East of Eden centers on the Trask family. Who wrote it?

• A. Ernest Hemingway
• B. John Updike
• C. John Steinbeck
• D. William Faulkner

Answer: (C)

East of Eden was written by John Steinbeck. This novel, published in 1952, follows the Trask family in California’s Salinas Valley and uses their struggles to explore themes of good and evil across generations, a hallmark of Steinbeck’s storytelling about American life. Steinbeck’s name is associated with works like Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, and with a focus on settings in California, which helps distinguish him from the other authors listed. Ernest Hemingway is known for terse prose and war-era themes, John Updike for detailed portraits of American middle-class life, and William Faulkner for complex tales set in the American South. So the author who wrote East of Eden is John Steinbeck.