Introduction
Retribution
Retribution refers to the things or events in life given in return to a person or a specific group of people, based on merits or deserts, specifically designed to reward those who are good and to punish those who have done evil. Both of these well-known authors grew up in a different society, culture, and country, thus experiencing different events in history, and developing a different set of beliefs, values, and opinions. One major difference between the ending of the stories spurs from John Steinbeck s and Gabriel Garc a M rquez s idea of retribution, or true sense of justice.
These authors are a reflection of their own upbringings, histories, and experiences. It is important to recognize this, in order to understand exactly how the author s background reflects on his or her own principles and attitudes towards a certain subject in a piece of literature. In turn, this literature affects readers and their beliefs, opinions, judgements, etc., in other societies, thus making a greater impact on their environment, as new ideas shape their minds and sway their thoughts. Looking at how John Steinbeck and Gabriel Garc a M rquez display contrasting points of view of retribution, through the telling of their novel s families history and the real and/or fictional history of the settings of their novels, gives the readers a glimpse of how authors can directly influence people and societies with their own cultural experiences and perspectives through their written work. The authors, John Steinbeck and Gabriel Garcia Marquez demonstrate their differing views of retribution, by manipulating the language in their novels; through their extended metaphors about human nature through their created fictional families, and through their literary criticism directed towards one another s country s history.
A Brief Summary on the Novels
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Written by Colombian author, Gabriel Garc a M rquez, the novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, tells the story of the Buend a family. For a hundred years the readers follow their lives as they continue to make the same mistakes as their forefathers. Set in a fictional town called Macondo, the Buend a family endure through multiple changes of the town, its people, and of ways of thinking.
East of Eden
East of Eden is a novel by American author, John Steinbeck, and centers around the stories of two families: the Trasks and the Hamiltons. Both families are thrown together in situations in which there is a battle between good and evil. The power and freedom to overcome evil is a central theme of the book which can be seen through the lives of multiple characters. The story takes place, for the most part, in the Salinas Valley in California, and sometimes in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Similarities
Both novels function as a metaphor for human history and as extended commentaries on human nature, as the different generations of each family repeat either the same mistakes and/or fight the same internal and external battles as their forefathers prior to them did.
Human Nature
When considering the topic of human nature, both authors, John Steinbeck and Gabriel Garc a M rquez, have a similar view of it shown through the themes of their novels: that while the actions of man can be altered to some degree, human nature does not change, as seen in the families generations in these two pieces of literature.
East of Eden
The central theme of East of Eden is the struggle between good and evil that goes on within individuals and in society as a whole. Steinbeck explores this struggle through a number of sets of contrasts. He begins the novel with a description of the Salinas Valley where he grew up, establishing an important early metaphor for the conflict between good and evil, the contrast between the dark, foreboding Santa Lucia Mountains to the west and the bright, welcoming Gabilan Mountains to the east. The narrator, who is essentially Steinbeck himself, says that he learned to tell east from west by looking at these mountains. The mountains symbolize the ever present human predicament of having to maneuver between light and darkness, representing goodness and evil. In addition, the opening chapters reveal the narrator s tendency to mull over history in violent and dramatic terms. In the first chapter, Steinbeck views the events of the past as inspired by greed and brutality. Later in the novel, he says that there is only one story in the world, the human struggle between good and evil (Steinbeck 413). Despite the optimism that the narrator has in implying that everyone has the choice whether or not to reject evil, another underlying tone within that is that the struggle with evil is endless and inescapable and will always be a part of the human condition, no matter how well or not one s ancestors behaved.
An important contrast explored in this first section is the one between the large, loving Hamilton family and the small, tension-ridden Trask family. In his depictions of the patriarchs of these two families, Samuel Hamilton and Cyrus Trask, Steinbeck quickly establishes the different moral environments the children of the two families later grow up in. Samuel Hamilton is a powerful force of good and familial strength throughout the novel, whereas Cyrus Trask is a menacing figure of corruption and familial divisiveness: Cyrus was something of a devil (Steinbeck 14). This initial contrast between the heads of the two families persists in the following generations, as the Hamiltons remain close and loving while the Trasks lives are full of conflict and hostility. This strife continues to play out immediately in the next generation of the Trask family, as the good-natured and kind Adam frequently comes into conflict with the violent and manipulative Charles.
