{"id":6332,"date":"2015-12-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/2015\/12\/01\/thou-mayest\/"},"modified":"2015-12-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-01T00:00:00","slug":"thou-mayest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/2015\/12\/01\/thou-mayest\/","title":{"rendered":"Thou Mayest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\tIt couldn\u2019t have been easy growing up as the son of literary giant John Steinbeck, particularly for the child who shared his father\u2019s name. Despite John
\n\tSteinbeck IV forging an impressive path as a writer on his own merits—after being drafted into the Vietnam War, he worked as a journalist and war
\n\tcorrespondent, later writing about his own journeys with the Dalai Lama—the second son of California\u2019s great novelist couldn\u2019t escape his father\u2019s shadow
\n\tor his debilitating genes. In a proposal for a book of his own, the younger Steinbeck wrote: \u201cPerhaps it is long past time when I should have expressed
\n\tmany of the feelings that tug at me due to the special circumstances of being my father\u2019s son…. I have been challenged to puzzle out my own fate with a
\n\tlarge degree of poetic insight.\u201d \u201cI inherited two life-threatening diseases from my parents. Due to hemochromatosis, a genetic iron retention disease, and
\n\talcoholism, I developed cirrhosis by the time I was thirty-four.\u201d1<\/sup><\/p>\n

\n\tJohn Steinbeck passed down to his son the same traits that defined Edgar Allan Poe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and so many of the great American writers: an
\n\taddiction to alcohol and the courage to express pain in words.<\/p>\n

\nJohn Steinbeck occupies a prestigious place in the literary canon. His classic works, such as Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, <\/em>and\tThe Red Pony, <\/em>are beloved by critics, book clubs, and educators alike. The Grapes of Wrath, <\/em>his most celebrated book, is a genuine
\n\tcontender for the title of Great American Novel: its story of Dust Bowl farmers leaving Oklahoma for California awoke the social conscience of the United
\n\tStates, as readers encountered how the fictional Joad family faces numerous injustices in the orchards of the Great Depression. It was a runaway best
\n\tseller and remains so, but nearly as many readers have hated Steinbeck\u2019s works as those who have adored them. In schools across the country Lennie and
\nGeorge in Of Mice and Men <\/em>attract concern for their vulgarity, violence, and blasphemy, and most infamously, crowds burned\tThe Grapes of Wrath<\/em> in public bonfires shortly after its release, in Steinbeck\u2019s California hometown of Salinas no less. For his portrayal of
\n\tunfair working conditions in The Grapes of Wrath<\/em>, reactionary readers called Steinbeck a Communist, and objected to his labor sympathies and
\n\tcritique of landowners.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is through this prism that most readers interpret the literature of John Steinbeck: stories of the privileged and powerful abusing the underdogs of
\n\tsociety. Even a cursory glance at The Pearl<\/em> and its impoverished villagers diving deep into the ocean to make their living, or the Hispanic
\n\tfamilies in Tortilla Flat, <\/em>shows how Steinbeck included passionate political appeals to help the poor and the outcast. Within his portfolio of
\n\tsocietal concerns, though, religious liberty did not often rank as a high priority. Unlike the literature of other great American masters—Nathaniel
\n\tHawthorne assailing the nation\u2019s Puritan heritage, Mark Twain satirizing Christian foolishness, or Harriet Beecher Stowe calling upon congregations to end
\n\tslavery—Steinbeck did not direct his political literature and reformist message at the nation\u2019s churches. But this is not to say that Steinbeck did not
\n\twrite great religious literature.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo focus only on Steinbeck\u2019s political message and ignore his striking Christian symbolism is to ignore what makes so much of his writing timeless and
\nuniversal. In his stories the calls for social justice are loud and frequent, but so are the biblical allegories. His masterpiece\tThe Grapes of Wrath, <\/em>for instance, is an \u201codyssey of a people to the promised land (of California), finding trails, deserts, and crises of their
\n\tfaith along the way. . . . The theme of Cannery Row<\/em>, of Doc\u2019s friends preparing a surprise party to welcome him home, echoes the parable of the
\n\tprodigal son. Of Mice and Men <\/em>deliberately recalls the story of David and Jonathan, that other biblical tale of two inseparable men whose
\n\tfriendship ends in death.\u201d2<\/sup> It is within the author\u2019s magnum opus that these religious themes shine the brightest. In East of Eden<\/em>
\n\treaders wrestle with such questions as \u201cAm I destined to repeat the sins of our fathers?\u201d \u201cHow can we break free from the cycle of sin?\u201d and \u201cWhat is the
\n\tbiblical source of our liberty and free will?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the journal he wrote alongside his epic novel, <\/em>Steinbeck said of East of Eden, <\/em>\u201cThis is my big book. And it has to be a big book, and
\n\tbecause it is new in form although old in pace it has to be excellent in every detail.\u201d3<\/sup> With East of Eden<\/em> Steinbeck set lofty goals,
\n\tand while it had its critics, most readers found and continue to agree that he succeeded. The multigenerational family saga vibrantly reimagines the
\n\tinitial chapters of Genesis, recording the biblical struggle between good and evil in the agricultural microcosm of early-twentieth-century California.<\/p>\n

