East of Eden
I read a lot of entertaining books. I read quite a few good books. Very occasionally, I read a great book. John Steinbeck's East of Eden is a great book.
A good friend of mine lent this book to me while I was still in college. I read it quickly and was impressed by it, but I didn't go back to it until this year. I've had the same experience with other great books - it takes me a long time to re-read them.
I suppose that a book that speaks to being human is not a book to be read lightly. East of Eden is not entertainment in the way that the vast majority of books are - rather it, and other rare books like it, teach me about ways to view the world. And, of course, the ideas in East of Eden are complex and subtle.
East of Eden is a re-telling of the first books of the Old Testament. Some of the ideas I think I understand, but some I am not sure about.
The main thread of the story follows two generations of brothers as they re-enact the story of Cain and Abel. Steinbeck ends hopefully with the injunction that we may conquer sin if we wish to. This part of the story I understand quite well.
I understand Cathy's role in the book less well. Cathy lacks empathy and the ability to feel any affection toward other people. Steinbeck presents this as something she was born with and is unable to change (in fact, he compares it to a physical deformity). Cathy is ambitious, cold and completely without conscience. She commits several murders during the course of the story.
The problem for me with Cathy's story is that she could never have not sinned. Lacking any feeling for other people and having no conscience or moral sense, she would pursue what she wanted without regard for anyone else.
It is possible that Cathy is there to show what happens when people sin without remorse, and with no desire to conquer sin. If that is the case, then she was dealt a rotten hand. Those without any moral conscience do not end up well in this book. The problem is that Cathy's character undercuts Steinbeck's point that people can conquer sin.
This idea worries me. If I accept that to sin is to behave badly toward other people, then ultimately some people will sin without conscience or remorse. If they have no facility for a moral sense, is it fair to judge them harshly? I am not saying that people who do horrible things shouldn't be punished; sometimes the threat of a punishment will deter someone when the moral sense is lacking. What I am saying is that it would be worth understanding why people commit horrible acts, rather than simply judging them.
East of Eden is a great book, but I do not fully understand it. Maybe when I re-read it in 10 years time I will be wise enough to understand it then.
