East of Eden is an amazing story about life in similar forms, starting with one patriarch and ended two patriarchs later. This novel is said to be a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis. The stories of Adam & Eve and Cain & Abel are beautifully intertwined to the point where the men in the family seem to trade off being a “Cain” or an “Abel,” and with that comes the trading off of good and evil, showing that everyone has a little bit of both inside of them.
The Adam and Eve stories are definitely described in a modern way…in fact, the main women in the book are either evil themselves, or harsh, or too beautiful for their own good. Through the majority of the novel, the men were either marrying or giving birth to women who would end up living lives that were quite unfulfilled and unsatisfied, which I found pretty sad. Is this back to the concept that the sins of the world can be traced back to women, and then back to Eve? There are many people in the world today, over 50 years after this novel was written, that live in that same mindset.
The book really isn’t about women though, it is really about Adam and his life being a son, a brother, and then a father to two sons who seem to struggle with the same problems that Adam and his brother had. It was fascinating to read about how he didn’t like the way his father raised him and his brother, but he ended up turning into his father in many ways, and I’m not sure he ever fully realized that.
Anyway, my very favorite part of the book was the naming of Adam’s sons. Adam and two friends sat together for hours, discussing the philosophy and theology behind names. Worrying about what was going to be passed down through blood, how much of it was up to how they were brought up…the basic Nature vs. Nurture debate. An interesting quote from that discussion:
“I don’t very much believe in blood,” said Samuel. “I think when a man finds good or bad in his children he is seeing only what he planted in them after they cleared the womb.”
“You can’t make a race horse of a pig.”
“No,” said Samuel, “but you can make a very fast pig.”
It is hard to really get into depth about the characters because I don’t want to spoil this book for anyone else that would want to read it. I will say that I highly recommend it, as it is very thought provoking and had me going back into the Book of Genesis and seeing it in a new light.
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