Classically Abby - February 14, 2020


EAST OF EDEN CLASSIC BOOK REVIEW ｜｜ What did I think？？


Episode Stats

Length

8 minutes

Words per Minute

180.71193

Word Count

1,589

Sentence Count

72

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

In this episode, I review John Steinbeck's classic, East of Eden. I talk about how beautifully written the book is, the characters, and the plot. I also talk about the main character, Kathy Trask.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello, beautiful ladies, and welcome to today's video where we're going to be doing a classic book review of East of Eden.
00:00:08.700 I thought it would be cool to start incorporating into my channel a series of book reviews and classics that I really love,
00:00:16.440 maybe some books that are more new and not just classics, but books that I've really loved and also books that maybe I didn't enjoy so much
00:00:23.100 that are also considered classics. So I really wanted to start this series, and I figured I would start it off with East of Eden.
00:00:29.160 So I just recently finished East of Eden, and I had been wanting to read this book for I cannot tell you how long.
00:00:36.460 It had been something that had been on my list for, I'm not kidding, probably 5 or 10 years. Is that possible?
00:00:43.440 I mean, yeah, I think it could be. And so I just really wanted to sit down and read it, and I finally had the time.
00:00:50.360 So I picked it up from the bookstore, and I started reading it. And I have to tell you that the first chapter put me off a number of times.
00:01:01.080 So I had a plan this time going in, because I'm not a big description person unless it's really warranted.
00:01:07.500 If you start giving me a lot of description right at the top, it'll lose me pretty quickly.
00:01:12.140 So I wanted to see if I could make it through that, because I knew that the book wasn't really about the description of the land
00:01:20.440 and how that, you know, played into the characters. I knew that was part of it, but I also knew that the book was more about characters than anything else.
00:01:28.500 So what I did was I actually purchased the audiobook on Audible.
00:01:32.460 And the audiobook of East of Eden is fantastic. If you are interested in listening to this rather than reading it, I would highly recommend it.
00:01:41.560 And being able to listen to that first chapter kind of allowed me to move through the rest of it.
00:01:47.100 Now, what ended up happening is I probably listened to 80% of it and read about 20% of it, and it was amazing.
00:01:56.320 The plot of the book is really fascinating. It traces two families, the Hamiltons and the Trasks,
00:02:03.820 and you get two generations of these families, and really three for the Trasks,
00:02:09.920 talking about how they are kind of reenacting the biblical story of Cain and Abel throughout the generations.
00:02:17.740 So it's a really fascinating look into all of the characters' lives and how they interact and into their minds,
00:02:23.980 but it's also written in an incredibly gripping way. It's really hard to put down once you've started it.
00:02:29.940 So let's start off by talking about how well this book is written.
00:02:33.620 This book is gripping. It starts off a little bit slow because you get a big description of the setting of where most of the book takes place,
00:02:42.680 so Salinas Valley, which is where John Steinbeck grew up.
00:02:45.640 But after that, once he starts getting into the characters, you're hooked because every character is really distinct,
00:02:52.960 and he gives us an opportunity to look into their minds, which is amazing.
00:02:58.100 The book is supposedly written from a third-person limited perspective, so theoretically there's a narrator,
00:03:03.960 but in fact you do end up in the minds of many characters, which would mean that the book was written really more third-person omniscient.
00:03:12.020 So there is kind of an overlap there, but it is really fascinating to read about all these characters.
00:03:17.140 There's a few big main characters. Let's talk about them.
00:03:19.720 When we talk about the Trask family, we're focusing on Adam Trask, Charles Trask, those are two brothers,
00:03:26.640 and then Adam Trask's children, who are Caleb and Aaron.
00:03:31.180 It really focuses on the relationship between the two brothers and how that parallels the biblical story of Cain and Abel.
00:03:39.160 The way that Steinbeck chooses to address these characters and their struggles is really moving,
00:03:44.420 because you feel for everyone in the book. It's not a wicked situation where he's trying to make the good guy bad and the bad guy good.
00:03:50.460 It's more trying to understand the people who have bad motivations,
00:03:57.100 but you know that he's not doing the wicked thing because he has a truly evil character in this book,
00:04:03.080 and that is Kathy Ames.
00:04:04.780 So Kathy Ames is drawn from the beginning as an evil character,
00:04:08.060 and I think that it's really fascinating that he does have a just, straight, evil character.
00:04:14.200 There are certain people in this world who are just evil,
00:04:17.480 and for him to just show a character as evil, I know it's controversial.
00:04:21.060 A lot of people don't like that he did that.
