In a key scene in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Cal, the darker, moodier brother, blackmails his brother, Aron, to keep quiet about Cal’s eavesdropping. He threatens to steal a knife and blame it on Aron: “Cal saw the confusion and helplessness on Aron’s face and felt his power, and it made him glad. He could outthink and out plan his brother.” Then there is a sudden shift: “Aron … was a lump of soft mud in his hands. Cal suddenly felt a deep love for his brother and an impulse to protect him in his weakness.”
Steinbeck, too, could oscillate between cruelty and empathy, as William Sounder shows in his new biography of the novelist. Steinbeck used his friends’ experiences in his stories and yet refused to help them in their own pursuits. He both loved and cheated on his wife. He stood up to those bullied in school and in the military and yet abused his toddler sons. Like many great writers, he was opinionated, passionate, but those close to him often suffered.
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