Cal Trask: Man has a choice and it's a choice that makes him a man.
[refusing Cal's gift of money]

Adam Trask: If you want to give me a present, give me a good life. That's something I can value.
[Abra pleads with Adam to reconcile with his son]

Abra: Mr. Trask, it's awful not to be loved. It's the worst thing in the world. Don't ask me - even if you could - how I know that. I just know it. It makes you mean, and violent, and cruel. And that's the way Cal has always felt, Mr. Trask. All his life! Maybe you didn't mean it that way - but it's true. You never gave him your love. You never asked for his. You never asked him for one thing.
Abra: But you must give him some sign, Mr. Trask, some sign that you love him... or he'll never be a man. All his life he'll feel guilty and alone unless you release him.
Adam Trask: [Adam gives Cal the bible to read] Start at the fifth verse. Verse 5.

Cal Trask: [Cal begins to read...] "I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah."

Adam Trask: Go on.

Cal Trask: [he continues] Six...

Adam Trask: And I suggest a little slower, Cal. And you don't have to read the verse numbers.

Cal Trask: [Cal continues on] "For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee. And surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Selah." Seven...

Adam Trask: Not the numbers, Cal...

Cal Trask: [Cal abruptly furthers reading] "Thou art my hiding place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble, thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah."

[pause]

Cal Trask: *Eight*...

Adam Trask: You have no repentance! You're bad! Through and through, bad!
Kate: [after Cal asks why she shot his father] Because he tried to hold me, he tried to tie me down! Nobody holds me!
Abra: [telling Cal she loves him] I was even thinking I was bad. I love you even though I'm afraid of you. Maybe someday I won't be.
Cal Trask: Hey Aron, why don't you ask me where I've been?

Aron Trask: Would you tell me?

Cal Trask: No.
Cal Trask: I've been jealous all my life. Jealous, I couldn't even stand it. Tonight, I even tried to buy your love, but now I don't want it anymore... I can't use it anymore. I don't want any kind of love anymore. It doesn't pay off.
Cal Trask: It's gonna work because it's got to work and it's got to work because I said so
Abra: [about Cal] Why is he always alone?

Aron Trask: Because he wants to be.

Abra: Nobody *wants* to be alone.
Aron Trask: Staying out again tonight?

Cal Trask: What difference does it make? You're here, aren't you? You're the one he wants!
title card: [title card] In northern California, the Santa Lucia Mountains, dark and brooding, stand like a wall between the peaceful agricultural town of Salinas and the rough and tumble fishing port of Monterey, fifteen miles away.
Bank Teller: Nice fat deposit - you're sure in the right business, Sally.

Sally: Thank you.

[to Kate as she walks away]

Sally: Well, good morning.

Kate: [approaches the teller window] Deposit.

Bank Teller: Another nice deposit. You and Sally are sure in the right business.

Kate: I'm in a hurry please.

[snatches her bank book from his hand and leaves as Cal stealthily follows her]
Aron Trask: Don't you ever touch her again. I don't trust you. You'e no good. You're mean and vicious and wild, and you always have been. You know it, too, don't you? Father and I have put up with every mean and vicious thing you could think of since you were a child., and we've always forgiven you. But now I don't want you to go near Abra. I don't want you to talk with her. Just stay away from her!

East of Eden Quotes

Extended Reading

East of Eden short comments

Jordi 2022-03-25 09:01:14

The one who played the mother really won the Oscar female supporting role, and the boring ending in the front gave me strength.
Kaylah 2022-03-20 09:02:13

James plays Carl's jealousy with a childlike innocence that is heart-wrenching. In fact, the father's partiality is in the final analysis a kind of stubbornness to his own thoughts. Carl is the freedom of the mother, and Aaron has inherited the integrity of the father. The father can never forgive himself for falling in love with the "desire" represented by the mother, so this intolerance leads to the final tragedy. This may be the director's deconstruction of the story of Cain and Abel, not being loved is really cruel