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Irony
Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Fruitful:
Steinbeck models the first chapter of East of Eden after the creation story in Genesis. Each passage describes a different group of people who've lived in California's Salinas Valley, mirroring the language in Genesis used to describe each day of God's "creation." In Chapter 1, these subtle descriptive elements compliment the frequent allusions and metaphors:
Farmholds spread over the land, first in the valleys and then up the foothill slopes, small wooden houses roofed with redwood shakes, corrals of split poles. Wherever a trickle of water came out of the ground a house sprang up and a family began to grow and multiply.
In this passage, the narrator alludes to Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” The novel's allusion to "[growing]" and "[multiplying]" is clearly meant to make readers think of the book of Genesis and establish a link between the Bible's narratives of creation and earliest human society and the new communities spreading over the Salinas Valley.
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Explanation and Analysis—Nuclei:
The creation mythos Steinbeck composes in East of Eden frequently connects biological construction (of plants, humans, etc., which occurred in the biblical book of Genesis) to the construction of civilization. Westward expansion into California and the subsequent building of new towns parallel God's creation of the world in seven days. In Chapter 1, the narrator uses metaphor to connect this American creation myth to its biblical counterpart:
Every ten miles along the traveled routes a general store and blacksmith shop happened, and these became the nuclei of little towns, Bradley, King City, Greenfield.
Steinbeck's metaphor hinges on the word "nuclei," referring to the nucleus of a cell. In cell biology, nuclei are incredibly important: apart from containing the DNA, nuclei also contain all of the biological tools to read and transcribe the instructions in our genes into usable information. Through figurative language, Steinbeck equates cellular nuclei to the "general store[s]" and "blacksmith shop[s]" that popped up in every new town. These buildings are "nuclei" because towns form around them, yes—but they are also nuclei because they contain the tools to build whatever is needed. If the tools to build biological life are contained within the nucleus, the tools to build civilization are contained within general stores and blacksmith shops. Steinbeck thus neatly correlates biological structure and architectural structure.
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Explanation and Analysis—Spaniards:
In Chapter 1, Steinbeck sets up the basis for his "creation myth," centering the story in Salinas, California. In this creation myth, he uses metaphor and simile to describe the various different people groups who occupied the region:
Then the hard, dry Spaniards came exploring through, greedy and realistic, and their greed was for gold and God. They collected souls as they collected jewels. They gathered mountains and valleys, rivers and whole horizons, the way a man might now gain title to building lots.
Evangelism was one of the driving forces of colonial occupation, providing moral justification for geographic expansion. European powers could justify such expansion and violence to their populace by marketing imperialism as an opportunity for missionary work. Using simile and metaphor, Steinbeck outlines this connection between geographic/economic colonialism and religious colonialism. For the Spaniards and other European colonial forces, these systems were linked to one another: "souls" and "land" were acquired and colonized the same. These European powers thus considered indigenous "souls" a form of property, like jewels—something to hoard, buy, and sell. This rationale would extend to chattel slavery.
The Spaniards colonizing California also seize entire landscapes—a phenomenon Steinbeck compares to "[gaining] title to building lots." Ironically, this implies that the lands were justly and fairly handed over to colonizers, which was simply not the case.
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Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Machine:
In Chapter 3, Cyrus Trask gives a long speech to young Adam about the military. Oddly enough, in this speech, Cyrus does not express pure, uncritical reverence for the armed forces. Instead, he uses metaphor as a means of explaining the cold, harsh reality of the military system:
Once in a while there is a man who won't do what is demanded of 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. And if you can't finally give in, they'll vomit you up and leave you stinking outside.
A "machine" is used to metaphorically represent the American military industrial complex. Like a machine, the system mechanically churns out obedient soldiers, spitting or vomiting out any product it views as defective (that is, anyone who will not conform). Despite purporting to revere and take care of its veterans once they exit the service, many men were (and still are) left to deal with post-traumatic stress, disability, mental health issues, financial issues, and a whole host of other problems on their own. Many veterans end up homeless—which is what happens to Adam for a period of time.
