Water governs the lives of almost every character in this book. It makes or break’s a man’s fortune, it determines the worth of land, it marks the passage of time. What is most notable about water in this book is its ability to bring both happiness and heartbreak. Sam Hamilton is better at finding water than anyone in Salinas, but in a bitter coincidence can find no water on his own land. Even more dramatically, water is capable of bringing both life and death. Water is invaluable to farmers who hope their crops will survive and thrive, but there are also multiple instances of drowning in East of Eden, both literal and metaphorical. Water comes to represent in the novel the dual capacity of the human soul for good and evil.