Caleb Trask East Of Eden

Caleb Trask and Aron Trask are twin brothers born into a competitive and attention-seeking world. For one boy it is harder to survive. Caleb struggles within and outside of himself to earn favor among his schoolmates and father and accept the evilness in his mother which results in a tension filled relationship with his brother. In East of Eden by John Steinbeck, the characterization of Caleb Trask illustrates his internal and external struggles between good and evil within his relationships. The struggles portrayed in this novel create a sympathetic attitude towards him as he regrets his hurtful words and actions within these relationships. First, Caleb’s desire for friends and attention results in a competitive and strained relationship …show more content…
Caleb’s love for his father is unnoticed and rejected ultimately resulting in a broken relationship. Caleb gives a gift of money to make up for his father’s financial loss, but in reality, he is trying to buy his father’s love. However, Adam doesn’t love his sons equally, Adam loves Aron because Aron is going to a higher level of school, is going to get married and be successful. This father-son relationship mirrors the Bible when God favored Abel’s sacrifice over Cain’s. Adam doesn’t accept the money and even believes Caleb earned it unfairly shattering Caleb and creating more rivalry and division between the brothers. This builds a sympathetic reaction towards Caleb because Aron did not do anything to earn his father’s love nor cares about it, but Caleb did try and does care. This also creates sympathy for Caleb because he cannot seem to find the love, affirmation, peace, and kindness he would like to receive from anyone but especially his father. This rejection and lack of attention leads Caleb to a revengeful attitude towards Aron. Caleb’s vile, prostitute mother provides the perfect way to hurt Aron. Hurting Aron hurts his father because of his father’s unequal amount of love for Aron. However, Caleb realizes that even by hurting Aron, his father’s attention and love is still not diverted or shifted to Caleb. This realization illustrates Caleb’s regretful and resolved attitude towards …show more content…
Caleb starts to doubt his character and personality after meeting his mother, Kate Trask. Caleb’s eyes are opened after seeing her evil, destructive, and immoral personality, and he doubts himself because of the similarities his personality has to his mother’s. His inner struggles not only reveal his doubtful attitude, but also question what impact his mother’s character and personality has on him. Caleb’s hurtful words and evil thoughts toward Aron cause him to reconsider his nature and motivation. Caleb and Aron’s immoral mother creates a way for Caleb to hurt Aron. Aron has idealized the perfect mother in his mind and meeting his real one will shatter the image he has created. Caleb’s malevolent action towards Aron includes taking him to see and meet their mother to shatter his perfect dream and put Aron in his place. Caleb does his best to fight this original competitive and revengeful attitude, but his impulsive action causes him to reflect and regret his wicked and hateful attitude that caused him to overreact. He struggles to make this wrong a right with his brother only to learn Aron ran off to join the army. This illuminates the human struggle between discerning right from wrong and choosing good instead of evil. This shift of Caleb’s attitude to protectiveness of Aron and shielding him from the truth illuminates the goodness in Caleb despite

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