{"id":1620,"date":"2004-08-30T17:05:06","date_gmt":"2004-08-30T21:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=1620"},"modified":"2024-10-27T17:59:54","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T21:59:54","slug":"east-of-eden-re-visited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=1620","title":{"rendered":"<i>East of Eden<\/i> Re-Visited"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;source=ac&#038;ref=tf_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=thesheivari-20&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=US&#038;placement=0140186395&#038;asins=0140186395&#038;linkId=2XQWFU5GVDFCO35K&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.erinoconnor.org\/archives\/001007.html\">Erin talks about <i>East of Eden<\/i> here in this wonderful post <\/a>.  She&#8217;s re-reading it &#8220;with immense satisfaction&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The first time I read this magnificent book was when I was in high school, I think I was 15. I read it because I had seen the movie, and loved it so much I wanted to crawl into my television screen.  Of course.  I tried so hard to peek through that willow tree, which obscures Cal and Abra&#8217;s kiss &#8230; I wanted to sneak in the bushes to see it &#8230; I wanted to be in that ferris wheel with him &#8230; etc. etc.  (Some things never change.)  The movie only portrays the last section of Steinbeck&#8217;s book, that describes the latest generation, the WWI generation, and the tormented relationship of the &#8220;Cain and Abel&#8221; sons.  I forgave Steinbeck for not writing the movie, exactly, (heh) and forgave him for making Cal (ahem Jimmy Dean ahem) a relatively minor character in the book.  It didn&#8217;t really matter, because the book sucked me into its vastness, its majesty &#8230; There&#8217;s SO MUCH in it.<\/p>\n<p>To me, the real revelation was Cathy, the mother, with the terrifying past, who became the whore-mistress.   I mentioned her in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=1614\">this post on the Manson murders<\/a>.  Cathy is the vehicle for Steinbeck&#8217;s musing on evil, and the nature of sheer pure evil.  She&#8217;s a terrifying construction, supremely evil yes, but still completely believable, not at all a cipher.  That is why she scared me so much.  She&#8217;s not just a symbol.  You can tell that Steinbeck is actually getting at something here, he&#8217;s looking at a type, a type of person who really <i>does <\/i>walk the planet.  There are some people who are un-redeemable.  At least that&#8217;s how I remember the Cathy sections.<\/p>\n<p>The second time I read <i>East of Eden<\/i> was years later.  My boyfriend and I read it together.  The first time around, I was really just aching for the Cal scenes &#8211; because, after all, Jimmy Dean played Cal, and I was in love with Jimmy Dean.<\/p>\n<p>But the second time around, I really <i>got<\/i> the scope of the book.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s nothing less than encyclopedic.  Reading Erin&#8217;s post has made me think I should read it again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Erin talks about East of Eden here in this wonderful post . She&#8217;s re-reading it &#8220;with immense satisfaction&#8221;. The first time I read this magnificent book was when I was in high school, I think I was 15. I read &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=1620\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[476,856],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1620"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178062,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions\/178062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}