Essay The Identity of Cathy in "East of Eden"

Early on in the book, the audience learns that Cathy has been manipulating people every since she was a little girl. Cathy has the power to make people do what she wants, without ever being caught. It was only natural that when Cathy walked into Adam Trask's life, she was able to easily manipulate Adam because he

Cathy-Kate combines many biblical figures as well.  She is not only Eve, but she is Cain’s wife and the serpent of Eden as well (Fonterose, Joseph.  p.3380).  Thus she is the representation of evil too.  Cathy is evil to the point where she is not human.   Her presence in the novel is meant to represent evil and all of its cruel intentions.  All of her deeds are intended to show how far from the real world Cathy actually is (Howard, Levant. p. 245).  Steinbeck compares Cathy to other prostitutes in Salinas Valley, the setting of East of Eden.  She is described as the only whore who is incapable of being a good person.  She is an inhuman being whose life revolves around cruelty and wrongdoing.  She is solely satanic and destroys the innocence of man (Marks, Jay Lester. p. 126-127).

Cathy, the twin’s mother, insists that there is only evil in the world, and immersed herself into taking advantage of other people’s flaws and weaknesses. Cathy also had that freedom of choice, but she always made the wrong decision and remained the totally evil character throughout the novel.

Cathy's true maliciousness was not only seen through her actions, but also her appearance. Even when Charles did not know of Cathy’s true nature, he still thought there was something off about her. He even told her “I don’t trust you. There’s something -I almost recognize”(116) when he first gets the chance to talk to her. On this first interaction, Charles recognizes Cathy's lack of humanity and her monstrous behavior. The discomforted he feels toward her may be a result of his own outburst of evilness, and as a result, he recognizes it in her as well. Similarly, when Samuel Hamilton stayed for dinner

When confronted by Adam for the first time since she shot him, Cathy (Kate) admits to thinking that she is more than human and that she is invincible: “I’d rather be a dog than a human. But I’m not a dog. I’m smarter than humans. Nobody can hurt me. Don’t worry about danger” (321). Cathy believes that because she feels nothing and has no emotions that she is a superior being. By being unattached from the world, she is living a smarter life. Cathy believed that caring only for herself and not feeling emotion was a strength, where in reality, it was her only weakness. This weakness can be looked at as a disability. When Cathy is first introduced in the book, the narrator compares a lack of emotion to physical disability: “I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents. SOme you can see, misshapen and horrible, with huge heads or tiny bodies; some are born with no arms, no legs, some with three arms, some with tails or mouths at odd places… As a child may be born without an arm, so one may be born without kindness or the potential of a conscience” (71). Despite not having any physically crippling attributes, Cathy’s lack of a conscience is equally as crippling. By thinking she is a more superior being, and not someone with a mental disability, she is destroying

The darkening of Cathy Ames’ scar represents the growing of evil. Throughout her whole childhood, Cathy escaped punishment through deception and manipulation. It is not until her boyfriend discovers her true intentions and desire to steal his money that Cathy will first be punished. He unsuccessfully tries to kill Cathy, leaving her with a scar on her forehead. As Cathy’s crimes become more complex and rooted deeper in evil, the scar darkens, “‘And both of them remarked about how sometimes it was darker than other times”’ (212). When first meeting Cathy, characters feel an uncomfortable strange feeling in her soul and then remark on the peculiar scar. The scar exhibits Cathy’s true nature and ever-growing evil.

Her attractive persona and florid speech resulted in an initial impression of kindness and candor, though what lies beneath is hardly approachable. The one part of Cathy’s outwardly appearance that exposed her was the coldness in her eyes. Samuel Hamilton describes this phenomenon, saying, “There was nothing recognizable behind them,” and that “They were not human eyes,” (C). Cathy’s eyes are the window to her soul and represent her cold, haughty view of the world. Her soul is the the embodiment of whom Cathy really is thus, the real Cathy controls her environment, this controlling comes from the fear of being exposed. Charles recognized and saw through Cathy’s persona and therefore did not trust her blatantly stating to Adam, “I wouldn’t trust her with a bit piece,” (B). Charles saw the dangers of trusting Cathy due to her deceptive and manipulative ways that he easily recognized. He was able to see past her beguiling appearance and saw her as the inveigler she truly was. Although Samuel and Charles were able to see past Cathy, others such as Adam were not able to see her carefully crafted

