And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child's world in never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing.
In John Steinbeck's "East of Eden," the decline of deities is depicted as a catastrophic event rather than a gradual fading. When gods fall, they do so dramatically, either breaking apart or descending into obscurity, making their restoration a challenging and often fruitless endeavor. This process highlights the difficulty of rebuilding what has been lost, suggesting that once a figure of reverence has fallen, it can never truly regain its former glory.
The impact of this fall extends to the innocent, symbolizing the profound loss of innocence in a child's view of the world. The experience of growing up, in this context, becomes bittersweet; while it involves the acquisition of wisdom, it also brings a deep sense of longing for a once-cherished wholeness that can never be fully reclaimed. This portrays growing up as a painful yet inevitable part of life, where the beauty of childhood is tinged with an acknowledgment of loss.
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All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
Race of Cain, ascend to heaven, And cast God down upon the earth!
