I just finished reading East of Eden and it struck me just how important a role sibling rivalry plays in our lives. For those of you who don’t know, East of Eden is the story of two generations of brothers. One of the most striking parallels is to the story of Cain and Abel in the Bible.
Just as Cain and Abel strove to gain God’s approval, so do these characters strive to gain their father’s affection. And while one of the siblings is loved more, the other is left in the shadow of rejection and envy.
I say rejection because Steinbeck argues how rejection is the root of all evil. Everyone at one point or another has felt rejection. “…and with rejection comes anger, and with anger some kind of crime in revenge for the rejection, and with the crime guilt—and there is the story of mankind.” The greatest rejection of all is of course the denial of love. There is always someone who is more loved, more appreciated, more respected.
Last year in my Spanish class we were reading Miguel de Unamuno’s Abel Sanchez, which basically followed the story of Cain and Abel. His conclusions were slightly different than Steinbeck’s. He thought that the root of all evil resulted from envy. The main character Joaquin was envious of his best friend, the guy who was almost a brother to him, Abel. Everything came easy to Abel and people admired him. Joaquin was the hard working one, and yet he was the lesser admired. As the story progressed, Joaquin became so obsessed with Abel that he could not function; his life did not have meaning without Abel and his hatred toward him. And envy was what crippled him, what made him non-human, made him unable to enjoy his life. And that is another kind of evil. (And of course at the end of that story too Joaquin ended up killing Abel, interestingly enough, for the love of their grandson).
Was Cain evil? Did he have to kill Abel? What would I have done? What would you have done, since I feel that I have a calm disposition and couldn’t even think how I could be so worked up to murder someone? I don’t know.
Steinbeck said of Cal, the Cain of the story, that he is “Everyman, the battle ground between good and evil, the most human of all.” Furthermore, I have no doubt that Cal/Joaquin/Cain loved their respective brothers, for how can there be so much hatred/jealousy/envy, enough of it to murder without the opposing force, love?
Now of course upon reading the story of Cain and Abel, and reading different interpretations and scenarios, I had to wonder where I fit in… I have a younger sister.
Growing up we were inseparable. My grandmother would sew us the same dresses and when we wore them at the same day people would think we were twins, even though she is two years younger than me. We were each other’s best friend.
Then came our teenage years and that’s when it all started. I have always been admired by my studious habits, my good grades, my calm nature. My sister, as is natural with siblings, is the opposite. School did not come as easy to her, she neglected her chores, she had an easy temper that could flare up in a second. She recently confessed that she thought she needed to be more like me and she couldn’t. That’s where all the anguish of her teenage years came from.
I, on the other hand, always thought that personal relationships came easy to her. She always made friends easier, she gave herself totally and completely over to her relationships, she is a better artist than I will ever be, more creative, more perceptive. What I have to study in books to realize, she does by observation. And I have yet to confess that I wanted to be like her.
As for the sibling rivalry being the root of all evil… The only person I have ever hit is my sister. I do not get in shouting arguments with anyone, except for my sister. No one has ever annoyed me so much as her. And yet I love her more than anyone. I guess that is what I meant when I said Cain must have loved his brother. Only if you really love someone, can you be affected so much by them. Only then it matters.
