SOURCE: Meyer, Michael J. “Finding a New Jerusalem: The Edenic Myth in John Steinbeck.” In Literature and the Bible, edited by David Bevan, pp. 95-116. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1993.

In the following excerpt, Meyer considers the Edenic myth in the stories of The Pastures of Heaven.

Even as the earliest settlers set foot on the shores of America, one of the predominant goals that brought them to this new country was the belief that God had ordained a new Eden/Jerusalem/Canaan for His chosen people. The land, a fertile garden in the eyes of newcomers, appeared to have all the requirements of the Biblical cities and countries that were associated with faith and rebirth, with innocence and sinlessness. Therefore it was no surprise that the colonists, mostly devout Puritans, proclaimed America to be a reclaimed garden of Eden—a place where the true believer could claim what was impossible...