John Steinbecks East of Eden - The Gift of Free Will :: East Eden Essays

eastern of enlightenment - The Gift of Free pull up stakesAn excellent benefit of choosing to major in English is that it has allowed me four years to dig deeply into my love of the written word. This involves looking beyond the line up of literature and studying its effects in the course of my everyday life. slightly books are easy to enjoin quickly, enjoy, and forget, but others exert an influence that is not easily discarded or forgotten. In my mental library, the classic American novel East of Eden, by John Steinbeck, falls into this category. I cogitate East of Eden has helped shape me morally by illustrating the power of unbosom will in a world caught between a unceasing battle of good and evil.I decided to read East of Eden by and by hearing a friend share a victimize passage from it in his valedictory address. Although I do not memorialise the contents of that particular passage anymore, I remember that it was the power of Steinbecks simple, charge language that urged me to take it on as my next big uncase into what my high school English teacher called real literature.The Cain and Abel story, possibly the well-nigh enigmatic story of good and evil in the Bible, is the basis for East of Eden. Although allegorical elements are scattered through come out the whole novel, the most perspicuous theme struck me as three of the main characters discussed the ramifications of graven images words to Cain after Abels death. Lee, a Chinese servant to one of the novels main families, explained to his ii companions a little-known conflict between the translations of Genesis 47 in two versions of the Bible. In one translation, God tells Cain that thou shalt rule over sin. In another, God says to Cain, Do thou rule over sin. The first is a promise, and the second is an order. Lee concluded that the ambiguity presented by the two translations is at the heart of the universal human story.I agree. I know whatsoever people who surrender themselves to th e fatalistic belief that everything in life has been mapped out by God. I also know people who believe that God is a harsh drillmaster who issues demands under the constant threat of damnation. Until I read this book, however, I never wondered where the dispute originated. As the characters in Steinbecks novel discussed the dissimilarity of Genesis 47, I also wondered at the intended substance of the verse.