It is through the popularization of East of Eden that the Salinas Valley was truly transformed into “the valley of the world” a place where everyone is able to find a piece of themselves in the golden, rolling hills. With East of Eden Steinbeck hoped to reclaim his standing as a major novelist, but his broad depictions of good and evil come at the expense of subtlety in. It is a symbolic re-creation of the biblical story of Cain and Abel woven into a history of California’s Salinas Valley.

Tinged with biblical echoes of the fall of Adam and Eve and the rivalry of Cain and Abel, this sprawling saga has captivated audiences everywhere for generations. This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of Californias Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families-the. East of Eden, novel by John Steinbeck, published in 1952. Part allegory, part autobiography, and part epic, East of Eden was an ambitious project from the start – a gift to Steinbeck’s sons that was meant to teach them about identity, grief, and what it means to be human. From this plot emerged some of Steinbeck’s most fascinating characters – many of whom are modeled after people in his own life. In his journal, Journal of a Novel (often read as a companion to the novel) he notes that “this is the book I have always wanted and have worked and prayed to be able to write Set primarily in the Salinas Valley in the early twentieth century, the novel traces three generations of two families – the Trasks and the Hamiltons – as they grapple with the ever-present forces of good and evil. East of Eden, John Steinbecks passionate and exhilarating epic, re-creates the seminal stories of Genesis through the intertwined lives of two American families. Steinbeck considered East of Eden to be his masterpiece.

East of eden by john steinbeck