What do you guys think of 'East of Eden'? Been sitting on my shelf for years and im thinking about picking it up finally. Is it worth my time?
Yes. It's Steinbeck's best novel imo. The Bible parallels are pretty heavy handed, but Edith is an interesting character. Has some very notable scenes. It's also easy to read and won't take much time despite the length.
>>8182356
hey I never read the Bible and I ever will. can u tell me what bible bits to know.
>>8182375
Not the one you're responding to, but Cain and Abel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_and_Abel
East of Eden really is a phenomenal book.
>>8182277
I read this a while back, don't remember any of it. I have to go back some day. Steinbeck gets a lot of shit, but he was an excellent author, and someone who will soon be erased by schools that refuse to teach him because of his race.
speaking of, anyone else think the ending of grapes of wrath was indicative of the old feeding off the new at the expense of the coming generation who was dead on arrival? that ending scene struck me as a little prophetic and definitely oozing with meaning.
Real good if a bit heavy with the extremely extended metaphor.
Cried like a bitch though.
>>8182556
Refuse to teach him because of his race? What is the public school allowing now? Just black authors or something?
>>8182556
I suppose you could read it that way (Steinbeck definitely leaned in a Labor direction), though it doesn't make much sense to me for a starving cotton-picker to stand in for an exploitative older class.
To me, the breastfeeding, motherhood, and _NAME_ of Rose of Sharon are very indicative of biblical allusion. Perhaps the Oakies are a more modern version of Israelite?
>>8182600
>>8182624
but who else would need the most help but someone who could never reasonably retire? it felt like he was mentioning a time of cannibalism in that society, who else would be the ones who would need the most provided to them by the class who could not even manage to make their children survive?
>>8182628
Well, enlighten me. Things were good when i was still in school with 1984, farenheight 451, grapes of wrath, brave new world, slaughterhouse five, ect. Ect.
>>8182634
http://cps.edu/SiteCollectionDocuments/CPS_RR_List_HS.pdf
an example.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-prj-biblioracle-high-school-reading-20160413-column.html
>>8182652
What a disgusting article.
>>8182556
I thought the breastfeeding was the culmination of what was happening throughout the novel: poor people helping eachother. The whole 'the less people have, the more they are willing to share with their neighbour' was kinda a recurring theme. Like Steinfeld's answer to the greed that caused all the problems is solidarity and help thy neighbor. Even when they lost almost everything and were left without food and soaking wet in a strange barn they were ready to share something very personal with a complete stranger.
I really thought it was beautiful and cried a bit and didn't even notice how an elderly man sucking on a teenage tit would be kinda pervy without all the context
>>8182664
>>8182666
yeah bros. we're a dying breed. i'm glad i wasn't the only one disgusted by all of this. i mean, grisham on a highschool reading list?
and look at the SJW shit in that library reading list "Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out" and "Overturning Wrongful Convictions: Science Serving Justice", or "Freedom Summer: the 1964 Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi". i mean fuck sake, it's all built around "you're a victim and white men are evil". you literati need to wake up a little and see that your precious masterpieces will be burned and replaced with "dealing with white supremacy in the workplace"
>>8182680
oh there were definitely overtones of 'we all should hold hands and let the old suck on our tits of wealth' but i guess i just had a more sinister thought of what was to come, it definitely reeked of socialism, and i felt it was a bit symbolic, but that could have just been my mental state at the time. but yes, a beautiful novel nevertheless.
just think, the girls that say "your shelf seems filled with only dead white males" will be the salty af teachers of your children some day (yes yes, as if you'll have children). just imagine that, your son, to whom you have read nightly since birth, has slowly become an astute and brilliant young lad, who has read a vast assortment of literature, and is currently winding his way through joyce at the tender age of 13, and he goes to class, holding Portrait among his other books, and the teacher, seeing this, shrieks "we can't have this! you should be reading Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice!" as she tosses the precious and brilliant joycean novel into the trash, and pulling your child into the vapid vortex of social justice. just imagine!
>>8182698
Well, they were left withfuck all, in a barn, half of the group dead, Tom gone off to become Che Guevara.The family is at their lowest point with really no indication of things getting better for them anytime soon.So whichever way you interpret the suckling, I'd say that the ending is pretty bleak. It's Steinbeck screaming: this is where we'll end up if we fuck eachother over and this is how we should treat eachother to prevent that from happening, we should share breastmilk. An overt socialistic call-to-arms.
You probably understood all this yourself but I typed it out anyway
>Steinbeck not being taught
I graduated High school a year ago and we read Of Mice and Men and East of Eden, in addition to a lot of canon material, I think everybody here is overreacting or my public school was really good.
>>8182749
yes, oddly enough the ideal world for ol' Johnny was tittysuckin old folks.
>>8182768
To be fair, we can't all have fart-fetishes
>>8182764
inner city school? country mostly white school? multicultural suburbia?
>>8182830
mostly white but very "progressive" school, in the suburbs of D.C, should probably emphasize that most books we read were typical high-school fare, but not bad books (aside from the one time we read looking for Alaska).
