In the novel East of Eden many examples show just how powerful fear can be if used for selfish gain or as a defence mechanism. Fear being one of the biggest overtones (if not the biggest) allows us to see how huge an influence fear can be in a person's life, as with Cathy the main antagonist who lives to hold the fear of her blackmailing someone and men’s sexual desires over their heads to attain whatever her twisted desires are. Cathy the embodiment of evil in the novel, who lives by fear is found consistently using it to her advantage to apprehend whatever her black corrupted heart desires from the unsuspecting people around her. Often times she would blackmail men and uses sex as her weapon of destruction, her blackmailing these men often led to them committing suicide due to the impending stress that she implements in their lives, in the beginning of the novel Cathy preys on her lust driven teacher and eventually drives him to suicide and lures school boys into a barn where her mother finds her tied up with her skirt …show more content…
Aron Trask who is a extremely fragile and sensitive man was utterly destroyed and killed by his mother when he met his mother for the first time and discovered the whole truth of who his mother was, as he was formerly told by his father Adam and his brother Cal that she was dead. Even before he knew the truth Aron was so fearful of the truth concerning who his mother was so much so that whenever his brother or anyone else that knew the truth of who his mother really was he would consciously avoid the question because he was scared that his father was lying to him. Because of this fear he joined the army and abandoned the love of his life, his family and he life in the ministry and as a result of him joining the army he was
Much later in the novel, the narrator makes an edit to his former opinion on Cathy and questions if he was justified in labeling her as a monster her a monster. He leans to being somewhat sympathetic toward this figure who was previously deemed a demon, wondering that “since we cannot know what she wanted, we will never know whether or not she got it.” This quote remains true, as Cathy’s true motivations remain a mystery even as East of Eden wraps up. As her cruel actions seem to have no logical or clear aim, the reader is left questioning her motives, and if she really was just a “malformed
Fear is a crucial emotion that can result in fatal consequences or the saving of a life. It can motivate both selfless and selfish behavior. In this way, fear can be used to affect a character’s state of mind in a novel, which can ultimately motive all of that character’s further decisions within the story. Fear motivates an individual’s actions by changing his or her state of mind and leading him or her to act out-of-character and do things he or she normally would not do. William Shakespeare uses fear in his story, Romeo and Juliet, to keep the relationship between the titular characters a secret and to demonstrate the pressure put on the characters by society.
Fear is the ultimate emotion because it is both mankind’s greatest strength and greatest flaw. It gives us reason, but can also be irrational. If one can surpass their fears, it can reward them greatly. Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe, follows a life of an adventurer from a young age and his story of traveling the world. Robinson, the main character, gets into many dangerous situations, from being enslaved by pirates, to being shipwrecked and being stuck on a deserted island. Robinson has to conquer many fears. Another story that fear is prevalent in is Beowulf, which follows the story of a supernatural human, Beowulf, who fights multiple monsters that no mortal could defeat. Lastly, fear is prevalent in “The Wife
In her youth, we can vividly see Cathy as the “trickster” when she starts her relationship with Mr. Edwards: “her method was to keep him continually off balance…and when she sensed the near approach of insane, punishing rage she sat in his lap and soothed him and made him believe for a moment in her innocence
During her labor a look of murderous, unforgiving hatred comes over her. So much in fact, that she bit and mangled the hand that helped her during the birth. Wanting nothing to do with the newly born twins, Cathy flees her home, husband and the two infants she has bore. Her manipulation of sex now becomes even more prevalent. Having nowhere to go, Cathy known now as Kate, takes shelter in a whore house. She quickly begins work and in almost no time has made a name for herself. Gradually she works her way up through the ranks and is soon running the house on her own. Her sense of power clearly comes from hurting and destroying others through sex. During one of Adams two visits to Kate, he discovers just how devious she truly is. "She took out a photograph. 'Look there. That's the State Senator. He thinks he's going to run for Congress. He likes whips. That streak there-that's a whip mark. ... In a few years I'll be going away. And when I do-those pictures will be dropped in the mail ....'" (322-23). Her scheme of blackmail displays her lack of a conscious. Because of this, Steinbeck has created a powerful character that provokes disillusion, or an emotion felt when one's self patterns are distorted. As seen thougout the novel, Cathy's own evilness arouses the devil within her.
