The American Tapestry: Individualism and Community in John Steinbeck's East of Eden and my Classroom

Comprised of individuals, families, stories, and legacies from across the world and nation, American is essentially a tapestry.  Each of us, or our family from a broader sense, is a segment woven into the American story, or the American Dream if you will.  This metaphorical understanding inspired a final project for my American Literature juniors.


Over the last eight years, I've taught John Steinbeck's East of Eden. In truth, it was one of my very favorite novels in high school.  Steinbeck's

claim that every story could be boiled down to good versus evil resonated with my teenage mind.  I love teaching this novel and frequently quote it throughout the year without faltering on exact words.  In short, it is one of my books that I actually get to teach.

Over the years, projects have varied and include analytical journals, literary analysis essays, annotations, presentations about character growth, to name a few.  There is so much in the text thematically and symbolically with archetypes in seemingly every chapter that it never seemed possible to address all the crucial components without a formal writing piece.  But then, something happened.  Last year's students did not love the novel in the same way as years before.

My best friend and I co-plan American lit together, and both of us noticed a deflation in passion and a struggle in our students to complete the lengthy text with enthusiasm and passion.  We considered removing the novel for the 2019-2020 school year.  Both of us, lovers of the work, decided to give the novel one more shot.

This year, regularly scheduling in-class reading time aided student engagement in the text. If they read some in class, they are far more likely to continue reading it at home.  Read alouds of significant sections (Chapter 8, where students meet Cathy Ames and, of course, Lee's birth story) drew wavering readers back into the learning community.  Discussions were plentiful, both table groups and whole class, which further assisted students as they developed reading stamina.  In terms of writing, analytical journals contributed to our students' more profound understanding of themes and symbols.  Close reading activities ensured a firm grasp of character motivation and growth.  Still, we hesitated in pushing forward a more conventional literary analysis essay to conclude the unit.  Our students had worked so hard and improved a good deal in a relatively short time.  So, we asked ourselves the most important skills we wanted our students to show.

We established in no particular order:

• a quality thesis statement including a counterclaim
• identification and defense of textual evidence
• articulation of character motivation, values, and growth
• development/tracing of themes/symbols from the text
• analysis of the work and a reflection on their own learning 

East of Eden traditionally falls in our American Dream / Re-creation of self unit, and that got me thinking.  If we are all part of this American story, how is that any different than classroom tapestries my students made in middle school?  My students took strips of paper, wrote their names, drew symbols they believed reflected them at that time using colors that meant something to them.  Students shared their tapestry strip, and we hung them up, weaving them together.  It was always a sweet way to start the year, and during years when I was totally on-point, we'd end the year un-weaving the strips as our learning community said goodbye.  It was moving, symbolic, and reflected how much better we were together than individually.

That's how I see East of Eden. Adam Trask is nothing without Lee.  Ask my students. Lee is the man. Cathy Ames is one of the greatest villains written in American literature, but without Cal Trask, she would not necessarily meet her match.  My co-planning friend is always ready for a risk.  If I want to try something, she trusts me that it will be successful, or we will fix it.  I feel the same way about her ideas.  We are better together.  Just like our students. Just like our characters.  

 Now we needed to turn this idea into a reality.  The assignment and accompanying rubric for the tapestry strip, including presentation, was created as was the grading criteria for the written reflection.  Students randomly selected characters.  They could trade after everyone chose a character.  They then dove into the text searching for details, focus quotes, evidence of growth, symbolic or thematic value. Evaluating the model character strip we made (John Steinbeck--he is in his own book after all), students commented on my work, kindly thank goodness.

They drafted their strip before being given a 3-foot section of register tape. (Side note: Yes, I have a part-time and summer job at a women's clothing boutique, and the store's owner immediately said I could take a couple rolls of register tape for my students even if she was likely confused about what I was doing!).  The toughest part was "laminating" the strips to prevent tears.  Masking tape is not forgiving if you made a mistake!  Students crafted their final tapestry strip and wrote an analytical reflection answering the prompt:

• How/Why is your character an integral part of the American tapestry that East of Eden represents?

The final piece of this project was students sharing the tapestry strips, hanging them from a dowel, and weaving them together.  If the first student presented Abra Bacon, for example, they shared details, quotes, and articulated why Abra is an integral part of the tapestry.  I assisted that student in hanging Abra's strip, and that student sat to the side for the next presentation and then aided the next student in hanging Charles Trask's strip, for example.  An unplanned side effect of this was the kindness and pride my students showed in their peers' work.  It was adorable to watch them help each other and occasionally hysterical when declarations of "someone else needs to go before we can hang this; otherwise, Cyrus' dog is going to be covered, and the dog is too important to hide." 

In short, focusing on an American tapestry reflected in East of Eden, our classroom community became stronger.  The tapestry hangs in the back of my room.  Students glance at it from time to time, and it makes me smile.  They read a rigorous text, analyzed, discussed, and gained deep insight into what motivates human beings, but in the end, determined that all of us are integral parts of America's tapestry.  Who knows?  Maybe they already know we are all individually integral parts of the world and that when we bind together, we are stronger and better for it.