leads Adam and Eve to commit the first sin and thereby be cast by God from Eden. The biblical Eve bites into the forbidden apple out of curiosity or at worst temptation but not out of evil. In Steinbecks story Cathy a character disgusted by human hypocrisy or the inability to align belief with action chooses to abandon Adams attempt to recreate Eden in favor of a life that relishes carnal desire—the knowledge of which is the result of the first sin.