Perfection
“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” — John Steinbeck, East of Eden
John Steinbeck’s quote is from the novel East of Eden, which discusses complex themes of good and evil, as well as the choice behind them. One particular theme in the book is how good and evil can lead to people accepting human flaws and imperfection. From this, the quote interprets a theme of how perfection is not always ideal for everyone.
Perfection is not always ideal for everyone because perfection is bad for the health of an individual. The need for perfection can lead to overthinking, emotional burden, a deteriorating physical well-being, and just stress in general. These symptoms can lead to dissatisfaction, driving the person into a cycle of effort that is harming their physical and mental well-being and increasing stress at the same time. This prompts that perfection is not always the best for everyone by how it can harm one’s well-being.
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Another reason why perfection is not ideal is because perfection is for the people around them, rather than for themselves. For example, in the context of a job, a person’s drive for perfection is caused by their coworkers and bosses. This drive is caused by the need to prove something since everyone has expectations. In society nowadays, everyone’s expectations cause people to feel as if they always need to be perfect. From the physical and emotional burden to pressure of meeting everyone’s expectations, being perfect isn’t always good.
At the same time, all of these things are portrayed by John Steinbeck in East of Eden. The specific quote from the book shows that now that people don’t have to be perfect, they can finally become good. For example, they could improve their physical well-being, feel proud of themselves, reduce a lot of their stress, and just simply enjoy life instead of always trying to live up to everyone’s expectations. This is portrayed extremely in John Steinbeck’s quote and it conveys the tone of relief. The word choice of John Steinbeck, “and now that”, shows as if someone who has been striving for perfection their entire life could now finally put that burden down. It makes the reader feel like they don’t always need to live up to everyone’s needs and can just enjoy life, escaping the mental and physical burdens and expectations that everyone has.
A personal experience showed me how the drive for perfection can deteriorate one’s mental health, oftentimes fueled by others’ expectations. My older sister, a brilliant genius, has always carried the burden of being the “talented one” in our family and the “responsible one.” Since childhood, there’s been this unspoken rule that she’s supposed to excel, to set an example, to always be the best. Every try, every achievement, every move was met with approval, but also with a quiet raising of the difficulty for the next step. She’s incredibly gifted, no doubt, but I’ve watched her burn out countless times, sacrificing her own well-being for the applause and approval of others. And I know deep down that what she truly wants sometimes is to simply exist, to enjoy a peaceful morning without a studying schedule, to choose a path that wasn’t full of gazes that judged her. It’s sad to see how the constant pressure to be perfect has overshadowed her joy in simply enjoying life. As her sister, I had always been gratefully behind her. Not as someone who was better than me or higher than me, but someone who was willing to test out the waters first for the sake of me. She was just like the puller of a bike group, breaking the wind so that I could go farther than her. This was also another factor of perfection that everyone expects, even when they don’t mean to.
Ultimately, John Steinbeck’s powerful words about perfection and the flaws of it shows how being perfect is not as ideal as everyone wants to be, but rather less. This is established through the effects and causes of perfection, tone of John Steinbeck’s writing, and my sister’s experience and sacrifice for trying to be perfect. John Steinbeck’s quote serves as a strong reminder that true goodness does not exist in a perfect ideal, but to embrace our flaws and live.
