Summary:
Examines use of John Steinbeck's "symbol people" to tell a story in his novel East of Eden. Describes how the characters are imbued with lifelike characteristics, and through the interactions of the characters and their beliefs, the author is able to convey his moral ideology.
Many works of fiction are able to emotionally move the reader through the successful development of its characters. The characters are imbued with lifelike characteristics, and through the interactions of the characters and their beliefs, the author is able to convey his/her moral ideology, if s/he chooses to treat the work as an allegory. Steinbeck's East of Eden, however, seems to do the opposite. It appears that he has created the characters in order to represent his own personal theology. He declared in March of 1951 that "These people are essentially symbol people." These "symbol people...did not create the arguments the book embodied, but were created to project the arguments" (Twayne author series, John Steinbeck and the American Consciousness).
Just as the plot of the book, according to Steinbeck, is the struggle between good and evil, so.....
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