The biblical story of Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve, provides the basic pattern for many of the relationships in East of Eden. For example, in the initial parts of the the novel, it is seen in the relationship between Charles and Adam. In the Bible, Cain is a farmer and Abel is a shepherd. When the two brothers bring sacrifices to God one day, Cain offers grain from his fields, while Abel offers the fattest sheep of his flocks. God, seemingly arbitrarily, favors Abel s gift over Cain s. Cain then murders Abel in a fit of jealousy. As punishment, God banishes Cain to the land of Nod, which lies on the east of Eden. This is the origin of the title of Steinbeck s novel. In East of Eden, Charles and Adam mimic this biblical gift-giving in their birthday gifts to their father, Cyrus. Charles diligently saves money to buy Cyrus a German knife, while Adam, who barely gives the gift a thought, presents Cyrus with a stray puppy he has found. Cyrus far prefers Adam s gift to Charles s, favors Adam in general, and even admits that he loves Adam more. Like Cain, Charles becomes intensely jealous and takes out his frustration on Adam, brutally beating him. Then, further in the story, Charles even gets a scar, looking like a long fingermark laid on his forehead…He conceived a shame for [it], just like how after Cain sins, God marks him as well (Steinbeck 47). However Charles, unlike Cain, does not kill his brother showing that humans are never predestined for anything, and that they can make their own decisions and have their own consciences.
Finally, Steinbeck states his belief that the power of free will in the human mind is the most precious of human capabilities, that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this [he] would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected (Steinbeck 132). He declares his intention to fight against any force whether it be ideological, religious, political, or otherwise, that threatens to obstruct this liberty of the individual. In highlighting the importance of free choice very early in the novel, the narrator foreshadows this idea of the Hebrew word, the word timshel Thou mayest that gives a choice…That says the way is open…it is also true that Thou mayest not becomes the main idea in East of Eden (Steinbeck 303). Although many characters struggle with the problem of evil throughout much of the novel, the narrator plants a seed of hope early, in his words about the capability of goodness in every human, through his/her mind and heart.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
One Hundred Years of Solitude has certain qualities of both cyclic and linear history. The way Gabriel Garc a M rquez presents history in his novel consolidates both of those outlooks on history. A character s viewpoint on the world is cyclical and repetitive, yet the author and the reader can perceive the declining linearity of Macondo, as the story progresses. This is because the novel is presented as a series of cycles moving in linear time that leads to degradation rather than improvement. No member of the Buend a family was aware of the disintegration of their town or themselves, and, moreover the connection between the two, until Aureliano Babilonia, Jos Arcadio Buend a s great-great-great-grandson, managed to place all of the decipherment of Melqu ades' manuscripts all into historical context, It was the history of the family, written by Melqu ades , (Garc a M rquez 415) and ended up discovering the truth of the Buend a family s inevitable doom: it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (Macondo) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men (Garc a M rquez 417). The Buend as failure to create a historical awareness is tied to the destruction of Macondo and of themselves. This emphasizes the family s isolation, as they are secluded both in their remote town of Macondo and by their solitary nature.
