In East Eden, John Steinbeck tells the story of two generations of different families, the Hamiltons and the Trasks, from 1880 to the 1920s. Throughout the Trask family, there is a recurring glimpse of the story of Cain and Abel reflected in two sets of brothers. Every generation struggles to balance the angel and devil raging within them. Steinbeck uses masks to show that no matter how destructive he may be, he will always strive to be accepted by others. Charles Trask, who supports Cain's destructive behavior, has an acute fear of rejection, despite it being a constant factor in his life. As a child, the only thing he wanted was the love of his father Cyrus, but Cyrus gave all his love to Adam, Abel to Charles and the brother who "most of the time [Adam] hated [Cyrus] " (64). This rejection creates anger in Charles, directed not at his more deserving father Cyrus, but at Adam. Charles needs someone to blame for his hurt feelings and believes his brother is the best choice. For Ciro's birthday Charles "took six coins and bought him a knife made in Germany", while Adam...