John Steinbeck

 

 Linda and I recently viewed East of Eden written by the brilliant Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. Main characters were Julie Harris -Abra; Raymond Massey -the father Adam; Jo Van Fleet -the mother Kate; Linda’s heartbeat James Dean -Cal; Richard Davalos-Aron and others. Elia Kazan was the producer. Kazan, Dean and Van Fleet were nominated for Academy Awards and Van Fleet won. Paul Osborne was nominated for the best screenplay.

In this novel, Monterey and Salinas were the settings and the time was 1917 during World War I. Kate left Adam and their two sons Cal and Aron. Cal was the biblical Cain and Aron was the biblical Abel. This essay employs concepts of identification, ambivalence, sibling rivalry, and alienation to this relevant film.

Briefly, in Genesis, Cain and Abel were the first two sons of Adam and Eve. The brothers made sacrifices to God, but God favored Abel’s sacrifice instead of Cain’s.  Cain then murdered Abel out of jealousy, whereupon God punished Cain by condemning him to a life of wandering.

In the movie, Adam or god was a rigid, unemotional, hypercritical, and ineffective authoritarian father that read Scripture in the evening with his sons. Adam had Cal read Scripture, in a certain way, out loud. Of course, the rebellious and “bad” Cal was oppositional and read the passages his way. We see a strict father and an alienated, disrespectful and hateful son. Cal’s alienation was exemplified by his rebelliousness-drinking alcohol, staying away from home, hitching a ride on trains from Salinas to Monterey, throwing blocks of ice down a slide, and so forth. Cal’s only consistent punishment was Adam’s scorn.

Karl Marx wrote about man’s alienation as a result of the working conditions in the industrial revolution and problem with Capitalism. Man becomes alienated because of the subservient, slave like, and burned out position in his workplace. Man has very little control or significant emotional involvement, sense of satisfaction, meaning and gratification within his work setting. In other words, the worker must have the opportunity to be able to express his self in terms of his mental and physical powers. Man is not what he ought to be but instead be able to develop his potential into what he could be. However, with alienation, man becomes separated from self and isolated from others. Within capitalism, there’s focus on external things like money. Man becomes a cog, insignificant, an anonymous number, and an object which counters and decimates his ability to fully develop himself. A few illustrations of alienation and satiation in man not wanting to be in the workplace include the  preponderance  of drugs, alcohol, absenteeism, Workmen’s Comp and all the physical and emotional disabilities associated with work. Sometimes money and all the diversions of books, movies, games, social media, gambling, sports and sex placate the masses but only for the short-term. Currently, we have a labor shortage. It’s not a surprise when profit rules. There is too much emphasis on the unequal distribution of wealth and the perversion of labor transforms too many into emotional cripples. In Steinbeck’s novel, Kazan depicted Cal, a young male, being alienated within his family and his society. Alienation today is obvious and on the rise. I just read that the NFL Commissioner’s salary was close to $130 million for two years. That is simply obscene.

 Marx’s concept of alienation is simple but difficult for many to resolve or master in today’s capitalistic system. Man has to emancipate himself from alienation, caused in great part from capitalism because of the profit motive, and have the ability to return man to himself, for his self-realization. His estrangement is expressed in that things or objects are against him even though the objects may be of his own creation. Alienation is essentially experiencing the world and oneself passively, and receptively as the subject is separated from the object.

Alienation was first expressed the Old Testament with the concept of idolatry. The essence of what the prophets call idolatry is not that man worships many gods instead of only one. It is that the idols are the work of man’s own hands-they are things that man bows down to, a worship of mostly dead things; worships that which he has created himself. In doing so, he transformed himself into a thing. He transfers to the things of his creation and not the attributes of his own life. Instead of experiencing self as a creating person he is not in touch with himself but only by the worship of the idol. He has become estranged from his own life forces from the wealth of his own potentialities. He is in touch with himself only in the indirect way of submission to life, frozen in the idols.

