The characterizations in East of Eden contradicted several of my expectations and stereotypes of characters, forcing me to see beyond their face value. Lee, the Trasks’ Chinese house servant, speaks in pidgin, the heavily accented and stilted English typical of Chinese immigrants of the nineteenth century. To introduce himself, he says, “Lee. Got more name…Call Lee” (Steinbeck 160). Lee, a wise and educated man, confides in Samuel Hamilton that he uses pidgin “to be understood at all”. Steinbeck surprised me with this revelation, proving we all hold certain subconscious ideas and opinions of people based on superficial qualities. He uses Lee as a tool to demonstrate the prejudice that permeated society then and continues to affect us now. Unlike others in his society, Samuel can “separate [his] observation from preconception” (Steinbeck 161). Samuel’s ability to do this encourages me to do the same, not only while reading the novel, but in my life as well. Similarly,
The characterizations in East of Eden contradicted several of my expectations and stereotypes of characters, forcing me to see beyond their face value. Lee, the Trasks’ Chinese house servant, speaks in pidgin, the heavily accented and stilted English typical of Chinese immigrants of the nineteenth century. To introduce himself, he says, “Lee. Got more name…Call Lee” (Steinbeck 160). Lee, a wise and educated man, confides in Samuel Hamilton that he uses pidgin “to be understood at all”. Steinbeck surprised me with this revelation, proving we all hold certain subconscious ideas and opinions of people based on superficial qualities. He uses Lee as a tool to demonstrate the prejudice that permeated society then and continues to affect us now. Unlike others in his society, Samuel can “separate [his] observation from preconception” (Steinbeck 161). Samuel’s ability to do this encourages me to do the same, not only while reading the novel, but in my life as well. Similarly,