East of Eden by John Steinbeck

I promised myself that I pour my heart and soul in every review of books I love that impacted me to the point of considering them my favorite books of all time. That is the case of East of Eden. This is a story filled with tragicality, suffering, reality and sin. This is considered to be Steinbeck's masterpiece, even by himself. And I think that it holds the title very well. This novel is an accomplishment on literature and on Steinbeck's narrative; it felt like a glimpse of everything that he is capable of. He writes about what is most immediate to him and everything that is contrived by the human soul. The problem of the correct moral path and the ethical choice is one of many themes Steinbeck tackles in this beautiful novel. It's written with heart and soul, blood and tears. Pen and paper, because the fundamental value of this novel is for the human to develop and the human to absorb. That which was engraved in the 600 pages of this novel is posthumous and extremely quintessential. It's a statement of what the thoughtful and philosophical mind can achieve once it reaches the end of the well.

The problem of morality
Timshel (thou mayest) is the force that guides the characters throughout their decisions and also that guides the reader and every human stepping on earth. This is not a matter of Christianity, but a matter of human condition. The idea that a man is born blank and that he is responsible of his own destiny, particularly on the moral pathway. Humans are born with the innate capacity of deciding right from wrong, and once they have chosen, they have the liberty of sticking to their choice. This is free will at its best. Thou mayest is now revealed as the ultimate choice of man. The choice of choosing to free himself from hereditary sin. He chooses the moral pathway of the sinful creek that guides men towards the ultimate doom of time. The decision of being good and bad is for one to decide and for one to maintain or abandon. "The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man", it is individual, universal and pure. Nothing has more power than the lonely mind of a man. Suppression of this is condemning him. We might as well set him free to do whatever he pleases. Even hereditary sin is alluring for a man free of choice, and it is for no one to criticize him.
Given this, is crime pure in itself? Crime is the expression of human liberty. Deciding to be bad is nobler than not having to decide at all. It's a matter of being able to decide, and not a matter of the right subjective doctrine. There's no godliness in being subjected to a certain lifestyle or morale, but there is indeed a whole world of deity in choice. Only the greater gods are able to decide for their destiny and the destiny of others. When a man is gifted with the great choice he is then able to compare himself shoulder to shoulder with the deity. He decides not only for himself but also for others, since his life is a direct influence on somebody else's life. The decision to change is directly attributable to the change in society because a man is inevitably endorsed to his society. He then is god, since he is the master of his own destiny and the owner of his condition. That is the fundamental choice.

Lee and Sam, the Salinas philosophy
Lee appears in the novel as a servant dedicated to the wellbeing of the Trasks. He is a protestant of the decaying human and a defendant of the human soul. He used to talk pidgin to expose the phony nature in the everyday life, the uninterested others. He is a mediator of wisdom so that he finds himself taking over the decisions carried out in the Trask household, being both an advisor and a repressor. Lee is a philosopher that loves sinking himself into deep thinking, always trying to figure out the necessities of the human mind. His school of thought is more centered in the idea of transcending the basic establishment of the human condition. He despises not being enough and always searches for a way of destroying the natural binds that hold men back. Lee is the moral dispenser that guides Cal towards the path of righteousness, always inviting him to renounce hereditary sin and to choose for himself. He is the one that introduces timshel to the novel and that says everything about his philosophy.
Steinbeck uses him also as a protest against prejudice. Under the pidgin mask there is a whole universe of knowledge and wisdom that the decadent is not capable of perceiving or exploring. The decadent is not bothered by the nuances and is centered only on the evident. He is intransigent of life, not able to tolerate the richness and not even bothered to explore his own life. If he is not able to perceive his own life he is inevitably lost. Once we cannot see what is more evident and in front of our visual spectrum, we are deprived of the peripheral vision that enriches life itself. Lee toys with the decadent as they were, and they're not even noticing it. This is extremely satirical on Steinbeck's part as a form of wake up call to everyone that has been tempted towards the Decadent Syndrome.
Samuel, on the other hand is tormented by the responsibility. He is nosy, sticking his face where it doesn't belong in a way to correct human behavior or possibly guiding it to the righteous path. It is an evident connection between the two schools of thought, shared by Lee and Samuel. They seem to devout themselves towards the wellbeing of society and those who are most important to them. Samuel is a hard worker that earned his life by doing honest work. He earned every single cent that he owned, he wasn't used to waste since every chance he had he profited from it. His work in the Trask family is also hard work, he put his whole soul for the wellbeing of the family. He devoted his whole life to others.
The philosophical thought of both of these characters combined are pure moralism. They both are set on the righteous path that one can achieve once he conquers sin deciding for himself and once they contribute to society. Happiness based on freewill and utility. No one wants to be a lump in the endless prairie. No one has got to be a waste and occupation of air in the space. Every man has decision and what he chooses to do from that, will define his utility towards society. We must strive to identify falsities on the human condition, we must strive to attain a fundamental status of consciousness for everything and for everyone.

