How does the opening chapters natural setting affect the novel?
Steinbeck carefully establishes the setting of East of Eden before introducing his characters with a description of the Salinas Valley in Northern California. As a youngster, the narrator learns to tell east with its sunlit Gabilan Mountains, which he favors, from the western dark and foreboding Santa Lucias Mountains. This sets in place one of the novel’s primary themes: light vs. dark, or good vs. evil. The initial setting also establishes the biblical motif of years of plenty and years of famine as seen in the Bible’s “Book of Samuel.” The narrator points out the rich years “when rainfall was plentiful,” and the dry years “which put a terror on the valley.” So, the characters repeatedly undergo episodes of good times balanced with bad times. For instance, Adam will one day live as an escaped convict hobo scratching for food and the next day he will live as a highly regarded public official, the beneficiary of $50,000. The setting also establishes the innate characteristics of the tw
