John Steinbecks East of Eden: Modern Biblical Story of Cain and Abel E

John Steinbeck's East of Eden: Modern Biblical Story of Cain and Abel " And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, ' Where is Abel thy brother?' And he said, ' I know not. Am I my brother's keeper?' And he said, ' What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now thou art cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.' And Cain said unto the Lord, ' My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid. And I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth" (Genesis 4:8-1, KJV). The story of Cain and Abel is probably one of the most violent and unsettling stories of the Bible. It is probably the most unsettling because it tells the truth about mankind. Rejection is the one thing that all of mankind fears, and when one is rejected anger follows. With anger comes the need to commit a crime of revenge, and with this crime comes guilt. Almost everyone has experienced this in some way. East of Eden (1952) by John Steinbeck is a modern retelling of the biblical tragedy of Cain and Abel. The story is reenacted through the lives of two generations of the Trask family. Cyrus Trask, the patriarch of the family and his two sons Adam and Charles live on a farm in Conneticut. Charles cries out in anguish for his father's love, but his father ignores his cries and loves Adam best... ...il and do goodness. John Steinbeck writes, " We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is" (415). In East of Eden, John Steinbeck creates this world of good and evil. All of the characters are faced with good and evil, and only one is able to triumph over evil. Cal is the representation of what everyone can be. It is possible for everyone to overcome evil if he or she decides to destroy the evil within his or her soul. WORKS CITED Steinbeck, John. Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics: East of Eden. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1992. The Bible. King James Version. World Bible Publishers, Inc.