Cal’s ambivalence (love, like and hate, dislike for parents) for his father was demonstrated when his father lost a great sum of money transporting lettuce, by train, to New York. Cal went into the bean business and made a ton of money because of the United States involvement in the war. Ambivalence towards parents is a typical psychological condition within the family. Cal’s hate was exemplified in him being the bad son. On Adam’s birthday, the bad Cal presented his father the money he earned as a present. Adam didn’t want the money, rejected Cal and said he didn’t want the money that was made because of the economics of the war. Aron’s gift to his father was his engagement to Abra. Adam bestowed significant praise on that gift and rejected Cal again.

The sibling rivalry (receiving love, being favorite, seeking praise etc.) between Cal and the “good” Aron was made very clear in the movie.  Aron, the good son, pleased his father while Cal did the opposite. Aron was clean-cut, didn’t swear and did not drink until the movies end. Within the rivalry, Cal said he was like his bad mother. Back in the day, it was believed that a person inherited a good or bad character from parents. Today, we identify good or bad behavior based on identifications and other psychological variables instead of DNA.

Regarding identification, both Cal and Adam, grew crops. However, Adam went broke with his ice experiment and Cal made money with beans. Cal and Kate were both successful capitalists. Aron and Adam read the Bible and on the surface were good citizens. But, both failed miserably with Kate. Cal, Aron and Adam were emotionally compromised. They did not appear to display empathy or affection interpersonally and all three acted and behaved irrationally with self-destructive tendencies. Cal with his fighting and drinking; Aron with his impulsive enlistment; and rigid Adam with Kate and their ineffective parented boys.

Kate, the mother, ran a profitable brothel in Monterey. If this woman was “bad,” then all her paying customers were bad also. Were the town leaders bad because they frequented a brothel for booze and sex? In the film, Aron was good like his father. Aron wore a white shirt; had a girlfriend; was clean-cut; supported his father’s friend the German shoemaker and was his father’s favorite. However, at the end of the film, Aron when he found out the truth about his mother, got drunk, got into fights, enlisted in the Army and put his head through the train window-breaking it. Was Aron still good? Don’t forget that the messaging that sex is bad and war and killing is good. What a delusion, with our troubled sense of values.

The “bad” Cal violated his father’s rules not by reading Scripture slowly but by reading the biblical passages fast; stayed out all night; rode the freight trains back and forth from Salinas to Monterey; drank alcohol; got into fights; stole a cool chute; thus suggesting violation of parental and society rules, being provocative and stubborn. These patterns of disobedience, negativistic and provocative opposition to authority figures are associated with an oppositional disorder diagnosis. However, the bad Cal borrowed $5000 from mother Kate, to start the bean business. Cal went into business to earn money to pay his father for all the money he lost shipping lettuce to New York. The bad Cal earned over $5000. He worked extremely hard in the fields, as a day laborer, for that money. He paid back his mother Kate with interest along with attempting to gift his father the money he lost. The bad Cal had his bags packed and ready to wander. At the end of the film, Cal moved his chair close to his stroke stricken father. Note, Cal’s ambivalence toward his father. He exemplified both hate and at the end “love. “Also, the only consequence for Cal’s oppositional actions were his father’s disapproval. That disapproval did not change Cal’s behavior.

We found out that Kate left Adam and their two sons because he was too controlling, too restricting, and too possessive and preached the Bible. In leaving, Kate shot and wounded Adam. She said she could’ve killed him but didn’t. The moral Adam lied to his children and told them she died.  The self-righteous Adam read the Bible every day, and believed that making money because of the war was evil. However, Adam worked in the recruiting office processing the young to go off to war and die. What is wrong with this picture? Adam’s values were what?

During one scene, Aron was attempting to defend his father’s friend a German shoemaker. An anxious town crowd began scapegoating their neighbor. Earlier, the town had banners, parades and a carnival like atmosphere with the United States involvement in World War I. Going to war was celebrated. What an illusion and delusion.  Reality set in when word of sons dying in trenches and being prisoners of war. The scapegoating was convenient. Don’t blame Woodrow Wilson, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, or the leaders of France, Russia, Britain, Germany, Austria Hungry, or Italy. It’s so much easy to pick on and find the weak and defenseless. Mob rule is irrational as it is to scapegoat. As if this German American shoemaker was responsible for the war.

