May 22, 2025
in east of eden, abra is named after the line:
Abra was ready ere I called her name; And though I called another, Abra came.
In context, she explains her father wanted a boy. So though he “called another, Abra came.” But it goes farther. Her love, Aron, has created an image of her. A falsified version of her. He believes her to be a sum of goodness she is not. When she expresses this next to the conversation of her name’s origin, it’s devastating.
Abra’s name is now called, but it is not her who the person beckons. She is the other. Her name has been taken from her and given to a rose-colored image.
Even when someone wants her, they don’t want her.