By setting East of Eden approximately fifty years before its publishing date, John
Steinbeck takes a retrospective approach to critiquing contemporary gender politics in the
United States. While the nation was attempting to forget the chaos of its past and look
forward to the future and its promise of progress, Steinbeck took a look backwards. By
setting his novel in the past, Steinbeck disguises his critique of contemporary lifestyle,
which makes his novel more acceptable to contemporary readers. This thesis explores
the gender politics in America throughout the 1950s while paying particular attention to
the roles of women during this time period. This examination of Cathy Trask, Liza
Hamilton, and Abra Bacon reveals sexual tensions and cultural dynamics as well as how
these particular tensions and dynamics affected women of the post-World War II era.
While Liza Hamilton represents the traditional domestic figure, Cathy Trask represents a
deviant woman who refuses to accept the roles of wife and mother. Ultimately, Cathy
Trask, the woman who deviates from the cultural norm in East of Eden, is punished.
Rather than illustrating the idea that women who stray from traditional gender roles
deserve to suffer the consequences, Steinbeck is actually portraying the limitations of
postwar American society. Steinbeck offers the character of Abra Bacon as an alternative
type of female who defines a new idea of femininity. While Abra observes traditional
gender roles and maintains a domestic profile, at the same time, she is assertive and does
not allow her femininity to be defined by domesticity