These two cyclical phenomenons in Macondo's history is made evident through the gender characterizations of the Buendias, those associated with them, and with the repetition of the male Buendias names and attributes: Throughout the long history of the family the insistent repetition of names had made [Ursula] draw some conclusions (Garc a M rquez 181). The Arcadios exemplified the force of sexual instinct, and were impulsive and enterprising (Garc a M rquez 181). Through them the Buend a line will continue, while the Aurelianos were withdrawn , had lucid minds , and contained the power to foresee the future and then die, without leaving any descendants. (Garc a M rquez 181). This pattern gets interrupted, when the identities of the twins in the fourth generation, Jos Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo, are confused in their youth, and that crossing of stature, names, and character showed how they had been shuffled like a deck of cards since childhood (Garcia Marquez 182). Being so, it is realized by the Buend a family afterwards, that Jos Arcadio Segundo was really Aureliano Segundo and vice versa. This is the only place where the family history crosses itself. The women on the other hand, in general, are more stable and have more of an acute perspective of their town and of their family, as they are put into asexual-sexual pairs. Examples of these pairs in the Buend a family include, rsula Iguar n and Pilar Ternera, Amaranta and Rebeca, and Fernanda del Carpio and Petra Cotes. The asexual women play the role of the dutiful mother, acting as the head of the household and representing the wife aspect of the relationship. Meanwhile, the sexual women represent more of the lover side of the relationship and are seen as powerful through their lack of submissiveness and independent nature. Another defining characteristic within the Buend a family is incest. This occurs within the family all throughout the novel, starting with, Jos Arcadio Buendia and rsula Iguar n s marriage (they are first cousins), then continuing on to Arcadio s craving to sleep with Pilar Ternera (who is his mother), Jos Arcadio s longing for his step sister, Rebeca, Aureliano Jos s lust after his aunt, Amaranta, and ending with Aureliano Babilonia s union with his aunt, Amaranta rsula. The act of incest in the family is repetitive; relatives who copulate, reproduce and double family relationships that have already existed. This recurring urge appears again and again, and is symptomatic of the family s alienation.
While circularity is incorporated into the structure of the book, it mainly exists only within the setting of Macondo and from the viewpoint of the Buend a family, as evident of the repetition of names and events in the lives of the Buend as. For example, when Jos Arcadio Segundo gets involved in the banana company strike, rsula had the impression that once more she was living through the dangerous times when her son Aureliano carried the homeopathic pills of subversion in his pocket and she tried finding Jose Arcadio Segundo to let him know about that precedent (Garcia Marquez 298) This shows that in Jose Arcadio Segundo s allegiance with the strikers there lies a parallel; he has replaced Colonel Aureliano Buendia, who in an earlier generation, fought for the rights of the working class in the thirty-two civil wars. Later, after the banana company massacre, he also inherits Colonel Aureliano s disillusionment with war and reclusive nature, locking himself up with Melqu ades manuscripts, like the Colonel locked himself up with his little fishes. Ursula Iguaran notices these generational similarities, Just like Aureliano, she remarked It s as if the world were repeating itself (Garc a M rquez 298).
The men and events in this novel were parallels of each other. The repetitive cyclic pattern of the book encompasses characters, lives, and events that happen only once. However nothing ever happens in the exact same way twice. The cycles of the novel do not only result in repetition, however, but in destruction as well. Thus, all of the events of the novel, instead of leading to a cyclic regeneration, lead to a final annihilation of the Buend a family and of Macondo.
Historical Context in Novels
Both John Steinbeck and Gabriel Garc a M rquez are critical of certain aspects of modernization and of some political actions taken place in their respective countries.
East of Eden
John Steinbeck s East of Eden takes place from 1862 to 1918. The setting Steinbeck chooses, the Salinas Valley, serves as a microcosm for the changes taking place in the United States.
One of the biggest changes seen in the Salinas Valley, and the United States, in general, in the novel, happened as a result of the start of World War I, from 1914 to 1918 ( World War I ). During this time period, a tremendous amount of technological development and change occurred in the United States. This time period also saw much growth in metropolitan areas as people abandoned farming and the rural countryside in order to seek out and gain employment, and enjoy more modern conveniences, in cities.
The story is also told during the Progressive Era, where standards of living were increasing and, in which, people who believed that the problems society faced at the time, such as poverty, violence, greed, racism, class warfare, etc. could best be addressed by providing good education, a safe environment, and an efficient workplace (The Progressive Era).
In the late 1800s, after the Civil War and the period of Reconstruction waned, expansion began anew. Western settlers were encouraged by the development of the transcontinental railroad, a major byproduct of the industrialization that had truly begun. This industrialization combined with the expansion and immigration of the late 1800s to spur on the growth of American urban society. As the necessities of industrial workers grew more important, national politics became dominated by the disparity in needs between the rural and urban populations of America, along with the needs of the new social classes created by the eradication of slavery and industrialization.
