East of Eden: Character Road Sign

One Way Road Sign: Cathy/Kate Trask

In the novel East of Eden Cathy is portrait as an evil heartless woman. Kate is more commonly seen as a risk taker or a person who makes strong choices without turning back or around. This one way road sign applies to Cathy Trask because the decisions she makes drive her to an unknown destination. Without being able to control her ambitions Cathy finds her self lost in her evilness with no return. She is lost in this one way path in which she continues to be evil. Kate starts her path by contributing to her teacher's suicide continued by the murdering f her parents and later own trying to kill her unborn baby twins by attempting an abortion. If we see these continued crimes we observe that Cathy had obviously a problem in which she couldn't change her way or path being it a one way road. Her actions misleads the reader and allows them to make assumptions about her even the writer states, "The trouble is that since we cannot know what she wanted, we will never know whether or not she got it. If she rather than running toward something, she ran away from something...It is easy to say she was bad, but there is little meaning unless we know why." (ch.17-pg.184) 

In chapter 8 Steinbeck introduces Cathy's character by saying, "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...may not the same process produce a malformed soul?" (ch.8-pg.72) Being manipulative and selfish Cathy's character takes its own road of evilness committing crime after crime including killing madam Faye who saw Kate as her daughter. Cathy was smart and she would destroy anything that got in her way, therefore after being such a bad person and mother she died miserably alone by committing suicide with an overdose of pills. 

East of Eden Part 3

1. In Part Three, six characters die or heir deaths are described--- Una, Samuel, Charles, Lee's mother, Dessie and Tom. Hoe does the omnipresence of death change the mood and atmosphere of the novel?

 In part three the omnipresence of death takes part in the lives of the characters differently. For example to Adam the death of Samuel seems like a relief, he feels a type of freedom. (pg 327) But When Una dies Samuel feel guilty and he decides that life is not worth living anymore, therefore he concludes and accepts that his time of death is coming. Though death is most of the time tragic and unpredictable it represents a escape to freedom in the novel and also a new beginning with redemption.  Death give the characters the opportunity to redeem themselves and start a new perspective with their lives something like a hopeful beginning. 


2. How are the twins, Cal and Aron, different? Look at the paragraph near the end of Chapter 27, where the difference in the two boys is described by their supposed responses to an anthill. How do Cal's actions accord with that description?

The twins differ in their traits because while Aron is content with his life as it is Cal always strives to go beyond the truth to his eyes. For example in page 338 when he proposes himself to find his mother. Cal is always seem as a trouble maker and Aron is seen as the calm conformist guy who fits in every group. Cal always wants to be freed from his doubts therefore he seeks answers without rest for him to become content with his surroundings in other words his nature is to change . In other hands while Aron just accepts whatever he is given Cal always wants to know the reasons behind it.

3. What do you suppose Charles motives were in equally dividing his inheritance between Adam and Cathy?

Charles always had a mutual connection with Cathy. Their connection was consumed and Charles suspected there were results to it; the twins. In a way  Cathy always had some control over Charles and probably since he thought she could be the mother of his children he left some of his inheritance to her. In the other hand Adam is his brother and though Charles was not always a great brother he knew Adam still loved him and since the twins were in his protection he felt that by leaving something to Adam he was protecting the twins as well.