John Steinbeck's Moral Philosophy In East Of Eden

East of Eden stood for John Steinbeck's shift from social criticism to moral criticism, a turning point in his literary creation. There is a distinctive moral theme in East of Eden. Through the complicated characters and family relationships John Steinbeck created many counterpoints in the novel. But he did not draw a clear demarcation between these opposites as many other traditional didactic works had done, nor did he grant absolute good or absolute evil to any of his character. On the contrary, he seemed to be content to let various opposites clash and crash and even entangle with each other, which demonstrated the unique moral philosophy Steinbeck intended to imbue the novel with.This thesis is an attempt, in light of the reemergence of Ethical Criticism, to interpret this novel deeply and systematically in order to excavate Steinbeck's moral philosophy reflected in it as a whole. John Steinbeck's moral philosophy includes his doubt about determinism, his advocacy of individualism and free will, his challenge to the Western philosophy based on binarism and the rigidity of Christian morality. Apart from these, John Steinbeck also subverted the Calvinist view of total depravity, the illusion of the absolute innocence of"the American Adam", and the common unfavorable view on prostitutes of whorehouses.In East of Eden, Steinbeck meant to examine closely the whole Western moral system and suggested people should discard the old binary thinking, take a holistic view of the world instead of going extreme, and cherish the human values of tolerance and forgiveness. One thing worth noting particularly is that the moral philosophy John Steinbeck expressed in East of Eden, was, more or less, influenced by the moral philosophy of Taoism and, in a way, anticipated the advent of Derrida's Deconstructionism.