\n\tWithin East of Eden <\/em>Steinbeck most closely examines the relationship between the warring sons of Adam and Eve, and uses their tale to reveal his
\n\tgreatest argument of all: that within each of us is a divinely placed opportunity to reject sin. He wrote the framework of the novel\u2019s \u201croots from that
\n\tpowerful, profound and perplexing story in Genesis of Cain and Abel. This story with its implications has made a deeper mark in people than any other save
\npossibly the story of the tree of life and original sin.\u201d4<\/sup> Steinbeck tackles humanity\u2019s ability to overcome that sin within the pages of\tEast of Eden,<\/em> and he argues that the most important battlefield in the fight between good and evil occurs in man\u2019s heart and mind. The story is so
\n\tmuch more than a simplistic allegory. Steinbeck wrote in his journal that if it \u201cwere just a discussion of biblical lore, I would throw it out, but it is
\nnot. It is using the biblical story as the measure of ourselves.\u201d5<\/sup> Through its elucidation of Hebrew Scripture and poignant storytelling,\tEast of Eden <\/em>presents its case that freedom of conscience is not a recent political Creation, but has been with us since creation and is our
\n\tgreatest divinely granted attribute.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn other words, while other American authors may have tackled religious liberty directly, John Steinbeck in East of Eden<\/em> demonstrates that
\n\treligion can be the source of that liberty, and it all goes back to the very beginning.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf it weren\u2019t already apparent that Steinbeck\u2019s work hinged around an understanding of free will, one needs only to look at his personal life to see such
\n\tself-determination. In his early years he forged a path that had others convinced he would be either famous or infamous. His mother, Olive, \u201cpushed him to
\n\tjoin church organizations, but he wasn\u2019t very willing, and sometimes he would defy her and shout back. She often said that he would either go to the White
\n\tHouse as president or go to jail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe played throughout his writing life with the Christian notion of \u2018fallen man.\u2019\u201d6 <\/sup>It is likely that he saw in himself many of the same
\n\treligious failings as his paternal grandfather, John Adolph Grossteinbeck, a Lutheran cabinetmaker from Germany whose missionary attempt to convert Jews in
\n\tPalestine ended in humiliation, violence, and the death of a brother-in-law. Despite those tragic tales, his \u201cadventurous streak was greatly admired by his
\n\tgrandson John Steinbeck, who liked to work with a portrait of the fierce-looking John Adolph nearby.\u201d7<\/sup> His maternal grandfather, Samuel
\nHamilton, from Ballykelly in the north of Ireland, was also important for the author. As a figure of guidance and determination, he features prominently in\tEast of Eden, <\/em>which Steinbeck initially created \u201cas a straightforward attempt to remember his past quite literally, to invoke the history of his
\n\tfamily, and it tells us a lot about Steinbeck\u2019s sense of his own origins.\u201d8<\/sup><\/p>\n

\n\tChristianity was an important part of John\u2019s family history and upbringing. From a young age and continuing throughout his life, \u201cSteinbeck counted the
\nBible among his favorite books.\u201d As a result some of his work has a sense of subtlety and youthful simplicity in its biblical allegories: \u201c\tThe Red Pony<\/em> achieves a brilliant rewriting of the first two chapters of Genesis from the perspective of a child, but the task is so delicately
\n\tcarried off that the readers are scarcely expected to notice it.\u201d9<\/sup> East of Eden, <\/em>however, is much more adult in nature and overt in
\n\tallegory.<\/p>\n

