Saturday, July 10, 2010
Steinbeck as a character in his own novel
The novel is a combination novel/memoir; Steinbeck writes himself in as a minor character in the book, a member of the Hamilton family. What do you think he gained by morphing genres in this fashion? What distinguishes this from a typical autobiography? What do you think Steinbeck's extremely personal relationship to the material contributes to the novel?
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In "East of Eden" Steinbeck's major theme is the struggle between good and evil. This struggle can be found in individual characters like Cal or even between nations, like Germany and the United States during World War I (during which Aron died). Many people might say that since the battle between good and evil was so grand, this retracted attention from the individual's struggle. However, by inserting himself in his novel, Steinbeck made the novel extremely personal. By intertwining his own life into his novel, Steinbeck took the struggle between good and evil from the sweeping nations to the individual. Steinbeck made that struggle as much a part of his life as he did in the lives of his readers.
ReplyDeleteIn Steinbeck's novel, "East of Eden" Steinbeck combined fiction with his personal family history. By combining fiction and factual family history he had the ability to more broadly eleborate on the themes he wanted to discuss. Steinbecks personal relationship gives a personal view of the material and a practical backround. Steinbeck really knows what he is talking about in his writing and this helps give the book a feeling of authenticity.
ReplyDeleteI think that morphing the two genres is advantageous because it makes the author more intimate with the story he is telling while allowing flexibility for the variables of the plot and theme. Since the plot isn't tied down to any hard facts, Steinbeck is free to implement autobiographical information within a world he also invented, adding personal touch and granting him complete control of the intricacies and details of the storyline.
ReplyDeleteThat was Sam Z's comment right above, by the way.
ReplyDeleteI think by using his own family as characters it really allowed Steinbeck to poor his heart into this story. Even though he may have enhanced his family members, they still give the story a chunk of Steinbeck's history without it being a story specifically about John Steinbeck himself. Since the main lot of the story is good versus evil I like to think that the character Samuel is someone that may have actually helped Steinbeck choose a path in life that is good.
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