If, as one of the lucky ones, you find yourself with time on your hands during a pandemic, there is an opportunity to read a classic novel. Fareed Zakaria’s Global Public Square (GPS) on CNN is my favourite Sunday morning viewing. Zakaria, a journalist and author, recommends great reads, and a few weeks ago he declared that East of Eden was, in his mind, the best American novel ever written. I purchased an audio book and was, quite literally, on my walking way. Twenty-five hours and twenty-three minutes later, after three bruised toes and countless kilometres paced out, I finished my COVID classic. My brain races with thoughts and my heart bursts with the intricacies of this great epic novel.
The book led me to think a great deal about brothers. I have two of my own, Ralph and Roger, who I mostly thought of as fatherly. I was younger than them by sixteen and eleven years. Now I am thinking about them as having their own relationship as brothers.
East of Eden is a book about brothers and stretches back to the story of Cain and Abel, who we first meet in Genesis 4:1-16 of the Bible. In this novel, which John Steinbeck thought was his greatest work, Adam and Charles are stepbrothers. Aaron (Aron) and Caleb (Cal) are twins and the Hamilton brothers are George, Tom, Will and Joe.
I let my mind loose on brothers. James and John (who Jesus nicknamed the Sons of Thunder), the Kennedy bothers (John, Robert and Ted), the Marx brothers (Chico, Harpo and Groucho), my dad and his brother (Fred and Albert), my children’s father and uncle (Bill and Ted ), and my own sons (David and Jonathan), whose brotherhood ended shortly after it began with Jonathan’s death as a baby. I also think about the hockey-playing Sedin twins (Henrik and Daniel) , the British Royal brothers (William and Harry), and the very topically-relevant NYC Cuomo brothers (Andrew and Chris). Let your own mind play with the pairs that come up for you; some personal and some public. This exercise is guaranteed to trigger memories.
The women of East of Eden are rather one-dimensional. There are a lot of them, but only three of significance. Cathy Ames (also known as Kate and Mrs. Adam Trask), the central woman in the story, is almost pure evil from the time she is a child. For starters, as a young adult she begins her murderous life by killing her parents, and in the end, as the madam of a sadomasochistic house of prostitution, she kills herself. Mrs. Liza Hamilton is a workhorse, tied to a literal interpretation of the Bible, who after a long life will take her broom to heaven to clean off the wings of angels. At the end of the book, Abra Bacon shows promise as a woman with a wise heart. She opens a new door within herself and emerges transformed, and also as a transformative person for others. I think that she, with the help of Lee, a wise male Chinese servant, changes the course of history for all the brothers and consequently for all the female characters as well.
However, East of Eden is a primarily story about the brothers in the Trask family. As a template for this relationship it offers the well known story of Cain and Abel. The Biblical story is a short one, told in sixteen verses. Adam and Eve bear two sons, the first is Cain and the second Abel. Cain is a farmer and Abel, a nomad, tends the sheep. Dutifully they make gifts to their Creator. Abel offers a fat lamb and Cain, the best fruits of his crop. Who knew it? God prefers meat for no apparent reason at all. Cain is naturally very angry and their sibling rivalry is born. In verse 7 God tells Cain to lighten up and promises that if he does well he will be loved, but that sin is always lurking at the door and he… How you fill in the rest of this sentence yields the core meaning of East of Eden. How we respond to the rage of jealousy or to any evil opportunity, constitutes for Steinbeck, humanity’s defining moment.
Steinbeck gives the task of understanding the next words of the story to Lee, a Cantonese cook. He is basically a servant to Adam Trask. He is a marvelously-drawn character and my favourite in the book. There are ways in which I have waited for years to meet him. This book was written in 1952, when the Chinese in North America were a beleaguered minority, working on railways, cooking and doing laundry. I grew up in a home whose laundry was often done by the Chinese laundry at the corner, which was run by a “Chinaman,” as we called him then, who did indeed speak pidgin English. Especially in this moment of growing anti-Chinese sentiment due to COVID-19, Lee is a person you must meet.
Lee is preoccupied with this story of fraternal conflict, and goes to great lengths to understand verse 7 of Genesis 4. He even learns Hebrew. God tells Cain that, in his fit of jealousy, he timshel, a Hebrew word with multiple possible meanings. Lee considers several of these possible meanings and their ramifications. In the process we get to digest Steinbeck’s theology.
1. In the first interpretation, Cain will conquer his urge to do a bad thing because God has promised that this will be the case. It is predetermined and a matter for God to decide.
2. In the second interpretation, Cain will rule over his urge to do evil. Now it is not a promise but an order. Cain, you must do the right thing. Cain be obedient.
3. And finally, there is the conclusion Lee arrives at after prolonged study: Cain may make a choice for good or bad. He has a choice. “Thou mayest” is how Lee translates the Hebrew word timshel.
In the Bible story, after God’s comment on Cain’s anger, Cain kills his brother, is marked by God so he will not be killed in retaliation and is banished to the land of Nod, which is east of Eden.
The whole book of East of Eden hinges upon timshel, its final word, and how you understand it. I have come to discover that if you want a literary tattoo, there are two crucial decisions, the word and its position on your body. “Timshel” is a very popular choice that will stand the test of time. Thus, East of Eden gives one an essential head-start on a tattoo. Yes, I am tempted.
Since I am psychotherapist, as a result of reading this novel I am preoccupied with thinking about brothers. Is it still true that a parent tends to favour one child over the other, in this case one boy over the other? There are no reasons given for God’s preference, which suggest this preference has a very ancient source. I think my eldest brother, Ralph, was favoured. This creates a mythology that is hard for Roger, his younger brother, to sort out. Ralph fought in WWII while Roger fought in what is often seen as the forgotten war, the Korean War. In my family this mattered. Consequently Roger worked very hard to be as favoured as his older brother. I think this is an effort that extends well beyond Ralph’s death. Once, in adult life, I had a fight with Roger, who was angry that I had not treated Ralph as he thought I should have. Ralph put his arm around me and said tenderly, “Ann, this is a fight you will never win. He loves me best and knows I can do no wrong.” Brothers know. I learned that love and adoration get very mixed up with envy and jealousy in this bond.
In East of Eden, Adam knows he is loved best and Aron knows he is loved best and Charles and Caleb know they are not. It happens overtly and covertly. I think the ones not loved remember it best and feel it most deeply. Steinbeck pulls you back to the Cain and Abel story masterfully. A stray puppy dog is chosen over a hard-earned special knife; a possible university diploma is preferred to a successful business venture. Is it ever thus?
In Journal of a Novel, Steinbeck writes: "As I went into the story [of East of Eden] more deeply I began to realize that without this story [of Cain and Abel]—or rather a sense of it—psychiatrists would have nothing to do. In other words this one story is the basis of all human neurosis—and if you take the fall along with it, you have the total of the psychic troubles that can happen to a human."
I invite you to consider your male clients afresh in the light of their brotherliness. What do they do with jealousy and rivalry? How has it affected their lives and the course of the history of their families? It is a diagnosis you will not find in the DSM (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)! It is also to be noted, that in the Cain and Abel story, God does not give up on Cain even for fratricide.
Cal thinks he killed his twin brother Aron. Abra attempts to pass on her wisdom and insight to him. Abra also helps Adam, as he lays dying, evolve in his relationship as a father to Cal and Aron. Steinbeck’s story is an important step forward in how we understand God in the Bible. I have so much more to say about brothers and free will, punishment and love, but to fill in the blanks here might be to spoil the possibility that you will expand your horizons with a magnificent read.