\n\tLike many of his other works, East of Eden <\/em>attracted attention from cultural conservatives who objected to the violence and sexual misconduct
\n\tperpetrated by its antagonist, Cathy Ames. The biblical allusions within her story have been well documented: Cathy frames two boys for rape, manipulates
\n\tan admirer into committing suicide, \u201cincinerates her parents, beds down with her brother-in-law, shoots her husband, and abandons her children. Eve and
\n\tTamar and Delilah and Jezebel are rolled into one.\u201d10<\/sup><\/p>\n

\n\tMost Steinbeck scholars maintain that the author\u2019s marriage to his second wife, Gwyndolyn Conger, with whom Steinbeck had two sons, was the inspiration for
\n\this creation of Cathy, East of Eden\u2019s <\/em>\u201cmonster.\u201d Not even the most critical of biographers could claim that Gwyn was quite like the fictional
\n\tCathy, yet one can see how Gwyn\u2019s treatment of Steinbeck caused him to grow deeply resentful. According to Jay Parini, she was unfaithful in their
\n\tmarriage, jealous of his success, greedy in the divorce settlement, and petty in withholding access to their sons. In Steinbeck\u2019s mind, \u201cCathy seemed to
\n\tembody evil almost arbitrarily, much like Gwyn. She is the sinful wife who cannot curb her sexual instincts.\u201d11<\/sup><\/p>\n

\n\tWeaving personal experience and fiction together with parts of his own family history, Steinbeck reveals the factual Hamiltons and creates the imaginary
\n\tTrasks, producing a story of favorite children and sibling rivalries occurring over many decades of conflict and disappointment. He was so engrossed in the
\n\twriting of the novel that, for a while, East of Eden<\/em> replaced alcohol in his affections—a dependency he had developed to cope with the harsh
\n\treviews from the critics.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the wise Chinese housekeeper Lee and the righteous Hamiltons largely playing foil to the novel\u2019s other family dynasty, East of Eden <\/em>begins
\n\twith the sons of Cyrus Trask, a deceitful patriarch who does little to prevent the dysfunctional relationship between his sons Adam and Charles. After each
\n\tboy gives their father a gift that echoes those that Cain and Abel offer as sacrifices to God in Genesis, Cyrus shows favoritism and initiates the first of
\n\ttwo Edenic cycles within the novel. As the naive Adam falls in love with the villainous Cathy, Charles, the other son of Cyrus, develops a bitter
\n\tresentment toward his brother Adam and becomes violent. Later chapters follow the sons of Adam and Cathy wondering what exactly went wrong in their
\n\tfamily\u2019s past to cause such subsequent unhappiness in their present. This new set of brothers, Caleb and Aron, whose names are yet another reminder of the
\n\tGenesis account, fight not only each other but also Caleb\u2019s sinful destiny. As Caleb tries to overcome his mark of Cain, he, along with Aron and a
\n\tcompassionate girl named Abra, must deal with the rediscovered existence of their monstrous mother, Cathy, whom Steinbeck called \u201ca total representative of
\n\tSatan.\u201d12<\/sup><\/p>\n

<\/sup><\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a tightly woven plot, and Steinbeck cleverly divides the Trask family by name, with characters representing the virtuous legacy of Abel starting with
\n\tthe same letter: Adam, Aron, and Abra. Conversely, he groups the spiritual descendants of the murderous Cain in a similar way: Cyrus, Charles, Cathy, and
\n\tCaleb.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the son of Adam and Cathy, and grandson of Cyrus, Caleb is the most complex and dynamic character in East of Eden<\/em>. His is a struggle against
\n\tinheriting the mark of Cain and the sins of his immediate ancestors: the lies of his grandfather Cyrus, the envious violence of his uncle Charles, and most
\n\timportant, the depravity of his mother, Cathy. To give a sense of the rebellious nature and internal struggle within the character of Caleb, filmmakers
\n\tcast James Dean in this role, for the movie version of East of Eden <\/em>in1955.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs to the outcome of whether Caleb can overcome his destiny of sin, and whether his free will is sufficient to defeat his tendency toward evil, those
\n\tinterested should read East of Eden<\/em> for themselves.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is important to see just how Steinbeck arrived at a scriptural understanding for the religious source of our liberty and some of the controversy
\n\tsurrounding it.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe entire novel hinges on an interpretation of Genesis 4:7 and the Hebrew word timshel,<\/em> or timshol,<\/em> which can mean either \u201cthou shalt\u201d
\n\tor in some translations \u201cthou mayest,\u201d meaning \u201cyou can.\u201d Since Steinbeck seemed especially interested in the Jewish scholarship, here is the verse from
\n\tthe Complete Jewish Bible<\/em>: \u201cSin is crouching at the door—it wants you, but you can rule over it\u201d (Genesis 4:7, CJB).13<\/sup><\/p>\n

