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In his later life, Steinbeck considered East of Eden his greatest masterpiece. In his private correspondence and journals over the year that he was writing the novel (1951), he repeatedly referred to it as his "life's work," and as the novel that he had been preparing himself to write for his whole career.

Beneath the simple language of the novel's surface lies many complex layers of ideas, which Steinbeck intentionally built into the structure of the narrative. He thus came to think of East of Eden as one of his most "experimental" novels because its apparent simplicity masks a much more complicated set of interwoven stories.

These stories, much like parables, explore ideas of good and evil, justice and injustice, and, most deeply, the relationship between inheritance, environment, and free will in shaping one's moral choices. Steinbeck, ultimately, intended the real core of the novel to be a close scrutiny of the biblical story of Cain and Abel, with all of its implications for individuals, families, and society.