East Of Eden Literary Analysis

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In Steinbeck 's East of Eden, it follows the baroque lives the Trasks. The Trasks are flawed and dysfunctional. Cyrus, the father, struggles to keep a stable relationship with a wife while his kids are constantly fighting. Charles and Adam each have distinct struggles trying to love or be loved as well. Charles wants his father to love him, but Charles never gets his wish. Adam falls in love with Cathy, but she happens to be a demonic girl who used Adam for his money. Their constant fight for reciprocated love has never resulted well because Cyrus never loved Charles as much as Adam. Also, Adam thought he found his true love, but really Cathy ruined Adam’s life. The book depicts the protagonists struggling to find repaid love, yet this never …show more content…
Cyrus wants Adam to be enlisted in the military. This poses a problem since Charles would do it for his father, but Adam does not want to go to the military, especially for his father. Charles overhears the conversation, and he gets jealous. His jealousy turns into acrimony because he realized that the exclamation from Cyrus claiming that Charles is a coward, and the preference for Adam’s gift over his own gift justifies his actions into beating the life out of Adam. Charles comes at Adam with a weapon, intending to kill Adam because Adam was the cause of the disparity between Charles and Cyrus. After many attempts in trying to impress Cyrus, Charles finally snaps out the falsehood of trying to get Cyrus to appreciate him, and Charles tries to murder his own brother. Usually in reality, appealing to your father or someone in power would be easy since it is family, but East of Eden hints that it is not the case. Love causes more pain than satisfaction, therefore contradicting the purpose of trying to be loved because any the attempt to and result of love outweighs the potential benefits of reciprocated love. The book even shows that love caused family members to hate each other. Love is only negatively portrayed since even family members can not love each other, therefore resulting in people to act violently, which is against the purpose of trying to love

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