East of Eden Lesson Plan

Discuss chapter 12, which serves as a transition between time periods.

In the transitional, highly philosophical chapter 12, Steinbeck insists on the primacy of the creative power of the individual mind and warns of the danger of following the impulse of the destructive crowd. The power of the individual mind is, he maintains, indomitable. Although it will not be apparent for a while, here Steinbeck lays the foundation for one of the novel's major themes - the issue of free will.

Are people, he wonders, born with an innate predisposition towards good or evil, or do they have the ability to choose between the two extremes? Forgoing predestination, he leans toward the...