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Apr 22, 2018FVReader rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
A terrific story. The eternal, internal struggle between good and evil that every person (except phychopaths/sociopaths) has to endure throughout Life. The guilt of doing "bad"; the difficulty of doing "good". A lifelong struggle for us all. "Timshel", free-will, personal responsibility to ourselves and others. We can make the choices that form us into who and what we are. The multi-generational story of the Trask family emphasizes the struggle of the individual; each generation has the struggle. We cannot save our children that; they must endure alone. Steinbeck managed to show the eternal struggle well. His characters are real, Life is real. But what happens if we are born without the ability or awareness of this eternal struggle and our being loses the choice that timshel allows us? Cathy and Aron seem to be two extremes of this. One cannot conceive good, the other cannot do bad. How does that affect the soul of a being? A wonderful family saga. Steinbeck told a good story of the need for both good and bad within ourselves in order to become the best person we can be.