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Explanation and Analysis—Parents and Gods:
A prominent theme in East of Eden is familial relation, in particular that of parents and children. This theme carries over from the Bible, in which parent-child relationships are often used to parallel the relationship between God and human beings. Take, for instance, the following passage from Chapter 3, which employs this metaphor directly:
The same click in the brain told Adam that his father was not a great man, that he was, indeed, a very strong-willed and concentrated little man wearing a huge busby. Who knows what causes this—a look in the eye, a lie found out, a moment of hesitation?—then god comes crashing down in a child's brain.
Using this biblical metaphor, Steinbeck likens Adam's relationship with Cyrus to a human's relationship with God. When they are young, children often view their parents—or adults in general—as gods, with unlimited knowledge and power. Children themselves, being so young, know very little, and the larger amount that adults know may seem relatively god-like. As children grow they begin to question their parents and challenge them. Adam Trask begins to question Cyrus; this questioning parallels the relationship between God and Adam's biblical namesake, whose sin was eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In doing so, Adam called God's character and wisdom into question.
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Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Biblical Clothing:
In the following excerpt from Chapter 5, Steinbeck describes the Hamilton family and Liza's child-rearing choices, specifically Liza's approach towards religion and ethics. Steinbeck uses a common biblical metaphor to describe this process of teaching morals:
These were the Hamiltons, and it was almost a miracle how Liza, skinny little biddy that she was, produced them year after year and fed them, baked bread, made their clothes, and clothed them with good manners and iron morals too.
Liza clothes her children with "good manners and iron morals," evoking the commonly-used biblical metaphor of "clothing oneself" in the morals and righteousness of God. This metaphor is a fitting connection for Liza, who is devoutly religious. The choice to parallel biblical writing and "clothe" the Hamilton kids with good morals is also stylistically important, as it contributes to the text's intended effect as a reimagining of Genesis.
Note the following Bible passages that use similar language to the metaphor above: "I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a turban" (Job 29:14); "It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints" (Revelation 19:8).
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Explanation and Analysis—Irish Ghost:
In the following passage from Chapter 5, Steinbeck uses metaphor to discuss Christian morality and religious guilt in the context of the Hamiltons' Irish heritage:
The Irish do have a despairing quality of gaiety, but they have also a dour and brooding ghost that rides on their shoulders and peers in on their thoughts. Let them laugh too loudly, it sticks a long finger down their throats.
In this excerpt, Steinbeck depicts the religious guilt and shame some Irish people feel as a "dour and brooding ghost" that polices their thoughts and actions, so as to prevent them from engaging in any variant of hedonism. The ghost of this religious shame has followed the Hamiltons all the way from Ireland to California. Even when they express some degree of gaiety, this ghost "sticks a long finger down their throats," a chilling image that suggests the Hamiltons' joy is abruptly choked off before it can become too dominant.
East of Eden takes a stance against such feelings of shame and guilt around indulgence, positing that they are unwarranted. Indulgence can end in immorality or even tragedy, but excessive regulation prevents people from living their lives to the fullest. In the novel, it is not indulgence, but over-indulgence, that is most likely to cause problems.
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Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Coyotes:
In Chapter 7, the narrator undertakes a explanation of so-called "wandering men," or vagrants, many of whom set out on the road for economic reasons during the Great Depression. Steinbeck uses metaphor in the following passage to describe the habits of these "wandering men":
[Wandering men] were brothers to the coyote which, being wild, lives close to man and his chickenyards: they were near towns but not in them. Associations with other men were for a week or for a day and then they drifted apart.
The comparison of men to coyotes in this passage is intended to signify not only the loneliness of a wandering lifestyle, but also the loneliness of masculinity within a patriarchal society focused on competition. The only real brotherhood Adam felt was in the army, where he could blend in and become part of the group. Outside of the army, without a goal to bring him and his fellow men together, Adam idles, restless and dissatisfied with life. This loneliness is exacerbated by American culture, which centers the individual, instead of the community, in its mythos. The "American Dream" focuses on individual success and achievement—a message that does not entirely negate community, but does further isolation.
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Explanation and Analysis—Beastiality:
In Chapter 7, Steinbeck chronicles Adam's experiences immediately after leaving the army. After his second enlistment period concludes, Adam becomes restless and turns to vagrancy, traversing much of the continental U.S. before being forced into a chain gang in Florida. Steinbeck uses metaphor to describe Adam's strategy for surviving this chain gang:
Near Tallahassee [Adam] was picked up by sheriff's men, judged vagrant, and put on a road gang. . . And now he learned how men can consider other men as beasts and that the easiest way to get along with such men was to be a beast.
