East of Eden Essay: Criticism of East of Eden -- East Eden Essays

Criticism of eastward of Eden Possibly the best piece of criticism I discovered was an render by Joseph Wood Krutch. Krutch begins by making a statement praising the enormous amount of energy that is required for a book with the scope of East of Eden. Very briefly, Krutch summarizes the novel and draws an analogy between it and The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. Krutch points out that in this novel, Steinbeck has avoided falling into the trap of writing a melodramatic as he has in some other pieces. Krutch says of Steinbeck Never, I think, not even in The Grapes of Wrath, has he exhibited such a grip upon himself and his material. (Krutch 370) Krutch points out that, specially in the first third of the book, the character parallels to symbolic figures are rather distracting, but become less so as the book progresses. Steinbeck is often associated with writers who train deterministic philosophies and are moral relativists, but Krutch asserts it is difficult to imagine how any no vel could more explicitly reject these values. (Krutch 370) Krutch assigns East of Eden the position of determine Steinbecks position as a moralist and ends his review by stating there is no question whether Mr. Steinbeck has written an intensely interesting and impressive book. (Krutch 371) Harvey Curtis Webster was the author of some other review I found helpful. He begins with the very blunt statement that it will take almost equal quantities of pride and stupidity to deny that it is wizard of the best novels of the past ten years and the best book John Steinbeck has written since the Grapes of Wrath. (Webster 369) To conclude his strong opening paragraph Webster states It is to be doubted it any American novel has better chronicled ou... ...ress. 1957. pp. 302-305. Rpt. In Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. David Marowski. Vol 45 Detroit Gale, 1987. pp. 370- 371 Neary, Walter. About John Steinbeck. 27 Nov. 2001 <http//www.steinbeck.org/About.html>. Steinbeck, John . Grapes of Wrath. 1939. New York Penguin, 1973. Steinbeck, John IV Nancy Steinbeck, and Andrew Harvey. Other Side of Eden. Prometheus Books. Feb. 2001. Various contributors. Amazon.com acquire Information. Amazon.com <http//www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0140186395/ customer-reviews/qid=1007248185/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_75_1/102-8744870-2692125>. 28 Nov. 2001 Webster, Harvey Curtis. Out of the New Born Sun. Saturday Review, New York. Vol. XXXV. No. 38. 20 Sept 1952. pp. 11-12. Rpt. In Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. David Marowski. Vol 45 Detroit Gale, 1987. pp. 369-370