One commentator summarizes , '
Adam, father of two sons,
perceives Aron as ambitious and promising but dismisses Cal as
shiftless and directionless. Steinbeck patterns these father-son
relationships in the Trask family on an example in the Bible—the
relationships that the brothers Cain and Abel have with God, who
represents a father figure to both of them. When Cain and Abel both
offer sacrifices to God (mirrored in Steinbeck’s novel by Charles’s
and Adam’s birthday gifts to Cyrus), God favors Abel’s sacrifice
over Cain’s. Conspicuously, neither God nor the narrator of the
story in the Bible offers any reason or justification for God’s
preference. In East of Eden, Adam mentions that, upon reading the
story of Cain and Abel, he felt “a little outraged at God” for
favoring Abel so arbitrarily. However, as we see, Adam favors Aron
over Cal just as arbitrarily as God favors Abel over Cain. Adam does
not realize the depth of his favoritism until he is on his deathbed,
when he acknowledges the mistake he has made and grants his final
blessing to Cal. '
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| Cain's Offering Rejected |
I think Steinbeck is raising the same
question that C.G. Jung helps people to face. That is that there is a dark
and very imperfect side of the the Old Testament God Yahweh. Any
parent who will not accept the natural gifts that come from his child
is very dubious and not to be fully trusted or adored. And such a
parent drives a child to experience much suffering as in the case of
Cal. In the New Testament, Jesus as an incarnation of God, has the
nature of accepting all the gifts that people bring sincerely out of their
natural lives and capacities and a love that never gives up on them..
But the problem does not disappear with the gospel's Jesus image of
God. For the Bible ends with the The Revelation of John where the
Christ figure is anything but accepting and loving. In fact there the
Christ figure is making angry threats, similar to Job's God who immorally raged at Job like one who seriously questions his own authority and omniscience. The Christ figure in Revelation angrily threatens the various churches for not
meeting up to the standards of the law and of Gods expectation. This
is in sharp contrast to the Jesus of love and empowerment in the N.T., and the God who
has broken down the Wall of the Law and 'reconciled the whole world
to himself' in Paul's teaching and 'in whom there is no darkness'
according to the author of I John.
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| Hell Depiction In The Book Of Revelation |
This is why Jung emphasizes that the
drama of the the relationship and redemption between God and Humanity
is still unfolding, and it is not just about the sin of humans(why
can't they get it right) but also about the imperfect love that has been
clearly displayed in God from the very earliest Genesis stories to
the wrathful image of Christ at the end of the Bible. This is why it
is so important that the Theology of our day needs to take into
account that 'God is still Speaking' and the story is not yet at all over and
done.. We should not forget that it was Jesus who promised that the
Holy Spirit would continue to guide humanity into more and more
truth. Formal religion, both Catholic and Protestant, represses this promise of Jesus because it places the final religious authority in the hands of the unseen but active Spirit rather than formal church doctrine as with Catholics or of a physical book, the Bible with the Protestants. This is where we still are religiously and spiritually according to the overall Bible Story. 'East
of Eden' was the 'dark and unknown mysterious place' where Cain found a
wife so the very title of the story leads us to the awareness that
the story of God is not fully arrived at 'perfect love and light ' but the goal of a long path involving much
suffering in Both God and the Human. The characters is this novel and
movie are experiencing this suffering in many of the same general
ways we all do. A fresh look at East Of Eden reminds me that this
classic movie of our American culture has the capacity to
lead us to reflect on the less than simple Biblical religious stories
that have shaped our lives.
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| Cal In Touch With His Care Of The Feminine In Outer Life |
Also, in East of Eden, the 'feminine' principle,
is represented in its shadow by Cal's mother who is a dark and earthy
figure and perhaps even a prostitute. ( This might make us recall
that rumor has it in the historic church that Mary Magdalene was a former
prostitute, and one of the most erotic scenes is where a strange
woman bathes Jesus' feet, with perfume or tears, and dries them with
her hair. This says something of the meaning of the feminine in
Jesus' inner life.) Genesis not only makes God all male and more
approving of Adam than Eve, but casts Eve into the role of cooperating
with Satan and being the human primary cause of sin in the world.
This set up a very strong foundation for the ancient patriarchy in
Hebrew and Christian religions as well as the sexism so prevalent in
Western civilization. Adam is cast in a much more favorable light in
Genesis than Eve just as the father and older son are in East of Eden.
 |
| Cal Discovering His Dark Unknown Mother |
Cal is
shown trying to uncover the missing part of God, the female, whom his
father has managed to denigrate and keep out of sight and out of his
life. But Cal nevertheless has a painful need and desire to reunite
with the' mother' as well as the 'father.'The Biblical story, as
powerful myth generated by the Collective Unconscious, is always
pushing toward completion and reconciliation of the God- Human
relationship and showing what a long and painful process it is for
both God and Human.
 |
The Questionable Feminine as Eve And Female Serpent- Notre Dame
|
Steinbeck, genius that he is, is aware of these
themes, certainly unconsciously in tune with them if not consciously,
and incorporates them into his story. And because his story so well
catches the meaning of the living archetypes, the story and movie
caught the strong attention of mid 20th century Bible influenced
Americans. The Collective Unconscious draws and affects us this way
long before we are conscious of it or able to articulate what the
archetypal influences are actually are saying to us, whether in
reading the Bible or absorbed in a creative and inspired story like East of
Eden. It connects with us because the archetypes are already the common
human inner foundations of us all.
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| Cal's Uncertainty Of His Acceptance By His 'Father.' |
The story simply begins to make
us conscious of our own inner reality. This kind of interpretive
process indicates how very important it is for us to see that the
Bible material is archetypal and mythological rather than primarily
historical or literal. The real message of religion is always and
must of necessity be the language of symbol, not direct human words
or literal history. Both the novel East of Eden and the movie affect
us at the symbolic level of communication. The Bible does this also
once we allow it to have its natural voice and refuse to impose onto
it a literal historical head-strong Western understanding. Once we do
that it becomes a matter of the head, going right over and missing
the heart. We are drawn to East of Eden by its symbolic message which
has the same archetypal author as the equivalent Biblical stories.
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