Character Road Sign: East of Eden

 Destination Road Sign: Samuel Hamilton

This destination road sign is related to Samuel Hamilton in East of Eden. Although initially he is never really accepted by some of his neighbors, as time goes on he becomes a respected member of the community in which he resides. Samuel serves as the voice of reason and guidance in the novel, and is truly a person everyone wants to be around because of his positive and loving nature, hence the green on the sign. He is able to give such advice that helps bring many out of their troubles and states of depression. Like all destination road signs, Samuel also has his arrows, most of which are positive, but one serves as a contradiction to all his positiveness, although it still leaves him a most respected and appreciated man in his society.

The arrow pointing up on the road sign represents how Samuel is able to help those who come to him, or those he encounters especially Adam, move forward with their life. After Cathy's cruel behavior and brutal desertion of both Adam and her kids, Adam is no longer the man he was. However with Samuel's help and advice, he finally realizes the choice he has in how to live his life and let go of Cathy's hold on him. The arrow pointing to the right also goes hand in hand with Samuel's advice in helping other characters move ahead with their life. He is soo excellent with his advice and words of wisdom that, it is to him that Lee thinks to come for help in trying to shake Adam out of his deep stupor. 

While Samuel has all this positive energy around him, and seems to be full of the future and what lies ahead, the death of his daughter Una comes as a contradiction to this aspect of him, which is what the arrow pointing to the left represents. He seems to be going back on his advice about moving forward, and allows his daughter's death to rankle him. Death always affects people differently, but for Samuel that single death really shook him to the core, turned the once young and lively Samuel into an old man, and made the Samuel who never truly thought much about death accept it willingly and wholeheartedly. He mentions "here am I," (E.O.E. 309) when Lee mentions his name, after he visits the Trasks, and much is made of what he says. "Here am I," signifying how he is always present and lending a helping hand, ear or voice to a friend, and "here am I" in response to God's call, and what he believes is his time to finally depart this world. Like destination signs to which many drivers look to for guidance, so did people look to Samuel for such guidance. However when the harsh hand of death dealt him a blow, he was not the man he usually was, and thus accepted  that his time had come too. But even in death many still felt his presence as though he were still alive, for like Adam said, a man like Samuel Hamilton, "such a man doesn't really die," and so just like destination signs which don't exactly die, even in spirit Sam's guidance and voice of reason was around.