A review by bargainbinkazbrekker
East of Eden by John Steinbeck

4.0

There’s a lot of feelings I have about this book. On one hand it’s a brilliantly crafted and told story with memorable characters, fanatical characterizations of biblical themes and figures, and a gripping plot but on the other hand, I have issues with the portrayal Steinbeck chose for Eve or who to have as his Eve figure. She’s portrayed as the bringer of evil, a heartless soulless woman who manipulates men into doing her bidding and sows destructive, pain, and cruelty everywhere she goes. I don’t know, something about that rubs me the wrong way; Eve’s been portrayed and used as a way to demote, demonize, and oppress women for hundreds of years, I’m not a big fan of the book continuing to blame her for the “downfall of man”. There was such a great opportunity to circumvent our expectations much like Steinbeck did with other biblical figures in this very same book, yet he chose to go with the “Eve is the root of all Evil on Earth” route.