A Modern Re-Telling of the Cain & Abel Story
In Steinbeck’s East of Eden’s first modern re-telling of the Cain and Abel story, Charles the second son of Cyrus Trask gave his father a valuable German penknife for his birthday that he worked very hard to buy. On the same occasion, Adam, the first son, merely gave his father a mongrel puppy that he obtained for free. But Cyrus highly treasured Adam’s puppy more than Charles’ knife. In the Bible story, that Steinbeck uses a central symbol of the theme of East of Eden, God rejected Cain’s valued gift and treasured Abel’s offering. In both the Biblical and the modern narrative, the disfavored brothers were trying to earn their father’s love and approval by giving gifts. Cain took a stone and beat his brother, Abel, to death. In the more modern version, the father’s reaction drove Charles to display such a high level of jealousy that he lost his temper and almost beat the life out of Adam. Another reason Cyrus favors Adam more is that he thought that he was much weaker than Charles and needed more encouragement. As I noted in the previous Litchatte column, Charles felt both pity and anger toward Adam. The narrator further elaborates on the dynamics between the two brothers playing a game that Adam won unexpectantly:
“Charles had one great quality. He was never sorry—ever. He never mentioned the beating, apparently never thought of it again. But Adam made sure he didn’t win again…he now understood that he must never win against Charles unless he was prepared to kill him…Adam did not tell his father about the beating,”
Adam Worth Less than Dog Turd?
It has to be very terrifying and stifling for a sibling to live in such a state of fear that he realizes that his only choices are to be murdered or to defend himself by killing his brother. The father’s explanation to Adam of why he loved him more than Charles could not have helped his confidence either. Cyrus told him:
“You’re not clever. You do not know what you want. You have no proper fierceness. You let other people walk all over you. Sometimes I think you are a weakling who will never amount to dog turd. Does that answer your question? I love you better. I always have. This may a bad thing to tell you, but it’s true. I love you better.”
Cyrus values Adam’s gift more than Charles but returns the favor of the gift with an outrageous comment, belittling his worth is outrageous behavior for a parent. The fact that he has any questions about whether telling his son that he thinks he will amount to more than dog turd provides one more clear example of what a poor and insensitive parent he is. Reader’s may thus conclude observe that Steinbeck created an Adam character with no voice, who has literally had the life-force beaten out of him. The cumulative effects of Adam’s neglectful and abusive father, his longing for the love of a mother, and his being battered by his ill-tempered and violent brother might help to explain why he is unable to act with strength and conviction later in the story when he is a husband and father,
Adam as a Soldier, a Prisoner, and a Tramp
Despite Adam’s resistance to the idea of fighting, he leaves home and enlists in the Army to fight Indians in the new territories. During this period, Cyrus writes extensively about his phony military experiences and his opinions of Army strategy. As a result of Cyrus’s fame, he is offered a highly paid position with the Army and travels around speaking about military issues. Adam visits him after his first term of service and declines his father’s offer of a prestigious position. Presumably, this is because he doesn’t want to have to serve under his father’s influence. After the death of his second wife, Cyrus moves to Washington D.C. and continues to advance in his career until he died of pneumonia in 1894. Many high-level government officials attend his funeral.
Adam decides that he does not want to return home to live with his brother in Connecticut. Instead, he re-enlists with his former regiment but does not bother to inform his brother. After serving his second term in the Army, he is discharged, serves time in prison for being a vagrant, then becomes an inconspicuous tramp traveling on the rails. Steinbeck notes that Adam was a poor and “expert tramp,” who “could withdraw his personality until he made no stir of anger or jealousy.” This characterization further supports the view of Adam as a weak character who wanders through life without a strong sense of purpose.
Adam’s Positive Reaction to his Father’s Death
After many hard journeys, Adam returns home to his brother, where Charles tells him that they received an inheritance of $100,000 from their father’s death. In the late nineteenth century, that would have been worth about $2.5 million in today’s money. The boys are never sure how Cyrus amassed his fortune. However, the Army discharge records proved that he made up the entire story about being a war hero. Although Charles suspected his father stole the money, Adam said nothing and reacted as if he was uninterested in the details. However, internally, the narrator reveals that:
“Adam sighed deeply. In his chest, like beating fists, was a surge of joy.”
The author’s description of the discrepancy between Adam’s internal feeling and external expression reveals that, though he was happy that his overbearing father has been exposed as a fraud, he still does not want to share his true feelings with his brother Naturally, he has strong reasons to distrust his brother. His reactions also demonstrated that Adam recognized right from wrong, but that he was unable to express himself.
The Next Litchatte Column
In the next column, I will discuss how Adam decided to take his newly acquired mysterious wife and his inheritance to move to the Salinas Valley of California in hopes of establishing a new Garden of Eden. In a clever reversal of the Cain and Abel symbolism, Charles remained behind and symbolically banished on the Connecticut family farm. I will also show how Adam becomes a rich land-owner and the father of two boys in California. Yet, his reactions to life’s struggles influence him to become an almost ghost-like figure, With this characterization of Adam, Steinbeck appears to be setting up the question of how much our destinies are influenced by heredity and upbringing, and how much by free choice. Steinbeck brings this question forward in several settings and characters in the California section of Steinbeck’s novel.
Why has Steinbeck created his first fictional character in the story to be an almost anonymous and withdrawing character, who either cannot or will not speak for himself? Might he be suggesting that Adam will inevitably be defeated in life’s struggle against good and evil? Readers will have to read the whole novel to get this answer. Even after that, they will have to decide for themselves if Adam was victorious or defeated.
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Dr. Murray Ellison received a Master’s in Education from Temple University (1973), a Master’s Degree of Arts in English Literature from Virginia Commonwealth University (2015), and a Doctorate in Education at Virginia Tech (1988). He is married and has three adult daughters and a new grand-daughter! He ‘retired’ as the Virginia Director of Community Corrections for the Department of Correctional Education in 2009. Included in his ‘after-retirement activities,’ he is the founder and chief editor of this literary blog, and he is an editor for the International Correctional Education Journal. He is the Co-Editor of the 2016 book of poetry, Mystic Verses, by Acharya Shambhushivananda, and is an Editor for The First Mennonite Church of Richmond’s Newsletter. He serves as a board member and volunteer tour guide for the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond Virginia. Mainly, however, for the last several years, he has taught literature classes for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Richmond. Effective August 2018, he started teaching English Writing & Research Classes at the Richard Bland College of William & Mary University. Finally, in his ‘spare time,’ he tutors two school youth, does occasional professional editing and coördinates both The Midlothian, Virginia, Classic Book Club and the VCU Working Titles Book Club. Contact Murray at ellisonms2@vcu.edu, or leave a note at the bottom of the post.
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