Hereditary sin
Caleb and Aron are born from sin. Cathy Ames is the ultimate representation of evil and even Satan given the bibilical references in the novel. She is the example of nature beating nurture, when apparently a just and happy life isn't enough to withhold the evil that rises from within Cathy. Her son, Caleb is born with hereditary sin and the predisposition of being evil. He is tormented by the fact that he is obligated to commit atrocities, justifying himself in his ancestry for doing so. The only difference is that he is born with the natural obligation of choice (justifying the final line of the novel). He is a man free of choice unlike his mother, making her less human. She is the incarnation of evil that seems to have been born evil because there is no other explanation. Cathy isn't born with a choice and her early steps on earth are the same steps that represent her dehumanization.
Aron, on the other part, is completely pure but still condemned. He is condemned to torment and the indecision. Aron is no longer part of being useful to life or even being useful for himself. One of the major cataclysms in the history of humanity is being bereaved from one's utility.He was born with the indecision, otherwise known as failure or not being enough. He had beautiful traits and a beautiful relationship with Abra, but was deeply condemned to misery. Aron was suddenly stricken by the knowledge of his own origins, and this ended up ruining his existence. Now, he finally understood the roots of his angst, the roots of his despair and his inability. Everything that was now left was to deepen himself in shame or remorse boldly and without boundaries now that he discovered the pungent steam that had always been inside him. He had always been weak but he had never been aware. With the two combined, the human thought is derived to commiseration.

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Third favorite Steinbeck novel and one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. I didn't expect this book being so tragic, but I guess John Steinbeck is a very tragic writer. His ideas in this novel are poignant, clear and concise. He interprets his own thoughts so that we fully understand his statements by the end of the novel. I love how he is able to relate the human failure with everyday thoughts, reminding us that failure is out there and must be destroyed. We must conquer sin and frivolity of thought in order to reach wisdom and success. Wisdom is acquired by experience but also from deciding. As I stated earlier, the decision is our own and for us to expand on. Both the experience, good or bad, ends us teaching us something that may be worthwhile, and keeps reminding us of the constant battle between ourselves and hereditary sin. He invites us to embrace our descent while being proud of our ancestry. Family is what builds us but also something that may destroy us. It is our responsibility as human thinkers and individuals to decide whether or not we should follow the beauty or the damnation. We should always be proud of what we have become for ourselves because it is the ultimate oeuvre of our own artistry. When the artist is not satisfied with his oeuvre he makes a new one or embraces his mistake. And the artist persists on his craft.

Finally, a collection of my favorite passages from the novel:
- "It is easy out of laziness, out of weakness, to throw oneself into the lap of deity, saying, 'I couldn't help it; the way was set' But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man."
- "I think that if rejection could be amputated, the human would not be what he is"
- "You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. You see what is, where most people see what they expect."
- "The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man."
- "Once in a while there is a man who won't do what is demanded to him, and do you know what happens? The whole machine devotes itself coldly to the destruction of his difference. They'll beat your spirit and your nerves, your body and your mind, with iron rods until the dangerous difference goes out of you [...] A thing so triumphantly illogical, so beautifully senseless as an army can't allow a question to weaken it."

"A great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting- only the deeply personal and familiar."
I believe this is one of those transcendental stories.