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Irony
Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Key Examples in East of Eden
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Spaniards:
In Chapter 1, Steinbeck sets up the basis for his "creation myth," centering the story in Salinas, California. In this creation myth, he uses metaphor and simile to describe the various different people groups who occupied the region:
Then the hard, dry Spaniards came exploring through, greedy and realistic, and their greed was for gold and God. They collected souls as they collected jewels. They gathered mountains and valleys, rivers and whole horizons, the way a man might now gain title to building lots.
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Explanation and Analysis—Fruitful:
Steinbeck models the first chapter of East of Eden after the creation story in Genesis. Each passage describes a different group of people who've lived in California's Salinas Valley, mirroring the language in Genesis used to describe each day of God's "creation." In Chapter 1, these subtle descriptive elements compliment the frequent allusions and metaphors:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Farmholds spread over the land, first in the valleys and then up the foothill slopes, small wooden houses roofed with redwood shakes, corrals of split poles. Wherever a trickle of water came out of the ground a house sprang up and a family began to grow and multiply.
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Explanation and Analysis—Nuclei:
The creation mythos Steinbeck composes in East of Eden frequently connects biological construction (of plants, humans, etc., which occurred in the biblical book of Genesis) to the construction of civilization. Westward expansion into California and the subsequent building of new towns parallel God's creation of the world in seven days. In Chapter 1, the narrator uses metaphor to connect this American creation myth to its biblical counterpart:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Every ten miles along the traveled routes a general store and blacksmith shop happened, and these became the nuclei of little towns, Bradley, King City, Greenfield.
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Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Machine:
In Chapter 3, Cyrus Trask gives a long speech to young Adam about the military. Oddly enough, in this speech, Cyrus does not express pure, uncritical reverence for the armed forces. Instead, he uses metaphor as a means of explaining the cold, harsh reality of the military system:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Once in a while there is a man who won't do what is demanded of him, and do you know what happens? The whole machine devotes itself coldly to the destruction of his difference. They'll beat your spirit and your nerves, your body and your mind, with iron rods until the dangerous difference goes out of you. And if you can't finally give in, they'll vomit you up and leave you stinking outside.
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Explanation and Analysis—Parents and Gods:
A prominent theme in East of Eden is familial relation, in particular that of parents and children. This theme carries over from the Bible, in which parent-child relationships are often used to parallel the relationship between God and human beings. Take, for instance, the following passage from Chapter 3, which employs this metaphor directly:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The same click in the brain told Adam that his father was not a great man, that he was, indeed, a very strong-willed and concentrated little man wearing a huge busby. Who knows what causes this—a look in the eye, a lie found out, a moment of hesitation?—then god comes crashing down in a child's brain.
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Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Irish Ghost:
In the following passage from Chapter 5, Steinbeck uses metaphor to discuss Christian morality and religious guilt in the context of the Hamiltons' Irish heritage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The Irish do have a despairing quality of gaiety, but they have also a dour and brooding ghost that rides on their shoulders and peers in on their thoughts. Let them laugh too loudly, it sticks a long finger down their throats.
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Explanation and Analysis—Biblical Clothing:
In the following excerpt from Chapter 5, Steinbeck describes the Hamilton family and Liza's child-rearing choices, specifically Liza's approach towards religion and ethics. Steinbeck uses a common biblical metaphor to describe this process of teaching morals:
Unlock with LitCharts A+These were the Hamiltons, and it was almost a miracle how Liza, skinny little biddy that she was, produced them year after year and fed them, baked bread, made their clothes, and clothed them with good manners and iron morals too.
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Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Coyotes:
In Chapter 7, the narrator undertakes a explanation of so-called "wandering men," or vagrants, many of whom set out on the road for economic reasons during the Great Depression. Steinbeck uses metaphor in the following passage to describe the habits of these "wandering men":
Unlock with LitCharts A+[Wandering men] were brothers to the coyote which, being wild, lives close to man and his chickenyards: they were near towns but not in them. Associations with other men were for a week or for a day and then they drifted apart.
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Explanation and Analysis—Beastiality:
In Chapter 7, Steinbeck chronicles Adam's experiences immediately after leaving the army. After his second enlistment period concludes, Adam becomes restless and turns to vagrancy, traversing much of the continental U.S. before being forced into a chain gang in Florida. Steinbeck uses metaphor to describe Adam's strategy for surviving this chain gang:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Near Tallahassee [Adam] was picked up by sheriff's men, judged vagrant, and put on a road gang. . . And now he learned how men can consider other men as beasts and that the easiest way to get along with such men was to be a beast.
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Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Cathy's Education:
In Chapter 8, the narrator uses metaphor to describe Cathy's education, including the effect it has on her parents. Coming from a lower class background, Cathy's education very nearly puts her in a separate realm from her parents—or, at least, they view it this way:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Cathy was fourteen when she entered high school. She had always been precious to her parents, but with her entry into the rarities of algebra and Latin she climbed into the clouds where her parents could not follow. They had lost her. They felt that she was translated to a higher order.
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Explanation and Analysis—Governing Children:
The following passage from Chapter 8 draws on East of Eden's central theme of parent/child relationships. The narrator uses metaphor to compare Cathy to a horse, bridled by her mother:
Unlock with LitCharts A+She felt, as most parents do at one time or another, that she was losing control, that the bridle put in her hands for the governing of Cathy was slipping through her fingers.
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Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Fear and Love:
In a fit of anger at being manipulated, Mr. Edwards takes Cathy into the countryside in Chapter 9 with the intent to harm her. Once they arrive, this initial formless sentiment hardens and coalesces into something more sinister: homicide. The narrator describes Mr. Edwards's emotions as he attempts to murder Cathy:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[Mr. Edwards's] chest and stomach turned to molten metal and a redness glowed in his head behind his eyes. There was real fear mixed up in his love, and the precipitate from the mixing of these two is cruelty.
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