Important Quotations Explained
1. I
believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents. Some
you can see, misshapen and horrible, with huge heads or tiny bodies.
. . . And just as there are physical monsters, can there not be
mental or psychic monsters born? The face and body may be perfect,
but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may
not the same process produce a malformed soul?
The narrator uses these words to introduce
Cathy Ames in Chapter 8 of the novel. Throughout
the novel, Cathy displays an evil that is so thorough that it borders
on implausible, and the narrator makes several attempts to explain
and understand Cathy’s existence. He hypothesizes that although
Cathy is physically beautiful, she is a “psychic monster,” a being
with a mental deformity analogous to others’ external, physical
deformities. Later in the novel, the narrator revises his opinion
of Cathy and wonders whether he was right in calling her a monster.
He seems to become somewhat more sympathetic toward Cathy, musing
that “since we cannot know what she wanted, we will never know whether
or not she got it.” Indeed, Cathy’s motivations remain a mystery
throughout East of Eden, as her schemes seem to
have no concrete goal or aim—a problem that critics have singled
out in their writings on Steinbeck’s novel.
2. And
this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual
human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would
fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes,
undirected.
Here, in Chapter 13,
in another aside to the story, the narrator sets for his belief
that the power of free will in the human mind is the most precious
of human capabilities. He declares his intention to fight against
any force—ideological, religious, political, or otherwise—that threatens
to hinder or constrain this freedom of the individual. In highlighting
the importance of free choice early in the novel, the narrator foreshadows
the idea of timshel, or freedom to choose between
good and evil, that becomes the main idea in East of Eden. Although
Cal and other characters struggle with the problem of evil throughout
the rest of the novel, the narrator plants a seed of hope early,
in these words.
3. “Don’t
you see? . . . The American Standard translation orders men
to triumph over sin, and you call sin ignorance. The King James
translation makes a promise in ‘Thou shalt,’ meaning that men will
surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou
mayest’—that gives a choice. It might be the most important word
in the world. That says the way is open.”
Lee says these words during his discussion
of the Cain and Abel story with Samuel and Adam in Chapter 24.
He has just revealed to the other men the outcome of the research
he did on the meaning of timshel, the word that
God utters to Cain when exiling him to the lands east of Eden. According
to one translation of the Bible, God orders Cain
to triumph over sin, while according to another, God promises Cain
that he will defeat sin. Lee’s research, however, has revealed that timshel means
“thou mayest,” implying that God tells Cain that he has a choice whether
or not to overcome sin. Lee sees this idea of free choice over evil
a token of optimism that is central to the human condition. He attempts
to convince Adam and Cal of the validity of timshel and
ultimately succeeds, as Adam gives Cal his blessing and Cal realizes
he himself has the power to overcome his family’s legacy of evil.
4. I
believe that there is one story in the world, and only
one. . . . Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts,
in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and
in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil.
. . . There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the
dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean
questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?
In Chapter 34 of East
of Eden, the narrator discusses his view that the one central
narrative in human history is the endless struggle between good
and evil. He believes that this recurring conflict is so important
to human history that there essentially “is no other story.” Each
individual, regardless of what his or her ancestors have learned,
struggles with the same fundamental problem of evil. In this way,
no progress is made as generations pass, for each individual faces
the same ancient struggle and the same ancient choices. Although
the narrator’s idea is somewhat optimistic in that it implies that
each individual has free will to reject evil, it also implies that
the struggle with evil is endless and inescapable and will therefore
always be a part of the human condition.
5. Adam
asked, “Do you know where your brother is?”
“No,
I don’t,” said Cal. . . .
“He hasn’t been
home for two nights. Where is he?”
“How do
I know?” said Cal. “Am I supposed to look after him?”
This exchange between Adam and Cal,
which appears in Chapter 51, is a direct
parallel with the exchange between God and Cain that appears in
the book of Genesis in the Bible. After Cain murders Abel, God realizes
that Abel is missing and asks Cain where Abel is. Cain retorts,
“I know not; am I my brother’s keeper?” Adam and Cal’s reenactment
of this conversation links them explicitly to the biblical story
and cements Cal and Aron, respectively, as surrogates for Cain and
Abel. There are differences between the two stories, however: whereas
Cain murders Abel, Cal causes Aron’s death only indirectly. Likewise,
whereas Cain is banished for his crime, Cal encounters forgiveness
and redemption in his father’s blessing at the end of East
of Eden. In this way, Cal, though a Cain figure, overturns
the biblical story and, in the end, demonstrates that he has the power
to choose good.