^ Absolutely. Cain’s gift (fruit of the ground) to God = Charles’ gift (pearl-handled German knife) to Cyrus = Cal’s gift ($15,000) to Adam. With all due respect to the Almighty, none of the fathers behaved well, if you ask me.
fI enjoyed the book a lot. For whatever reason, I’ve had a hard time lately in getting totally absorbed in a book, with that “can’t stop reading” feeling, and this book totally delivered that for me. I felt the pages flew by.
I especially liked the descriptions of the landscape. Steinbeck perfectly describes his beloved Salinas Valley in wonderfully evocative terms. I’m very familiar with the settings in the California portions of the book and he really nails those descriptions. (But then again, I read a lot of Steinbeck as a kid/ teen (but not this book), so it could be that the way I look at those places has inexorably been influenced by Steinbeck’s descriptions).
I also really liked the Hamilton family sections of the book. Although they weren’t as central to the book as the Trasks, they seemed much more real to me. I thought Samuel was a beautifully realized character.
With respect to the Trask’s story, I’m a little bit more ambivalent. I felt the parallels and references to the Cain and Abel story were too heavy-handed. That said, it didn’t bother me quite as much as it should have bothered me (given my general reaction to that kind of thing). I did like Lee’s explication of the story, with the help of his Chinese philosopher elders. Maybe that saved the whole book for me.
And Cathy / Kate’s character was definitely lacking in nuance. But, I will say, the melodrama that her character added to the book really kept the pages flying. But I didn’t find her believable at all. Even the basic facts about her were unconvincing. I didn’t believe that a person that trully evil would be viewed as an angelic beauty. I think that the evil would come through in her facial expressions and gestures, which would mar her physical looks. Since the dichotomy between her angelic beauty and evil core was Steinbeck’s starting point for that character, I never quite believed in her.
Lee was definitely the center of the book, its heart and soul. And very deliberately so, I think.
I have a lot more thoughts about all of the characters. I could go on and on about Cal and Aron. This is definitely one of those books where a face-to-face discussion would be fun. It is hard to get all my thoughts down on an iPhone!
I have a question. Why do you think Charles left half his money to Cathy? That was a weird detail that I couldn’t quite grasp. Do you think it was because Charles figured that Cathy would leave if she had money, thereby freeing Adam from her evil influence?
One thing I forgot to say in my previous mega-post was how striking the loneliness and isolation was in the book. It was almost hard to bear sometimes. I’d like to discuss that aspect of the book some more over the next several days.
/well her looks do get marred eventually, both by the scar on her forehead and the business with her hands. And of course that scar corresponds to Charles’ mark of Cain scar. Cal doesn’t get a scar, so I think “timshel” really does apply to him. He has free will and will use it to be a better person, or at least that his better demons will prevail for the most part. (LOL I realize I should have typed better angels, but I’m leaving better demons.)
I thought Steinbeck was super heavy handed with the symbolism. It really irritated me.
I think the Hamiltons come off as real people because they were all based on real people. The Trasks are all manipulated to follow variations on the Cain and Abel plot.
I think Charles left half the money to Cathy as one last way of spitting in Adam’s face.
And therein lies the beauty of East of Eden. @nottelling suggested a good motive for Charles, and @mathmom suggested an evil one. Either are plausible.
My two cents: I don’t think Charles left Cathy the money because he had worked out any long-term plan. I saw it as his acknowledgment that he and Cathy were soul-mates. They immediately recognize something familiar in each other, and when she climbs into his bed, that seals the deal.
One of my favorite details of the book was Lee’s determination to leave, and then his return. I think without that Lee’s relationship to the family would have been a cliched and romanticized version of a employer / servant relationship. Of course, we get very little of Lee’s internal struggle and we don’t follow him to San Francisco. I can’t decide whether that incident would have been more effective it had been drawn out more.
I don’t think we need to read about Lee’s struggle in San Francisco to guess what happened. The reality of not being able to open his bookstore is what sent him back to the Trasks, who were his family. I think Lee understood that after leaving for a little while. It wasn’t perfect, but he belonged. Psychmom mentioned earlier:
Yes! Lee was the patriarch and matriarch of the Trask family!
Rats - never mind apparently I’m not allowed to post this particular link!
^ There are rules? I thought that as long as it’s not porn, not overtly political and not a competing college website, then anything goes!
@NJTheatreMOM – Sending best wishes for a speedy recovery. Hope everything is okay. I’m really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the book whenever you are able to share them. There’s no rush.
Wish I could enjoy Steinbeck. Read 3 books including this one and they just have no effect on me. Well, maybe some parts of Of Mice and Men.
^ I’m impressed you made it through three! I have a tendency to abandon an author after the first book if I don’t like what I’ve read.
@myyalieboy – Did you read Grapes of Wrath? In my opinion, that’s by far his best book, by a mile. I read it when I was young and then a few years ago with my daughter and it really stood up, in my view.
Yeah, life is too short in general to read stuff you don’t like. Sometimes I’ll read a great book review and think, “I should read this!” And then I remember that I really didn’t like the other book I’ve read of theirs.
Steinbeck I feel like is in a bit of a different category - I feel like I should read him because he’s always getting referred to. (Especially *Grapes of Wrath *, sometimes Travels with Charley and occasionally Cannery Row.) But maybe I’ll just go see the movies. 
I didn’t really feel the need of a Lee point of view chapter.
I’m still reading the Journal of a Novel. Steinbeck talks quite a bit about Lee.
p.73
Later talking about the discussion of the meaning of the Cain and Abel story.
I’ve been without internet since yesterday … so I have some catching up to do.
@NJTheatreMOM: sincere wishes for a speedy recovery
Adding to @mathmom’s post re Lee:
And something I found interesting:
Re Lee’s departure and return or rather Steinbeck’s decision re Lee’s departure and return:
Thanks igantius for the expanded/additional quotes about Lee.
I’m finding the journal fascinating, though there is a lot of boring stuff about how much he hopes to write and then how he didn’t write enough, or he wrote too much when he wants to take it slow. He was very ambitious about this particular book.
There are some nice images of the Salinas Valley on line. Thiis one I found particularly striking. (Though I’ve never seen the hills so green!)
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/28/c7/43/28c743ead1a74be1916316bcd4f9f9b1.jpg
@nottelling
Oops. Make that 4. See? No impression!
Anyway enjoy this one I hope I can hop on on the next book.
@myyalieboy – We’d love to hear your views about the book, even if they are negative, if you care to share them. But it is totally understandable if you don’t want to.