She does not drink nor smoke. She is very honest and definitely nicer. Bryon even said “because I loved her”(pg-93) and he even thought that he would marry her! Also she went to a private school, and payed for it with her own money. She came back because she ran out of money to pay the school. This shows that Cathy actually wants to learn and do very well in life.”She paid for it all with her own bread.”(pg-15) Cathy does not like boys for looks. She likes to be able to get to know them and learn about their life. Where Angela judges boys by their looks. When Cathy was dating Bryon she did not just date him because of his looks, she thought he was a good man, so she chose to date him. Cathy has a younger brother M&M. He is not like Angela's brother where they are violent nor protective. He is more calm and is not too crazy about it. Sure he will say something if someone is being annoying or harassing Cathy, but he is more of a relaxed

In East of Eden, Cathy Ames is constructed to represent the incarnation of evil. In East of Eden, Cathy is portrayed as a corrupt adaptation of the biblical Eve, who is perceived by the Christian tradition as the mother of mankind. Although Eve is not described as evil, she is the one who invited evil in the world by accepting a suspicious apple from a dishonest snake. As a result, Eve is often associated with sin, but whereas Eve is deceived into committing sin, Cathy embraces it and commits evil simply as a means to inflict pain. The character is overly enticed with evil: she believes that there is only evil in the world and therefore fully commits herself to it.

Another way the idea of good versus evil is expressed is by the internal conflicts of the characters. Cathy is good example of a character that has an inner conflict of good versus evil. Cathy, the most evil of all in this novel, kills her parents, manipulates Adam and Charles, attempts to abort her children, shoots Adam, abandons her twin sons once they are born, and murders Faye, her friend and boss. However, the good in Cathy overcomes the bad. By the end of the novel she becomes religious and she leaves all of her fortune to her son. Charles is also a good example of a character struggling with inner conflict. Whenever Adam beats him in a game, Charles becomes very abusive towards him; once he almost kills Adam. However, Charles also protects Adam from others and he does, in fact, love him. He "fought any boy who ... slurred Adam and ... protected Adam from his father's harshness" (Steinbeck 491). Adam is forced to join the service and is sent to war, Charles tries to keep in touch with him by writing letters. In

Adam sees in Cathy only the good things because he is blinded by her looks to see what she really is. Others, like Lee, see right through her and can see the evil within her. Adam and Cathy seem to be doing fine and move to King City to have a life together. One day Cathy is found lying on the floor with blood everywhere so Adam calls the doctor. He finds out that Cathy was trying to kill her baby that she was pregnant with and says “ ‘Have you met Mrs. Laurel? She’s wasting and crying for a baby. Everything she has or can get she would give to have a baby , and you-you try to stab yours with a knitting needle’ ”(135). Cathy lied to the doctor and said she didn’t want to pass down her Epilepsy which runs in the family. She lied to trick him into believing that she didn’t want her sons to suffer but really wanted to kill her kids to not have them at all. Any other woman would’ve loved to have kids and would’ve wanted the best for them. But Cathy, she didn’t want kids and hated the fact that she was going to have some and this rejection propelled the plot of East of Eden by unintentionally disturbing the future of the kids because of this

Cathy surrenders herself to sin because she states that there is so much of it in the world it is nearly impossible to fight. This shows that Cathy does not believe in timshel and how she is unwilling to fight to be able to achieve free will. This can make her viewed as a pessimistic character and how she views the world in a whole. Cathy embraces sin because she is so insecure and does not know how to cope with the idea that she is not willing to overcome sin.

From the very beginning, Charles Trask is is suspicious of Cathy when she shows up to the Trask’s farm. Charles even states, “You know what I think? I don’t think I’m half as mean as you are under that nice skin. I think you’re a devil” (116). Also, on the way home, Samuel Hamilton remembers the eyes of a criminal who was being executed. He realizes that Cathy’s eyes were similar to the criminals and that she also had evil traits. Lee recognizes Cathy’s evil when working for her as a servant. However, Adam is not able to recognize this because he only sees Cathy as what he wants her to be and not for what she actually is. For example, when Adam and Cathy move to the Salinas Valley, Adam thinks that Cathy wants to go and is a good wife, but Cathy does not actually want to go. Also, Cathy tries to kill her baby because she doesn’t want children, but Adam is happy and overjoyed when he finds out that Cathy is pregnant. In addition, the only people who Cathy fears are the people who are able to see her true self, like Samuel Hamilton, Charles Trask, and Lee, but takes advantage of people who are unable to see this quality of her, like Adam Trask and Mr.

Healthcliff wants to keep Cathy because he wants to force her to marry his son. Another reason is that Healthcliff would want control of Cathy is so he would use her to get Edgars property once he had died. Also, the only thing that motivate Healthcliff is anger, jealousy,

First of all, in the first paragraph it is explained that Cathy is dressed with fine clothes and flattery, the narrator also mentions that Cathy has improved her manners. Later in the passage, Cathy is introduced to