'East Of Eden': The Story Of Cain And Abel

The story of Cain and Abel played a major part in the theme of East of Eden. The biblical tale of brotherhood jealousy was used to emulate the relationships between the “C-Characters” and the “A-Characters”. The story of Cain and Abel depicted two brothers fighting for the affection of God, which ends with Abel being murdered by Cain. Steinbeck uses this story to create the narrative that ends up pitting the “C-Characters” against the “A-Characters”, in which the A-Characters are usually on the receiving end of the abuse. Though the parallels drawn from the story of Cain and Abel are distinct, the characters in the story are not as one dimensional as Cain and Abel. The characters have many layers and all have distinct motivations for acting …show more content…
For example, the character of Charles was designated as a C-Character. As a child, Charles fit the label of “C-Character” perfectly, he harassed, mocked, and beat Adam so badly that he had to “lay in bed for four days” (Steinbeck 34), all because he was jealous of his bond with their father. However, unlike Cain, Charles felt remorse for his actions, in the following years, when Adam was at war, Charles started writing letters, which showed that he longed with a connection with his brother. Another “C-Character” who started out as an archetype but gradually became kind and caring was Cal. When he was a child he would taunt Aron and Abra to no end, but as he grew and matured, he became a well rounded character who tried to do the right thing. Both Charles and Cal did have moments where one could get glimpses of their old selves, for Charles that was sleeping with Cathy, and for Cal that was when he took Adam to their mother’s whorehouse. Contrary to these glimpses, Steinbeck tried to push the narrative that we are not defined by our genetics, but rather our