Just South of Stanford University: The Salinas Valley

Few novelists integrate the setting into a story as beautifully as John Steinbeck. Throughout each of his works, Steinbeck treats the lands and cities in which his novels are set as living, breathing characters that very much affect the storyline of his works. The novel most famous for setting is The Grapes of Wrath, as critics consider it to be his magnum opus. Few actually realize, however, that Steinbeck believed East of Eden to be his greatest work.

 Set primarily in the Salinas Valley, East of Eden details the history of two families whose lives become intertwined as they both seek different versions of the American Dream.  One family is completely destitute but finds “wealth” through the meaningful relationships each family member has with one another. Whereas the other family is wealthy, but deluded, dysfunctional and disconnected. 

Aspiring college students should read East of Eden as a lesson on Steinbeck’s storytelling. His characters are complex, believable and flawed, and the way in which he brings readers into the valleys of California is very much emblematic of his writing style. Finally, readers will find that East of Eden arguably has more depth than some of his earlier novellas. The plot is even at times shocking, as Steinbeck reveals the sins that form the backbone of the American Dream he writes so devotedly about.

Trivia: Steinbeck did in fact attend Stanford University. He entered the school in 1919 to study English but later left without a degree in 1925.

Favorite Quotation:

“Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids.”