The experiences of the Trask family reflect the socio-economic changes taking place in the nation during the time period in which the novel takes place. Adam Trask s father was a farmer, however, as an adult, Adam joins in the movement to get the Native Americans out of the path to modernization of the United States government. Adam continues on this trajectory, moving to Salinas Valley, leaving his brother behind on their old Connecticut farm. Furthermore, while he originally locates to rural farming land in the Salinas Valley, he eventually leaves his ranch for a house in town. Adam purchases a Model T Ford and a modern stove, he experiments with refrigeration and thus, begins to live the modern American life. Later on, one of his sons is killed in World War I, perhaps ironically, the war that brought the mechanization of killing to a never before seen level of horror.
Similarly, Samuel and Liza Hamilton see all but one of their children abandon the family farm to lead a life in the city. Most of their children become successful, modern professionals teacher, insurance salesman, car dealer, advertiser. The two families experiences exemplify some of the more significant social and cultural changes occurring in the nation during the time period. While on the one hand Steinbeck attempts to describe events with some historical accuracy, on the other hand, he uses the advantage of hindsight to critique them. As a result, East of Eden seems highly skeptical of certain aspects of modernization, especially the potentials for mass production and consumerism, that Steinbeck had witnessed explode by the time he composed the novel (East of Eden).
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The setting time is the early 1800s to the mid 1900s. Not only does Gabriel Garc a M rquez tell the story of the Buend a family, but he also uses his novel to tell the history of Colombia and to criticize past mistakes made by the Colombian government.
A plague is brought to Macondo by the Indian servants of the Buend as, Cataure and Visitaci n. These two characters are used to represent Colombia s native populations who were oppressed by the conquering Spaniards, and who in the process lost their own culture. This insomnia plague symbolizes this loss that many Latin American natives suffered, by causing the inhabitants of Macondo to forget everything: the Indian woman explained that the most fearsome part of the sickness of insomnia was not the impossibility of sleeping…but…a loss of memory (Garc a M rquez 44). To avoid this loss culture and reality, they begin to label all of their objects and write down their purposes too. Thus they went on living in a reality that was slipping away, momentarily captured by words, saving their memories through the tool of writing, as a means to hold on to their past and current surroundings (Garc a M rquez 47).
One of the worst events that the town endured, was Colonel Aureliano Buend a s civil wars. The civil wars in which Colonel Aureliano Buend a fought, brought to Macondo political violence and consequently civil authority in the form of Moscote and his armed forces. Efforts to return Macondo to a place of peace, were useless, as exemplified when Arcadio, the son of Jos Arcadio, overthrew the government in Macondo, replacing Moscote, and resulting in an even worse dictatorship: Arcadio continued tightening the tourniquet with unnecessary rigor until he became the cruelest ruler that Macondo had ever known (Garc a M rquez 105). This is symbolic for Garc a M rquez s criticism towards twentieth century authoritarian regimes and revolutionary movements against them in various Latin American countries. Garc a M rquez also criticizes Latin American, specifically, Colombian politics. In the wars the Colonel is in, he and his army, the Liberals, primarily fight against the Conservatives who are facilitating the rise of foreign imperialist to power. However, as they drag on, there seems to be little to no difference between the Liberals and the Conservatives, as both parties inevitably achieve the same unintentional goal: killing and exploiting the people. Colonel Aureliano Buend a became as bad as [the Conservatives], (Garc a M rquez 159) and soldiers did not even know why they were fighting anymore (Garc a M rquez 165). Afterwards, the Colonel and his army fight for [their] own liberation and not for abstract ideals, for slogans that politicians could twist left and right (Garc a M rquez 170). The author highlighted here the nature of Latin American politics and its tendency towards absurdity, denial, and continuous repetitions of tragedy. The events and characters may be fictional, but the message that Garc a M rquez delivers, explains a true history.
The last, major change, that ruins Macondo for good, is the exploitation carried out by the banana company in Macondo. The increased communication and contact with the rest of the world, with the construction of a railroad, brings in civilization, movie theaters, electricity, running water, facilitating the arrival of the banana company and encourages the practice of materialism as well. Soon the old inhabitants had a hard time recognizing their own town (Garc a M rquez 228). The presence of this United States banana company leads to the collapse of Macondo, its residents, and its destruction, which is climatically demonstrated by the massacre of banana company workers.