\n\tFor Steinbeck, the difference between \u201cthou shalt\u201d and \u201cthou mayest\u201d was vital. From this verse Steinbeck was to draw a clear conclusion that God gives
\n\teach of us the choice to fight temptation, and not a demand. The differences in interpretation \u201cmattered so much to Steinbeck that he had a considerable
\n\tcorrespondence on the subject with his publisher, Pascal Covici. Before Steinbeck used it, Covici claims to have found the translation \u2018Thou mayest\u2019 in the
\n\tManchester version of the Douay-Rheims (1812) translation, based on the Vulgate, but Covici asked Steinbeck to check it, because he saw it may well be one
\n\tof the most important mistranslations in the Old Testament.\u201d14<\/sup><\/p>\n

\n\tSteinbeck wrote to Covici: \u201cThe King James says of sin crouching at the door, \u2018Thou shalt rule over it.\u2019 The American Standard says, \u2018Do thou rule over
\n\tit.\u2019 Now this new translation says, \u2018Thou mayest <\/em>rule over it.\u2019 This is the most vital difference. The first two are 1, a prophecy and 2, an
\n\torder, but 3 is the offering of free will. Here is individual responsibility and the invention of conscience.\u201d15<\/sup><\/p>\n

\n\tServing as the lyrical cornerstone for East of Eden, <\/em>the Hebrew word timshel<\/em> and one possible corresponding English phrase \u201cthou mayest\u201d
\n\tenter the novel through the wisdom of Lee, the Chinese housekeeper for the Trask family. He guides several characters along a path toward this scriptural
\n\tunderstanding, and reveals the meaning of the phrase in an interaction with the fictional Adam Trask and the historical Samuel Hamilton: \u201cNow, there are
\n\tmany millions in their… churches who feel the order, \u2018Do thou,\u2019 and throw their weight into obedience. And there are millions more who feel predestination
\n\tin \u2018Thou shalt.\u2019 Nothing they may do can interfere with what will be. But \u2018Thou mayest\u2019! Why, that makes a man great,… for in his weakness and his filth
\nand his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.\u201d16 <\/sup>In the novel,\ttimshel<\/em> and \u201cthou mayest\u201d continue to make revelatory appearances until a deathbed climax at the very end, but even the author of these intricate
\n\tplotlines couldn\u2019t have prophesied just how much these concepts would impact his own offspring. Like the fictional Adam Trask, and Cyrus Trask before him,
\n\tas well as the biblical parents Adam and Eve, on whom he based the characters, Steinbeck had two sons of his own. John Steinbeck IV, the war correspondent
\n\tand traveling companion of the Dalai Lama, outlived his father. The author of East of Eden<\/em>, the moving novel about passing down sins from parents
\n\tto children, died in 1968 after the damage his addictions did to his own body, and he would never live to see his son\u2019s hemochromatosis diagnosis in 1984,
\n\tnor his articles on \u201cthe genetic aspects of alcoholism and the toll it takes on loved ones.\u201d Had Steinbeck lived that long, no doubt, such revelations
\n\twould have broken the great author\u2019s heart, but unlike his completed best seller East of Eden, <\/em>the Steinbeck family story had yet to be finished.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven though the deck had been stacked against him before he was even born, his son\u2019s quest for sobriety was successful. John Steinbeck IV wrote,
\n\t\u201cFortunately, when I truly accepted my powerlessness over my disease, the drama was over, and I could begin to understand the source of some of the
\n\tbehaviors that had taken over my life.\u201d17<\/sup><\/p>\n

\n\tThe son of John Steinbeck may have credited Alcoholics Anonymous for his victory. There were probably important friends, family members, and sponsors who
\n\thelped him along the way. One can\u2019t help thinking, however, that given the opportunity to share the source of his triumph, John Steinbeck IV could have
\n\texclaimed, \u201cThou mayest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It couldn\u2019t have been easy growing up as the son of literary giant John Steinbeck, particularly for the child who shared his father\u2019s name. Despite John Steinbeck IV forging an impressive path as a writer on his own merits—after being drafted into the Vietnam War, he worked as a journalist and war correspondent, later writing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[309],"tags":[141],"class_list":["post-6332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-november-december-2015","tag-november-december-2015"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}