An Analysis Of The Characters' Morality In East Of Eden From The Perspective Of Biblical Archetype

John Steinbeck,who was born in California in 1902,is one of the most important20th-century writers in America.His novels cover a wide variety of themes,including politics,war,social life,morality and so on.His works own large popularity in readers,and attract wide attention from scholars to study.In East of Eden,the author has his unique moral outlook that all creatures or characters possess goodness and badness and have the right to choose between,helping readers realize that the conflict between goodness and evilness generates the strength supporting individual and social progress.From the perspective of biblical archetype,this thesis analyzes and makes a comparison of moralities showed in figures and characters living in East of Eden and their archetypes from “Abel and Cain” and “Exodus” to tap into moral deficiency,moral option,and salvation and reveal modern values of this work.This thesis is divided into three parts,namely,introduction,the main body and conclusion.The first part is the introduction,which summarizes the research status of East of Eden both at home and abroad,explains the inception,evolution and connotation of archetype criticism and biblical archetype and points out the significance of the thesis.The second part is the main body,including four chapters:Chapter One is to present the development of archetype criticism theory and connotation of biblical archetype.Northrop Frye puts forward mythical archetypal theory with the core of Holy Bible.Holy Bible sets the category of archetypes and this special encyclopedia has connected western literature with culture,therefore,archetype criticism is also called mythical archetype criticism.Biblical archetypes include themes,characters,plots,symbols,narrative methods and so on.This thesis will focus on characters' morality from the perspective of biblical archetype.Chapter Two is framed by “Abel and Cain” in Holy Bible to analyze moral deficiencies in Trask fathers and sons.Primarily,the common ground between Trask family in East of Eden and “Cain and Abel” in Holy Bible will be found through comparison;in the second place,causes of tragedy will be analyzed.Sons cannot enjoy a fair treatment due to an unjust father.The one suffering from inequality flared up out of envy and conducted violence to the other side,who has no courage to fightagainst.Finally,it stresses the importance of justice and courage by elaborating that justice is the head of all moral qualities and courage would become a source of strength via catalysis action of reason.Chapter Three takes apocalyptic imagery and demonic imagery from Holy Bible as references to tap into and study moral options made by God and Satan in East of Eden.Primarily,two opposite options in morality will be present: goodness and evilness;secondly,reasons of various moral options will be explored: sympathy works as the fundamental basis of morality while autonomy of will is the sole principle,which plays a decisive role in the option of “goodness” and “evilness”.Chapter Four takes the prophet,leader and angel in Holy Bible as references to discuss the salvation of deteriorator achieved by characters' moral strength in East of Eden.Samuel,the prophet,firstly puts forward “Timshel”,symbolizing the possibility of salvation;Lee,the real practitioner and the leader,awakens others' moral responsibility relying on his own kind will;at the end,Abra,the angle with the power of healing,makes moral salvation become a realization.The third part is the conclusion.East of Eden covers multiple images from Holy Bible,which permits to observe morality existing in figures from the perspective of biblical archetype: on the one hand,a brand new understanding about the relationship between literature text and literature archetype can be obtained via analysis and evaluation on Holy Bible,acting as a mirror;on the other hand,moral options vary from people to people,but a certain group of people share some common qualities.Therefore,it exhibits the importance that people should follow moral rules while performing actions.This thesis aims at enriching research perspectives of this novel and regulating individual behaviors by harnessing moral strength.