With this boisterous crowd, the bad Cal jumped in, started rescuing his brother and wound up fighting. After a short brawl, Burl Ives, the sheriff intervened. The good Aron didn’t thank Cal but instead focused on Cal’s innocent involvement with Abra. In response, Cal hit Aron and pummeled him numerous times and then ran off to the bar in solitude.

Cal found out about his mother and why she left Adam. Out of his jealousy and hate, after Adam rejected Cal’s gift of money, Cal quickly took Adam to his mother and her business. This fact exposed the father not telling his sons why their mother left him. He told his boys she died. Confronted with the reality of his mother, Aron got drunk, got beat up and enlisted in the Army. When Adam was also confronted with his son’s reality, he became bedridden with a stroke.

Abra was Aron’s fiancé but was attracted to Cal.  She told Cal that Aron was unemotional and doubted his love. She added that his words seemed only as words and difficult to believe and trust. Abra convinced a paralyzed Adam to engage, reach out and demonstrate “love” to Cal. Up to that point, Cal had his bags packed and ready to wander and never be seen again. However, Adam listened to Abra and he whispered into Cal’s ear that he wanted that nurse fired and for Cal to take care of him. The film ended with Cal moving a chair close and near his father’s bed.

This great novel depicted life about 100 years ago and retold in film about 60 years ago. James Dean played an ambivalent, alienated and rebellious young man who loved and hated his father. His searching for his lost mother along with the sibling rivalry for their father’s approval, affection and love continue to be remain relevant psychological issues within families today.

There are many White alienated young associated with hate groups. These hate group’s scapegoat, become part of the mob and attack easy prey. Hate, guns and emotional disturbance means mental illness. As Gandhi stated “An eye for an eye will only make the world blind” and “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” These alienated are emotionally empty and dead inside. In order to compensate for their hate and inner deadness, they choose the idol of white supremacy. They make it absolute and totally submit to it. In doing so, they find excitement in the submission to this chosen idol. However, this excitement does not stem from Joy and productive relatedness. The intense hate is built upon their inner deadness, lack of direction and insecurity.

In summary, Cal was bright although narcissistic, immature, rebellious, impulsive, oppositional and emotionally unattached and numb. He was also driven by impulses that at times dominated his executive ego and superego or conscience functions. He was not alienated because of his being a farmer’s son but, for the most part, because of being abandoned by his mother and scapegoated as the bad son. He badly wanted his father’s approval. He was directionless, had poor parenting and acted out his emotional conflicts. Aron, on the surface, was the good son. Being good and compliant, he received his father’s praise and recognition. With the narcissistic injury, his character was revealed. He was confronted with his alive mother. Aron displaced his anger against self and others   with directed hate. He got drunk, got into fights, put his head through a train window and enlisted in the service. Now, he could kill Germans, become a prisoner and/or die. Where was his executive functioning ego and conscience?  He was engaged? Engaged with what? The Bible reading Adam was emotionally shallow with his dysfunctional family. Instead of taking responsibility for his failed marriage, he blamed his son and directed his passive aggressiveness towards Cal. This Bible reading hypocrite lied to his children and processed people going off to war. He was wounded narcissistically, when he reached the train station and saw his son smashing the train window and going off to war. He was no longer in control and not able to “protect” his son from the truth. This emotional conflict resulted in him becoming partially paralyzed with stroke. Kate, was wounded narcissistically, as she aged. She was no longer beautiful but financially well-off yet alone and being labeled by the jealous, the town pariah. What a troubled family. Although agnostic and intellectual, the well-educated Steinbeck was versed in religious teachings, philosophy, history and man’s social, economic, political plight as well as man’s failings. Epicurus stated “The greatest reward of righteousness is peace of mind.”

PS

In a previous life, I taught English at a junior high school in Oak Park. For one assignment, I had my students read Steinbeck’s novella “The Red Pony.”

Reference

Fromm, Erich. Marx’s Concept of Man, Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, New York.