00:04:22.740 They wanted to see her have some sort of growth in any direction,
00:04:25.940 but there are some people who do not change and who are just bad.
00:04:28.840 So to have that written, I think, is a really cool and interesting exploration of her and her character and her mind.
00:04:37.600 And then you have the characters who do struggle with having evil impulses and don't want to have evil impulses,
00:04:43.320 and it's a beautiful picture of human nature,
00:04:48.980 and I think that John Steinbeck really accomplishes what he set out to accomplish in this book.
00:04:54.560 The struggle between Cal and Aaron is probably what makes the crux of this book so fascinating.
00:05:01.200 It's interesting because they made a movie of East of Eden.
00:05:03.620 It's one of the only movies that James Dean was ever in,
00:05:06.380 and they only focused on the relationship between Cal and Aaron,
00:05:11.240 which really only makes up like the last third of the book.
00:05:14.340 So much more of the book focuses on Kathy and Adam and their relationship and on Sam Hamilton.
00:05:20.940 So the Hamilton family is supposed to be kind of a contrast to the Trasks.
00:05:27.680 The Trasks have a lot of strife in their family.
00:05:30.120 There's a lot of struggle.
00:05:31.560 And the Hamiltons, the kind of head of the family, is a good man,
00:05:36.940 and it's interesting to see how Steinbeck has that play out in his family.
00:05:40.940 He doesn't just say,
00:05:42.000 oh, there's a good man, and so everything is easy on that side of the story,
00:05:47.640 that that whole family now has it easy.
00:05:49.880 Not at all, which I think is great,
00:05:52.180 because it doesn't make it so,
00:05:53.960 okay, here's one side, here's the other side,
00:05:55.820 one's black, one's white.
00:05:57.100 Not at all.
00:05:57.940 It's just,
00:05:59.000 this is a man who is good,
00:06:01.160 and his children are struggling with also being good.
00:06:04.200 Whereas you have on the other side,
00:06:06.400 this is a family where the head of it,
00:06:08.980 not Adam, actually his father,
00:06:11.120 his father started off and was dishonest,
00:06:14.160 and how did that play out through the generations?
00:06:16.800 But the struggle for many of the characters in the book
00:06:20.720 is how to deal with not being the favorite of their father.
00:06:25.480 And in this book,
00:06:26.540 it really plays out as a fascinating study
00:06:29.540 of how you need to learn how to deal with that,
00:06:32.400 and it can't necessarily be solved.
00:06:35.800 Besides just the characters themselves
00:06:38.000 and how they process information,
00:06:41.280 the other interesting and incredibly wonderful part of this
00:06:45.240 is the interpersonal relationships
00:06:47.020 between all the characters and how they all interact.
00:06:49.720 And I ended up just almost crying at the end of the book
00:06:54.140 because it really is so moving.
00:06:56.520 And if you had to ask me my favorite character in the book,
00:06:59.300 it would probably be Samuel Hamilton.
00:07:01.560 He goes out of his way to do so much good
00:07:04.560 for the other people in this story.
00:07:07.760 But I also really understand Adam Trask's character
00:07:11.280 and the struggles that he goes through.
00:07:14.100 It's just every character you can really identify with,
00:07:17.840 even though maybe not necessarily Kathy,
00:07:20.160 but her parts of the story are fascinating.
00:07:23.800 So it kind of makes up for the fact
00:07:26.640 that you might not necessarily understand her
00:07:28.920 and like relate to her,
00:07:30.860 but she's also just a really,
00:07:34.060 it's a wonderful insight into just an evil, evil character.
00:07:39.060 In a way, I would say that this book
00:07:40.640 is sort of like Russian literature
00:07:42.820 in that you get so much of the characters' inside workings
00:07:49.060 and trying to understand their minds.
00:07:52.540 And in a way, not much happens, but a lot happens.
00:07:56.960 So it's just kind of an interesting look into this world.
00:08:02.100 And Steinbeck's kind of own study
00:08:04.700 of how does good and evil coexist in this world?
00:08:08.700 How do we as humans struggle with our bad impulses
00:08:11.520 and make better choices?
00:08:13.560 And what do we do in the moments
00:08:16.180 where we aren't the chosen one,
00:08:18.200 where we aren't the favorite?
00:08:19.980 And how do we respond?
00:08:21.700 So I just think this is a great book.
00:08:24.260 Let me know in the comments,
00:08:25.360 have you read this book?
00:08:26.380 What did you think about it?
00:08:27.500 Would you be interested in reading it?
00:08:28.800 Would you like to see more of these kinds of book reviews?
00:08:31.680 And are there any other books
00:08:32.840 that you would like to recommend to me
00:08:34.460 that I can talk about on my channel?
00:08:35.920 Please let me know in the comments.
00:08:37.300 Thank you guys so much for watching today's video.
00:08:39.560 Please subscribe to my channel and blog
00:08:41.260 if you haven't already.
00:08:42.460 Head over to my Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
00:08:44.320 and follow me there.
00:08:45.380 And I'll see you guys in my next video.
00:08:47.260 Bye!