Fear is so deeply embedded in the human genome, as a defense mechanism. It is so old it is coded into the oldest part of the human nervous system. Throughout history, fear has been used to manipulate whole populations into starting wars, revolts, genocides, and discrimination. Never has that been more true than in Adolf Hitler’s Germany, his rise led to the deadliest conflict in human history, World War II. His consolidation of power and control over the people of Germany, can be attributed to using fear as a weapon of manipulation. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, follows the first American ambassador into this dystopia, and the fear he experiences while there. Erik Larson chose to set In The Garden of Beasts in Hitler’s Berlin to
The definition of fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat; it keeps us up at nights and keeps children’s imagination running wild. The notion of fear constantly lingers in our mind and influences our everyday actions. In Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card shows his readers how we let fear drive us. In Karen Thompson Walker’s speech, “What Fear Can Teach Us” addresses why fear is irrational, and that sometimes the most subtle fears have the most merit. In both texts, the concept of fear is not a childish conception, like a nursery rhyme or imagination , but instead is a complex story with many different elements to use and overcome the fear.
Cal’s resentment toward Aron parallels that of Cain to Abel, and relates to their relationship with their father. He does understand that Aron has
Cathy tried to make herself seem approachable and harmless, but she was a copperhead lurking in the grass. Once you got too close to her, she would reel you in and refuse to let go. Any time she suspected someone of being able to see through her cloak of protection to mask her weakness, she lashed out at them, no matter the consequences. This may make Cathy seem cold-hearted and cruel, but if you look on a deeper level she was horrified at the fact that her carefully calculated plan would unravel right in front of her eyes. When this was evidently the truth, she made final preparations and carried out the last of her plan before proceeding to take her own
“East of Eden” is a novel that spans three generations, with a complex cast of characters who each have their own unique motivations and values. The author, John Steinbeck, builds these characters through their actions and relations with other characters, and through their actions, develop various universal themes. Some prevalent themes in “East of Eden” include the idea of coping with evil, as well as the idea of personal choice. Cathy Ames, the main antagonist in the novel, is described to be completely evil; she is developed as a character with no morals
Fear, the emotion that shows whether you're a ‘fighter’ or a ‘flyer’. The books “Most dangerous game” written by Richard Connell and “Leiningen Versus the Ants” by Carl Stephenson both use the theme ‘fear’ in their short stories. In ‘MDG’ the book puts man against man, but the book ‘LVA’ pits Man versus Beasts. The three questions I'll be answering today will be, How fear’s enlivening and weakening elements are evident in ‘MDG’, How fear’s enlivening and weakening elements are evident in ‘LVA’ and I'll also be dealing with the fact of how LVA and MDG both deal with the idea of fear and how it's enlivening and weakening.
Fear is more than just something people are afraid of. Fear is a driving force that leads people to become who they are, a force so strong it could change history. For American society, that is just what fear is--a foundation upon which culture was built. Even in modern America, fear can be seen everywhere, and the history of that fear can be seen within literature. Whether it is modern media or novels from the 1800s, fear can be expressed in the form of a story.
In the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, fear dominates within the character. It is caused by the belief that someone or something is a threat. Fear dreads within the weakest characters in the story as they fear in disappointment. Throughout Santiago’s journey he experiences different fears, for example his childhood fear of gypsies and believing in dreams. Another character that struggles with fear is the crystal merchant.
In this situation as we usually would assure ourselves that there's nothing to worry about, it was believed by him that he can confidently master any of these irrational fear he might feel, however, his unexpected experience in the room would surprise him. The author of this story, Herbert George Wells wants to get people thinking of what it means to be truly afraid, reminding us that fear itself can be extremely dangerous and it won't disappear as
Heathcliff is horrible to Cathy on multiple occasions. He looks in her closet. He forces her to marry the Lintons even though she does not want to. He does this because it will increase his social status. He is also evil to