Loner Archetype

Fables and parables are quintessence of examining the human condition, though that was not their original intent when they were created. These tales were used to teach children lessons, and these lessons often stay with these children until adulthood. For his audience Steinbeck incorporates lessons into his novels not only to remind his readers of a founder time, but to advise his readers on how to behave in the changing times. The lesson Steinbeck seems the most partial to throughout his novels is how humans must learn from their mistakes in order to improve themselves. As the old saying goes: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. In East of Eden, Steinbeck takes this adage to the extreme, when Adam’s naivety leads to his wife, Cathy, to assault him with a shotgun, and then leaving to become a whore in town. Adam’s trusting nature can be compared to that of Eve’s, hindering him from seeing Cathy, the Serpent’s, trickery. From their first meeting, the image
This realization subtle influence on his urges the public to no longer hide behind the comfort of the known. In order to advance individually and as a society, we must be welcoming to the unknown, though equally as critical of it as the past. The reason to Steinbeck’s drive to urge the acceptance of change is the same reason why Martin Luther King Jr. lead the Civil Rights Movement, or why our founding fathers fought a war they knew they had a small chance of winning but went to war anyhow. Steinbeck was determined to ensure the changes of his time would be accepted, so that America’s children could reap their benefits and have a better life than what their parents