East of Eden’s STUFF

Before its over, I may end up writing five different blogs about John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. And since its a classic, thought-provoking, 600-page piece of art, I think it deserves the attention.

In college, I had a creative writing teacher who encouraged us to discuss the “Stuff” of different authors/works we read. The Stuff consists of the topics the author repeatedly brings up, the things you can tell are on the forfront of their mind, and the truths they were trying to understand by writing this piece. The Stuff is more broad and more specific than the theme. To me, the stuff always turns into a list, and East of Eden’s list may be longer than any other list of Stuff I’ve ever encountered before.

 **Check out my previous blog on East of Eden: “I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents.”

Before further ado, here it is.

• Religion, Biblical discussions
  

  What were you trying to discover, Mr. Steinbeck?What were you thinking, John?

• Farm culture
• The clash of cultures
• The evolution of culture
• Family and Ancestry
• Does our blood(ancestry) determine who we become?
• Meaning of Life (doesn’t every book??)
• The way Death finds us
• Truth, lies, and what they bring us
• What is at the root of happiness?
• Secrets
• Love vs Respect for parents
• The roles of a parent
• Single parenting
• The effects of inheriting large sums of money
• War
• Attitudes of soldiers/ reasons to become a soldier
• Theology
• Philosophy