Must implies obligation, will implies inevitability but may implies choice. The point is, that this is what God says to Cain when he puts his mark upon him – not that you MUST overcome sin, not that you WILL overcome sin, but that you MAY. A major theme is signified by the Hebrew word timshel, translated in the book as “thou mayest”. I suppose it is, but primarily to me it was a book about redemption.

It is often said that this is a book about good and evil. In the next generation, Adam’s sons Cal and Aron follow that same pattern: Aron is better loved Cal takes his revenge and there is even a version of “am I my brother’s keeper?” worked in, somewhat inelegantly (the only inelegant thing, I think). The central character, Adam Trask, re-enacts that brotherly rivalry with his brother Charles: Adam is better loved by his father Charles takes his revenge. In this novel, Steinbeck weaves the history of his own maternal family (the Hamiltons) and the place where he was born (the Salinas valley in northern California) into a fiction, a retelling of the story of Cain and Abel. I always found myself in a dread of west and a love of east.

The Santa Lucias stood up against the sky to the west and kept the valley from the open sea and they were dark and brooding – unfriendly and dangerous.

They were beckoning mountains with a brown grass love. I remember that the Gabilan Mountains to the east of the valley were light gay mountains full of sun and loveliness and a kind of invitation, so that you wanted to climb into their warm foothills almost as you want to climb into the lap of a beloved mother.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck