Timshel (Thou Mayest) by Julianna

Timshel (Thou Mayest) by Julianna - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

Literature has always been seen as a developmental tool, especially for high school students. Many works have influenced my development throughout high school from The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton to The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. If I had to choose one book all high school students should read before they graduate it would be John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Whether the book is being read a week after beginning high school or a week before graduation, every high school student should read East of Eden.

East of Eden is a book all high school students should read because of the book’s theme of free will and choice. The theme is revealed with the translation of timshel, which means thou mayest. Though the meaning may seem small and minute, it is the greatest belief a book can instill in a high school student, in a developing young adult, in the future of the nation. It means that every human being, from the morally corrupt to those with the purist virtue, have the one thing that makes people great and equal– choice, free will.

High school students are in crucial developmental stages during high school, and this book discusses love, acceptance, morality, and free will; all things that encircle the life of a developing high school student. The book ties all things into free will, and lets the student know they may love and accept themselves; they may choose where they go in life. They can go from the kid writing scholarship essays to the college graduate and future physician. They can go from the seventeen year-old student hoping for someday and without noticing someday is today and yesterday, and every choice to someday was theirs. Thou mayest pave his/her own path.

East of Eden gives high school students what most other books do not, the knowledge and value of choice. In high school, there is very little freedom of choice and with that very little accountability. High schools students learn through the book the importance of choice, but also the understanding that certain actions come with consequences. Kate’s decisions affected Adam, Cal, and Aron. The decisions of Cal affected Aron and Adam. Every action has reactions, and though free will and choice are important it is also critical to understand the repercussions to ones choices.

East of Eden explores a theme most high school students rarely see in the classroom – free will and the power of a person’s choices. Free will is important; making choices is important’ and understanding the power of choice is important. The plot and theme of the book lets students know they are in control even if their parents decide many decisions, they have the power of choice and the power to chose their own paths in high school and after high school.