The narrator states that, in order to survive being in a chain gang, Adam had to figuratively "be a beast."
Those who lead chain gangs view their prisoners as subhuman; therefore, Adam must become like an animal to survive, with no outward expressions of human dignity or character on display.
It is important to note that this metaphor, and others like it, hinge on a hierarchy of living beings that originated within Judeo-Christian ethics. This hierarchy, which places humans at the top and all other life forms below, ties into the order of creation in Genesis: God created plants and animals before humans, who are the final creations and pinnacle of creation, crafted in God's own image. The above metaphor relies on this assumed hierarchy for its meaning. If humans are superior to all other organisms, then the act of likening humans to animals becomes an act of degradation.
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Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Cathy's Education:
In Chapter 8, the narrator uses metaphor to describe Cathy's education, including the effect it has on her parents. Coming from a lower class background, Cathy's education very nearly puts her in a separate realm from her parents—or, at least, they view it this way:
Cathy was fourteen when she entered high school. She had always been precious to her parents, but with her entry into the rarities of algebra and Latin she climbed into the clouds where her parents could not follow. They had lost her. They felt that she was translated to a higher order.
This passage uses an interesting compilation of figurative language to depict the class divisions resulting from educational difference, capable of occurring even within a family. By receiving and embracing an education her parents did not receive, Cathy literally ascends to a "higher order," like some kind of saint.
Cathy's parents incorrectly conflate this educational—and therefore economic—ascension with a kind of moral ascension. Steinbeck depicts this common conflation using imagery, supporting his central metaphor of Cathy as a saint. She "climb[s] into the clouds," implying that she is ascending into heaven. As Christians raised in a Christian society, Mr. and Mrs. Ames would likely view heavenly ascension as the ultimate indicator of moral goodness. Cathy's educational ascension, her socioeconomic ascension, and her heavenly ascension are all connected in her parents' eyes.
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Explanation and Analysis—Governing Children:
The following passage from Chapter 8 draws on East of Eden's central theme of parent/child relationships. The narrator uses metaphor to compare Cathy to a horse, bridled by her mother:
She felt, as most parents do at one time or another, that she was losing control, that the bridle put in her hands for the governing of Cathy was slipping through her fingers.
Other literary elements in this passage support this metaphor's meaning, extending it beyond the metaphor itself. Steinbeck uses passive language to communicate both Cathy's and her mother's lack of agency in their situation. The bridle is "put in [Cathy's mother's] hands for the governing of Cathy." If this excerpt were phrased to bolster her agency, rather than diminish it, Steinbeck might have written "the bridle she used to govern Cathy," or something similar. Instead, Steinbeck's use of language in this passage implicates some third actor, neither Cathy nor her mother, who has a hand in determining how this parent-child relationship plays out. Steinbeck implies this third actor to be some kind of deity or higher power, evoking the Christian idea that God appoints parents to be "governors" and rulers over their children—a duty in which Cathy's mother is evidently failing.
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Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Fear and Love:
In a fit of anger at being manipulated, Mr. Edwards takes Cathy into the countryside in Chapter 9 with the intent to harm her. Once they arrive, this initial formless sentiment hardens and coalesces into something more sinister: homicide. The narrator describes Mr. Edwards's emotions as he attempts to murder Cathy:
[Mr. Edwards's] chest and stomach turned to molten metal and a redness glowed in his head behind his eyes. There was real fear mixed up in his love, and the precipitate from the mixing of these two is cruelty.
The imagery and metaphor in this excerpt depict Mr. Edwards's physical anatomy and emotional landscape as a forge, into which fear and love combine to produce cruelty.
This passage connects intimately with several key themes in East of Eden, one of them being moral relativity. Steinbeck reveals through Mr. Edwards, among other characters, that love is not a unitary concept, nor is it universally moral or good. Love is messy and can even lead to unjust or horrific action. In the above passage it is the combination of fear and love—two emotions not typically associated with immoral action—that provoke Mr. Edwards to murder Cathy. He fears her control over him, despite loving her, and acts cruelly as a result.
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