Garc a M rquez's inclusion of the banana workers massacre is taken from actual events that took place between Colombian government forces and strikers of the United Fruit Company in the Colombian town of Ci naga in 1928 (Bucheli). Peaceful and unarmed strikers had gathered in the square near the train station of that town, and when they refused to disperse, they were fired upon. After the event, a conspiracy of silence was created around the actual facts of the incident, especially concerning the number dead (Bucheli). In his adaptation to the story, M rquez remains generally true to the basic elements of the known facts while exaggerating the details and the actions of the banana company. Over three thousand died in the Macondo massacre by Decree No. 4, that declared the strikers to be a bunch of hoodlums, authorizing the army to shoot and kill (Garc a M rquez 304). There were man corpses, woman corpses, child corpses…thrown into the sea like rejected bananas, the only surviving witnesses being Jos Arcadio Segundo and a small child (Garc a M rquez 307). The search for and extermination of the hoodlums, murderers, arsonists, and rebels of Decree No. 4 was still going on, but the military denied it even to the relatives of the victims , which meant that soon, and years after the event, with the exception of Jos Arcadio Segundo s nephew, Aureliano Babilonia, no one in Macondo believed Jos Arcadio Segundo's story of the massacre (Garc a M rquez 310). Aureliano was the sole believer and the only one who remembered the incident. Telling everyone his version of the story, one would have thought that he was telling a hallucinated version, because it was radically opposed to the false one that historians created and consecrated in their schoolbooks; Aureliano, thus, represented the relationship between the decline of Macondo, and the massacre and its subsequent suppression from historical memory, to symbolize the author s criticism of past tragedies covered up by the Colombian government (Garc a M rquez 348).
Conclusion
Although one of the bigger themes in East of Eden is that evil is unavoidable and an innate human problem, by the end of the novel, this is refuted. Two characters die; Cathy Ames, representing all of the evil in the world, and Aron Trask, representing moral extremism toward good. After these two characters die, there no longer dominates any moral standing or preference, thus, letting the character, Cal Trask, learns that he has the power to be good or bad, that it is not just fate, but he himself who gets to choose his own path. In creating an ending like this, John Steinbeck sets forth hope that each individual has the freedom to overcome evil by his or her own choice. This free choice is encapsulated in the Hebrew word timshel, repeated throughout, in Steinbeck s book, and demonstrates his version of retribution, as being fair to those who readily accept reality that they will make mistakes, and that world can be an immoral place, but are able to understand all that whilst maintaining a good sense of moral judgement, and punishing those who go off too far into either poor or good moral conduct.
Meanwhile, in Gabriel Garc a M rquez s, One Hundred Years of Solitude, for the Buend as and for Macondo, there is no rebirth that follows their destruction. Garc a M rquez created a world in which free will almost does not exist, where fate controls the actions and histories of every major character, and younger generations repeatedly make the same mistakes as their older kin. The author writes the history of the family was a machine with unavoidable repetitions, a turning wheel that would have gone on spilling into eternity were it not for the progressive and irremediable wearing of the axle (Garc a M rquez 396). If that is the case, where man has no free will and all actions are predetermined, then, of course, this author s version of retribution is that after all of humanity has tired itself out, with the same events played and the same mistakes made, over and over again, then the only thing that can correct all of that is complete eradication.
Going back to the word history in this paper s title, it serves as a double entendre, referring to the families histories and the history of their respective countries. Obviously, every country shares a different history along with a different cultural outlook on life, and this shapes the people living in those countries as well. As can be seen with the authors, John Steinbeck and Gabriel Garc a M rquez, and their differing views on retribution stemming back to their contrasting upbringings, and the morals and values that were instilled in each of them during that time. By their use of extended metaphors, John Steinbeck and Gabriel Garcia Marquez portray their distinct sentiments of their version of retribution with the telling of a familial generational story, in which human nature is examined, and through literary condemnation of their societies and the problems arising there then and now throughout history.