East of Eden: Style 1 key example

Both the Christian Bible and East of Eden tell their stories in relatively short chapters, jumping between characters' perspectives and connecting them to each other and to history. Additionally, Steinbeck often invokes the Bible linguistically, using phrases and verbiage either similar to or directly taken from passages in Genesis and other books. When he is not alluding to Bible passages directly, Steinbeck takes the time to evoke the famous book through other stylistic means: namely, figurative language. Much of the Bible is steeped in metaphor and allegory. These allegories and metaphors often mingle with historical fact, and it can be difficult to decipher the difference. East of Eden takes on some of this stylistic character: Steinbeck himself narrates the story, but does not always refer to himself in the first person, often becoming a third-person omniscient observer delivering stories to his audience. The Bible is structured like this too, with certain books narrated as individual testimony and others narrated in the third person, presented as objective historical record and fact.