"I don't think I'm 50 % as mean as you under that nice skin. I think you're a devil" (Steinbeck 117). Charles Trask could not have defined Cathy Ames any better. In John Steinbeck's East of Eden, Charles Trask, the sibling of Adam Trask, becomes significantly jealous of Adam and nearly kills Adam. Adam and Cathy Ames delivery Aaron (Aron) and Caleb (Cal) Trask. Cathy leaves the family to follow life as a prostitute. Cal has always been jealous of Aron the favourite, and essentially drives Aron to fatality in the armed forces. Adam is still left devastated, and Cal feels terrible, but then embraces the idea of "the Hebrew phrase, the term timshel- 'Thou mayest'- says just how is open" (Steinbeck 303). Steinbeck also brings many ideas from Genesis into his publication, mainly the story of Cain and Abel. Cathy Ames performs a sizable role in this tale as a identity that causes many evils and harms to every identity she encounters. In John Steinbeck's East of Eden, Cathy Ames is a manipulative, harmful, and selfish entity.
Cathy Ames is a detrimental figure which is clear as soon as her child years and adolescence. She desecrated everything around her; family, community, home, and even herself. She is innately evil. From the reputable family, one might expect her to also be reputable and perhaps even successful; however, she resulted to be the entire opposite. Her wicked began as soon as the age of ten, where she employed in sex with two town children and allowed these to be punished while she took no blame. The truth is, she lured the young boys in and placed the field to where she was innocent. In senior high school, she triggered her teacher Wayne Grew to commit suicide. It is unknown just what she does, but her destructive attitude implies that she was the reason. Upon age sixteen, Cathy used up down her own home with the target to murder her parents. She been successful. "Cathy is as close to natural evil as one is likely to reach, " (Aubrey).
Because of her manipulative aspect, Cathy is aware how to control individuals around her. "She actually is consistently evil in her thoughts and activities, manipulating others for her own ends with out a trace of conscience, " (Smith). From a get older she was always turning heads, keeping people curious and wanting to know about her. She used this to her advantage, to the stage where she used people. Her whoremaster Edwards fell deeply in love with her. However, she abused him to the stage where he defeat her and still left her to die (Boyd). From this point, she continuing her manipulativeness after being welcomed in to the Trasks' home. Adam fell deeply in love with her, and her exclusively being herself allowed him to land head over pumps, while she continued to be unaffected. She used Adam to cure herself from her wounds, to get living healthy, and then in the long run, she remaining Adam to go after her life as a prostitute. When her boy, Aron, finds out what it is his mother does, he should go off in to the Army which he never wished to do before. He dies in the Army, finally because of Cathy. She didn't even have to try; her manipulate ways arrived naturally and influenced her own kid in the most detrimental way possible. She is a "nonconformist and a liar" (Aubrey).
Feeding off her selfishness, Cathy proceeds to always get what she would like no subject how it affects the folks around her. While hitched to Adam, Cathy sleeps with Adam's sibling Charles. That is a prime exemplory case of her selfishness. She does not even notify Adam. When pregnant with the twins Aron and Cal, Cathy tries doing an abortion. The abortion failed, but even the very thought of trying to destroy a child of God is a key example in exhibiting just how selfish Cathy can be. Her selfishness is again shown when she leaves Adam to live her own whore-enriched life. Although Adam has provided her with everything she should need, she selects to not only leave him, but also to capture him before she actually is gone. Continuing her selfish ways, she chooses for taking no part in her children's lives as they grow up.
The wicked impurity of Cathy Ames allows her to relate with Biblical and mythical beings. Cathy is a superb analogy to the Biblical Eve, for she spreads her sin about the entire world such as Eve performed committing original sin. Also, just the actual fact that Cathy wedded Adam is a link to Eve, as Eve was hitched to a Adam as well. Not only is it one like Eve, Cathy is also portrayed as Satan himself. Steinbeck depicts Cathy as having toes "small and circular and stubby, with extra fat insteps almost like little hoofs" (Steinbeck 73). This depicts Satan in the way that he also offers hoofs, and undoubtedly, is innately evil, which is also illustrated in Cathy. In addition to Biblical beings, Cathy is portrayed to be like the Greek mythical Pandora.
Cathy's likeness to Pandora looks evident: Adam Trask marries her against his brother's advice; the broken box looks when he brings devastation to her family and town; the struggle over the oak box (and all it signifies) brings Cathy to Adam and Adam to despair; and by beginning the box comprising the will, Cathy commences to bring depravity to the formerly 'respectable' whorehouse. (Barnes)
Like Pandora, Cathy is associated with many boxes and essentially spreads her bad everywhere. As a kid, her "nipples were inverted" (Steinbeck 73), a attribute of mythical witches. This caused her to be not capable of producing dairy. Cathy is also portrayed as a cat with her distinct, small teeth and the "Cat" in "Cathy".
Cathy's wickedness causes her to be an extremely un-fit mom. Upon realization of her motherhood, she was found after she attempted to murder her newborns. Soon after this unsuccessful make an effort, she actually is not relieved when she actually is advised that life will improve following the babies arrive by Adam. After arrival, she neglects the babies immediately, and after taking it easy for a couple of days, she departs from the family. She even shoots Adam after departure, with the babies uncared for.
Cathy Ames aims to bring evil to the world around her. Through vice and wickedness,
she painfully afflicts the folks she comes in contact with, and even the environment in general. "In the same way there are physical monsters, can there not be mental of psychic monsters created? (Steinbeck 72). Cathy Ames is a genuine monster.
