mesonma’s Reviews > East of Eden > Status Update

steinbeck has such a unique way of writing dialogue. the dialogues are not real. people do not speak like lee, abra, cal, adam, and aron do. they speak with their hearts between their teeth, and they bite down violently, allowing the blood to splatter in the faces of those they converse with. and those with the blood-stained faces do not care. except cathy. im starting to think she is the most human of the bunch.

kate’s hands are old and arthritic! she clasps them and covers them in pure, white, silk gloves, and removes them in the darkness of her room. she rages when people see the evil and writhes when she bends them towards activity. useless hands! hands that were once used to shoot and thieve and fornicate and lay idly are now rendered useless, incapable of the evil they once knew and the tenderness they never did.

this book is leaving me with a very meditative feeling. it’s so uneventful but so much is happening at the same time. steinbeck is a talent writer. writing about the human experience- in all its mundaneness and glory- is nothing short of difficult. but i suppose when one allows themself to feel every inch of life.. they’re only bound to be fluent.

the end of chapter 25 is such a satisfying chapter like yesssssss…
hate meets its match in love, evildoing in forgiveness, selfishness in selflessness. good will always triumph over evil. kate met her match in adam. he chose the path left travelled- goodness made her uneasy. she’s not used to it. wow.

i wonder… are there really people out there like cathy? i don’t mean people that don’t feel for others- i mean ppl that deliberately act in ways to harm others in even the minutest moments (although no moment is truly minute) of life, for not much of a selfish gain at the end? i wonder.. and also why? they must not believe in God, so what then is the purpose of such? maybe that is the reason…

so far, this book is calm but intriguing. i hate the ableism in the chapter where the author introduces cathy, though. it disgusts me.
the mellow on/off relationship between adam and charles post adam’s military service is very… understandable for some reason. although i think they get agitated too easily, particularly charles.