"A dour Presbyterian mind"

Part 1 of an 8-part series on East of Eden.
Today's newsletter covers Chapters 1-8.

East of Eden tells the story of two families: The Hamiltons and The Trasks. One family is based on reality – the Hamiltons are Steinbeck's own family - and the other is fictional. This fact is already a key to the novel's experimental blending of the mythic and the historical. Steinbeck writes fiction even as he claims that all the stories about the Hamiltons are "true."

The Hamiltons include husband and wife, Samuel and Liza, and their nine children. The four boys are introduced with paragraphs of description; the five girls are rattled off quickly. We discover that the book's narrator, Steinbeck, is Olive's son. So, Steinbeck tells his family's history in California during the late 19th and early 20th century through these characters. If we are to see a binary between these two families, the Hamiltons are the good ones. Samuel, in particular, is a larger-than-life grandfather for Steinbeck.

The Trasks include half-brothers Adam and Charles (an echo of the first biblical brothers, Abel and Cain, as well as the first human, Adam), their father, Cyrus (a biblical name), and their mothers, Alice and Mrs. Trask. The family lives in rural Connecticut. Chapters 3-4 and 6-7 provide backstory and spell out the differences between the brothers as they tragically fight for their father's attention.

Genesis 4 – the story of Cain and Abel – is in the background here, and parallels abound. First, Charles is a farmer like Cain. Second, Cyrus, the father, prefers the gift of Adam (a stray puppy) over Charles's gift of a nice knife (SCE, page 29), just as God looks at Abel's offering and not Cain's. Third, Charles beats up Adam twice and almost kills him, whereas in Genesis, Cain's anger leads him to kill his brother. Fourth, Charles receives a dark scar on his forehead while trying to remove a boulder from his yard; Cain also bears a mark in the Bible given to him by God.

Steinbeck creates a devastating tenderness and brutality between the brothers. These early chapters are full of tension as the brothers are raised by their demanding father and then grieve his death. Steinbeck explores the great mystery of love and favoritism. Cyrus says to Adam, "I love you better" (27), and we are reminded that God preferred Abel's offering. Where does this leave Charles/Cain?

Read Charles's words to his brother, words he can only write, not speak:

"...I never understood – well, why our father did it. I mean, why didn't he like that knife I bought for him on his birthday. Why didn't he? It was a good knife and he needed a good knife. If he had used it or even honed it, or took it out of his pocket and looked at it – that's all he had to do. If he'd liked it I wouldn't have took out for you. I had to take out after you."

A poignant scene of deep longing for approval. We can almost hear them as Cain's words in Genesis.

I want to focus now on two female figures from these opening chapters – Liza Hamilton and Cathy Ames.

With Liza, we read Steinbeck's attitude toward excessive religiousity. Perhaps someone can be too "good."

She is introduced with this description:

“tiny Irish wife, a tight hard little woman humor-less as a chicken. She had a dour Presbyterian mind and a code of morals that pinned down and beat the brains out of nearly everything that was pleasant to do.” (SCE, 9)

Even the anatomy of her head reveals her personality: “Her head was small and round and it held small round convictions.” (SCE, 11)

One of those convictions concerned sin.

“Liza had a finely developed sense of sin. Idleness was a sin, and card playing, which was a kind of idleness to her. She was suspicious of fun whether it involved dancing or singing or even laughter. She felt that people having a good time were wide open to the devil. And this was a shame, for Samuel was a laughing man, but I guess Samuel was wide open to the devil.” (SCE, 11)

Another conviction concerned the Bible.

“Her total intellectual association was the Bible, except the talk of Samuel and her children, and to them she did not listen. In that one book she had her history and her poetry, her knowledge of peoples and things, her ethics, her morals, and her salvation. She never studied the Bible or inspected it; she just read it. The many places where it seems to refute itself did not confuse her in the least. And finally she came to a point where she knew it so well that she went right on reading it without listening.” (SCE, 42)

All this piety is undermined toward the end of her life when Liza, who hates alcohol, starts drinking port wine per the doctor's orders and is never sober again!

"Drinking alcohol in any form she regarded as a crime against a properly outraged deity." (SCE, 42)

Liza is a deeply religious character whose piety and life are respected by her family and others. But the respect brought about "a kind of awe" but not "warmth" (42). She is a foil for her gregarious husband.

Read chapters 9-14 this week. In the Steinbeck Centennial Edition, that's pages 89-153. In the Penguin Classics Edition, that's pages 90-155.

Cathy is introduced in Chapter 8 as a monster with a malformed soul. Steinbeck paints a deeply disturbing portrait of her when we first meet her. She is born evil; we cannot explain her behavior as the result of some sort of trauma. She is a liar, a nonconfirmist. The opening section of Chapter 8 provides numerous details about her. Steinbeck cannot stop describing her!

Then, we read a horrifying story of a 10-year-old Cathy and her manipulation of two older boys. And a story about her manipulation of a high school Latin teacher with deadly results. She runs away from home and is whipped by her father, whom she manipulates into giving lighter blows. She burns down her house and her parents in it!

The last sentence of the chapter:

"Cathy left a scent of sweetness behind her." (88)

We have only just met Cathy, so there will be time later to become as obsessed with her as the narrator. For the moment, I recommend you reread Section 1 of Chapter 8 to consider this introduction to the book's antagonist.

Reading Schedule

Week of June 8-14: read chapters 9-14
Week of June 15-21: read chapters 15-19
Week of June 22-28: read chapters 20-24
Week of June 29-July 5: read chapters 25-30
Week of July 6-12: read chapters 31-39
Week of July 13-19: read chapters 40-48
Week of July 20-26: read chapters 49-55

A Benediction (Or Miscellaneous Thoughts)

It's not too late! Ask a friend to join the Summer Book Club! If you know someone who might want to read East of Eden with us, forward this email to them.