We are our own worst enemies...

As I finished Under the Dome and got the real picture of what King was talking about, I realized how bad people can really be. We go about our lives just fine, usually, but every once in awhile we see the true side of those around us. For example, in Under the Dome, before the city was under a dome Jim Rennie was just a normal used car salesman and most people trusted him and only a few saw past his charade. Then when the crisis started, all of sudden Rennie wanted control and got it. More and more people started to realized his fake behavior but usually not soon enough to prevent harm from coming to them or those around them. The longer the people were under the dome the more catastrophic events happened and all of them were caused, not by the dome itself, but by the peoples reactions to the dome. If the people would have been calm, non-controling, and less psychotic then they probably could have lived peaceable under the dome until they ran out of air, food, or water. However, that wouldn't have been very human of them.

Under the Dome

I think I'm officially a Stephen King fan. I've read so many books by him and they always make an impression and tend to stick with me for a long time. I love how King's books are so thought out and long. I love the way he ends his book with an idea that might have been briefly foreshadowed or introduced previously but that wasn't really recognized until the last couple of pages. Usually after I read the last few pages of Stephen King's books, I realized what he was trying to say the entire novel and I'm disappointed that I didn't get the idea sooner. However, that is what makes King's novels fantastic. He tells the reader the story and drags them along but then he makes sure that they understand exactly what he wants them to understand. We can make our assumptions all we want about what he is getting at, but we know that the last few pages will let us know. More than the way the ideas are introduced, I love the ideas themselves. They are always so true and able to relate to. If you haven't read a single Stephen King novel besides, The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon, I recommend you read another one.

Timshel

Until the last page, the 7th to last word, of East of Eden, I didn't realize how important Timshel was in the novel. While reading the entire book, I thought the theme was how history repeats itself over and over again. I still think that is part of the theme, however now I realize that the true theme is that no matter what you think probably will happen, We have the choice. We can choose how to react to our past and how to frame our future, just like Cal could choose to not be like his mother and Lee could choose to be who he set out to be regardless of his upbringing and nationality. Timshel, or "thou mayest", is a life changing idea that life can be what we want it to be.

The end of East of Eden

As I was finishing East of Eden I had a feeling that someone was going to die and that it would probably be Aron. However, I did not expect Adam to have a stroke and then for Lee to get his blessing for Cal as he was dying. As I was reading these last few pages all I could think about was Jacob and Esau. The story is similar, one son killed the other son and then one son stole the other sons blessing from his fathers favorite son. Lee, in this case, acts as the mother figure, protecting the son who needs it the most. I'm not sure if Lee actually liked Cal more, as in the Jacob and Esau story, or if he wanted to make sure that both sons were loved by someone and given the attention they needed whether it was from their father or Lee. In some situations, it seemed as if Lee found amusement in Cal and that is why he protected him until the end. Either way, the biblical allusions in East of Eden never end.