Faith 1
Faith M. Denny
Mr. Fineran
AP Lit
24 September 2014
The movie East of Eden has many allusions throughout it. A main one is how Cal and Aron show similarities with Cain and Abel (two brothers in The Bible). In the biblical version, Cain murders his brother, then is cast away from his family. When cast away, he is doomed to live east of Eden. Although there had been many similarities up to then, when Cal (basically) murders Aaron, he is not cast out. Instead, Cal is saved.
Throughout Cal's entire life, he feels that he is 'bad'. He constantly uses this term to describe his life and how he is feeling. At one point, Cal says, "Every person only has a certain amount of good in them and a certain amount of bad." He feels that evil mostly influences him and that causes him to act the way he does.
Cain leads Abel to death
15th century depiction of Cain and Abel, Speculum ...
Cain And AbelHis thoughts are reaffirmed when he discovers that his mother is a heavy drug dealer and basically the runner of a local trap house. His realization of where he comes from leads to more destructive habits.
As his destructive habits build, he tries to repress them and earn his father's love, but he goes about it in the wrong way. Cal borrows money from his mother, invests it, and earns enough to give his father what he lost in the ice business. His father does not see this act as thoughtful as Cal intended it to be. Instead of being excited, his father is disgusted and instructs him to return the money. This causes Cal to drift even further away from his father.
While Cal is drifting away from his father, he becomes closer to Abru. A main reason that Cal chooses to stay and is not...