East Of Eden Book Report

Dolly Moore
Mr. Barrows
Honors English
January 25, 2013

Plot Overview East of Eden is a novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1952. It follows the lives of two families, the Hamiltons and the Trasks, and illustrates how the families lives intertwine. The novel starts out with a short introduction of Salinas Valley and Samuel Hamiltons's family, then quickly jumps into introducing the Trask family. Adam Trask then described his childhood on his father's farm in Connecticut. He tells stories in detail about his brutal treatment from his brother Charles, and the tough love he received from his father Cyrus. Adam and his brother had a poor relationship because Charles believed that their father loved Adam more. Their father
The weather in Salinas Valley was drastic from one season to the next. There were years “when rainfall was plentiful”(5) and there were years “which put a terror on the valley.”(5) The drastic changes in weather reflect the changes that the characters go though. For example, Adam was once an escaped convict hobo, and then he lived as a highly regarded public official, the owner of a fortune. The setting also shows similar characteristics of the two major families, the Hamiltons and the Trasks. The Hamiltons lived on barren land, yet raised nine healthy happy children. Samuel's hard word and good nature made it possible for the family to survive. He was a good father to his children and they all looked up to him. In contrast, the Trasks lived on a land with rich soil and water to farm with, but he only bared two sons and barely raised them. If not for the housekeeper they wouldn't have grown up at all. The land's value was opposite of what the families sewed in their lives and
It's a redemption for both Caleb and Adam. Caleb now had the chance to move beyond his guilt with the knowledge that his father forgives him, and Adam had let his son know he is sorry for favoring Aron. The ending is logical to the rest of the novel by following the same motif, sins, favoring, and redemption. Previously in the novel Adam's brother Charles sinned by trying to kill him one night during an argument, and later Adam's son Caleb indirectly caused the death of his twin brother Aron. Adam's father preferred him over Caleb, and that caused hatred between the two of them, and their father never asked for forgiveness or admitted he was sorry. Unlike Adam's father, Adam had the chance to tell his son he was sorry for his favoritism with his final blessing. Redemption came for Caleb in the end. Once he was finally forgiven he was able to understand the full meaning of timshel. Now that his evil mother and saintly brother were gone, he didn't have to choose either extremity. He could walk down the middle road and overcome the agony of the past. And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.