Aron is the beautiful blonde son of Adam and Catherine Trask. He grows up longing for the love of a mother, and his mind is not as complicated as that of his twin brother Cal. His view of the world is innocent and on the verge of naïve. He becomes engaged at a young age to a girl in his class named Abra—he often asks Abra to pretend to be his mother, and he develops an idealized image of her that she recognizes is not true love. When Aron learns the truth about his mother, he is devastated and joins the army. He is killed in the war.
Aron Trask Quotes in East of Eden
The East of Eden quotes below are all either spoken by Aron Trask or refer to Aron Trask. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Penguin Classics edition of East of Eden published in 1952.
Chapter 30
Quotes
“Dear Lord...let me be like Aron. Don’t make me mean. I don’t want to be…I don’t want to be mean. I don’t want to be lonely.”
Related Characters:
Caleb “Cal” Trask (speaker), Aron Trask
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Chapter 38
Quotes
Where Aron was received, Cal was rebuffed for doing or saying exactly the same thing.
Related Characters:
John Steinbeck (speaker), Caleb “Cal” Trask, Aron Trask
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Aron Trask Character Timeline in East of Eden
The timeline below shows where the character Aron Trask appears in East of Eden. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 17
...spell on Adam—that he can’t leave her side, and has barely given a thought to the twins .
(full context)
Chapter 22
...and Abel carry too much darkness in them, and. settle instead settle on Caleb and Aron. As Sam prepares to leave, Adam tell him his dream to build a garden has...
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Chapter 24
...in to see the boys—it has been ten years since he helped to name them. Aron has dropped the second A from his name and Caleb prefers to go by Cal....
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Chapter 27
...Trask’s yard with bows and arrows, hunting wild rabbits. They kill one—Cal offers to let Aron tell everyone he shot the rabbit, though Cal’s arrow is clearly the one that hit...
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Cal tells Aron he heard some men saying that their mother didn’t die—that she is still alive, and...
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...cover with them. The family consists of a husband and wife and a young girl. Aron is struck by the girl and is almost too shy to introduce himself. Cal snickers...
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...and gains it quickly, bossing the twins around. Cal can tell immediately that Abra likes Aron—he can see the beginnings of love forming in her eyes, for Aron is a strikingly...
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Aron offers to give Abra the rabbit they shot as a gift—when he goes inside to...
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Chapter 28
...the boys if they might like moving to the city to go to better schools. Aron likes the idea, because he knows Abra lives in Salinas. Cal wonders what would happen...
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Chapter 30
The boys pretend to drive the parked car as Lee prepares dinner. Aron asks Cal why Cal insists on doing sneaky, tricky things. He knows Cal said something...
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...with his brother, and says a prayer. He begs the lord to make him like Aron, to not make him mean and lonely. Aron wakes up, and asks Cal what he...
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Chapter 35
...Adam barely has time to remind Lee to write before Lee is out the door. Aron and Cal make a bet about Lee’s departure; Cal believes Lee is gone forever, and...
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Chapter 36
In Salinas, Cal and Aron begin their 7th grade education at their new school Cal is respected by everyone—teachers and...
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Abra tells Aron that she has heard rumors that his mother is still alive, and that she has...
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Aron is disturbed: either his mother is dead, or his father and Lee or liars, which...
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Chapter 37
Aron takes the failure much harder than his father. He is ridiculed in school and feels...
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Chapter 38
Cal craves affection, but it seems Aron is always better loved than he is. He does not have friends and lives his...
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...too, and Cal must always remember this. Cal agrees. Cal knows he can never tell Aron about his mother—Aron is not strong enough to handle it.
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Chapter 39
...resolves to be a better father. Cal hesitatingly opens up to Adam. He talks about Aron’s relationship with Abra; he tells his father that he loves his brother; but that he...
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...asks Cal what he wants. He says he doesn’t want anything. He tells her that Aron, his brother, looks like her. He asks her why she shot his father—she simply explains...
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Chapter 41
...has no effect on the people in the Salinas Valley—they live as they always have. Aron, meanwhile, has become deeply interested in religion, and in the process become solitary and introverted....
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Cal is determined to help Aron go to college and to earn back his father’s fortune lost on the lettuce experiment....
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Chapter 43
Aron has worked hard to get ahead in school, and he is set to graduate a...
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Adam assumes Aron will tell him as soon as his exams are finished, and Adam buys his son...
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Chapter 44
Aron goes off to Stanford for college, and is disappointed by the experience. He writes Abra...
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...day, Abra asks Cal to walk with her after school, and confides in him that Aron’s letter have been worrying her. She explains that Aron seems to be writing to himself,...
(full context)
Chapter 47
...sending boys off to war to be killed. Meanwhile, Adam looks forward to Thanksgiving when Aron will come home. For his part, Aron has grown increasingly disillusioned with his schooling and...
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Chapter 49
...gold certificates, from his business venture with Will Hamilton. But on the day of Thanksgiving, Aron asks for Lee to delay the meal which messes up Cal’s carefully calibrated timeline. Cal...
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Cal goes out for a walk that night. After a while Aron catches up with him. He tells Cal he is sorry his gift was not well...
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Chapter 50
...Alice as she writes out her will, in which she leaves everything to her son, Aron Trask. She thinks of Alice as she swallows the contents of her little vial. She...
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Chapter 51
Adam and Lee wait for Aron to come home. When they don’t see him for a while they ask Cal if...
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...the hall, slumped against the wall clutching a note in his hands. It is from Aron, and it reads “Dear Father, I’m in the army…don’t worry about me. Aron.”
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Chapter 52
...They have not talked in a while, and Abra tells Cal she has stopped loving Aron. In fact she has not loved him for quite some time. Abra agrees to go...
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Chapter 53
...putting flowers on his mother’s grave. He tells himself he is beginning to think like Aron.
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Chapter 55
When Cal and Abra return home, Lee is there to give them some terrible news. Aron is dead, and Adam has had a stroke. He cannot move or speak, and he...
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...at Caleb. Lee shouts that Caleb acted out of anger, and that his anger killed Aron. He tells Adam he must not crush Caleb with rejection. He begs Adam to give...
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