Character Analysis/Opinions on Cathy Ames: East of Eden

Many reviewers of “East of Eden” have often called Cathy Ames “pure evil” and “innately evil”. Sparknotes even went as far as to say that she was the weakest character in Steinbeck’s novel, because she acted with no purpose in life.

However, through reading the book and analyzing certain elements, it is evident that Cathy Ames was not born into such evilness – but rather the events that took place and how she handled them were the cause of her dark character.

Her lacking of purpose is also not because she simply likes to be evil, but because she was drawn into it and had no choice but to keep going with it. (explained later)

What is important throughout the book is that Cathy uses her sexuality to gain control of situations, and she uses death as a means to escape. 

Cathy is also accused of lacking an essential human element, which is never specified. Throughout this analysis, the assumption of what she was lacking was the ability to love someone.

Cathy’s childhood was all about learning to use her sexuality and the power to dispose of people. Her first experience was her exploiting two boys, and making it seem like they were taking advantage of her. While it doesn’t say it explicitly in the book and people have assumed she set them up on purpose, the book mentions her giggling – which could mean that she didn’t have any intention of setting them up in the first place, and only after they were found by her mother did she exploit them.

Thus Cathy learns that by using her sexuality she can exploit people and avoid punishment for what she has done. Basically, she can use it to gain control over situations.

The next instance is her Latin teacher, who is driven into suicide over her rejection of him. There was no gain for her, however it can be assumed that she did not suspect things would go so far. Which would explain her trying to run away from home shortly afterwards.

Her plans are ruined by her parents and she is whipped severely because of it. Cathy then learns that her parents have power over her, and she is unable to use her sexuality against them to get what she wants. Therefore, they are the only people who can withstand her.

At the same time, they are the only people who cannot see her for who she really is – and refuse to believe that their daughter is evil. At this point, Cathy is self-aware of who she is, and probably feels frustration towards her parents for not seeing her for her true character. She could also be in a state of self-hate, knowing who she is but having to live with such good people who don’t possess an ounce of the evil thoughts that she herself has.

Cathy must have realized all this and decides to dispose of them; which is her action towards her ultimate downfall. She disposes of the only individuals that love her.

She runs away and fakes her own death. Essentially, she realizes by causing the death of her parents and faking her own, she can avoid punishment and death becomes a means of escape for her.

She decides to throw away her own identity and become a new person, to begin a new life.

Then, she uses her successfully seduces a man and in turn lives comfortably with his funds. At this point she feels safe and has successfully avoided punishment – and does not feel guilt as her life, she believes, has improved. Cathy now realizes that through the death of her parents, she gained the family inheritance as well as more benefits.

Finally, the man whom she has been toying with realizes who she really is and nearly beats her to death. At this point Adam and Charles find her and take care of her until she is healed.

At this point she pretends to forget her past life, again throwing away her own identity. Cathy’s sense of self depreciates every time she begins a new life.

While staying with the brothers, Adam falls in love with her instantly and Charles is skeptical of her story. This is Cathy’s first interaction with someone who is similar to her, and it causes her fear because Charles can see through her. However, Charles’ love for his brother Adam prevents him from getting rid of Cathy. She realizes that in his darkness, he has a light - which is love for his brother.

Adam proposes to Cathy, who sees this as an opportunity to live safely and comfortably, and Cathy agrees to marry him. Charles is obviously infuriated by this, and Cathy can see that unless she does something he will prevent the marriage. She then drugs Adam and uses her sexuality against Charles, who complies. Once again, she gains control over the situation by using sexuality and gains a better life than before.

Cathy obviously doesn't plan to have a family, but she becomes pregnant (most likely with Charles’ child). She decides to then use death to escape this obstacle, and tries to give herself an abortion. This fails and she ends up having twins.

After giving birth, she runs away. Adam attempts to stop her; at this point Cathy is trying to escape and shoots Adam in the shoulder.

Cathy changes her name to Kate, throwing away her past for the third time. At this point she is no longer in touch with her own emotions and has absolutely no sense of self.

Again, Cathy begins to use her sexuality to gain control of her life and becomes a prostitute. She eventually becomes a figure of importance in the house, and Faye, the brothel owner, entrusts everything to Cathy.

Up until now Cathy has only used death as a way to escape, however this time she uses death to gain something. She slowly disposes of Faye with the use of drugs and gains control of the whole house. This outlier is also another step to her eventual demise.

Cathy is now the owner of the brothel house, and has been reduced to the most primitive way of living; trying to survive.

She collects blackmail of individuals of importance while at the brothel, which results in her pessimistic view of the world. A brothel can be seen as a house of sin, and thus Cathy sees the sins that her customers commit every day and unknowingly spirals into a world of hate and disgust. She also cannot trust others because she sees herself in them, which is another reason for her lack of understanding of Adam’s feelings.

When Adam comes to visit her, he is disgusted by her collection of blackmail. This is when Cathy realizes that she can no longer control him, not because he has changed but because she has become so bare and open with her inner feelings.

In desperation, she tries to use her sexuality to gain control of him again. However, her plan fails and he leaves her. This is the start of her downfall.

Adam visits her a second time to let her know about her portion of the inheritance she received from Charles, and Cathy cannot understand why Adam would tell her rather than just taking it for himself. Adam says that she is only “part of a human”, and Cathy realizes that not everyone is like her.

Cal, one of her twin sons, eventually finds her and since he is her flesh and blood she tries to find justification in her own identity by trying to convince him that he is like her. Cal however, loves Adam and Aron (his twin brother), and that is what prevents him from spiralling down the wrong path as Cathy has. Cathy realizes this from his visit.

At this time, her crime of killing Faye has caught up to her and she constantly lives her life in fear.

The climax of her downfall is when Aron, her other son, sees her and is so disgusted and horrified with her that he leaves to join the army. Seeing those emotions emitted by him causes her to reflect on her life for the first time.

(Cathy is unable to love others because she is unable to love herself. She believes that others are just as evil as herself, and cannot understand anyone who doesn’t see her for who she is. Her parents and Adam loved her unconditionally, but were unaware of her dark side. Charles and Cal were able to see her for who she was because they were similar to her.

The only outlier was Aron, who was innately “good” but was openly disgusted and horrified by the fact that his mother was a brothel owner. This caused Cathy’s system to fall, which lead to her downfall.)

Her crimes have finally caught up to her and she can no longer run away from them. She is unable to use her sexuality to gain control because she is no longer attractive. Thus, Cathy realizes that nothing can save her from herself and resorts to her last option – to run away – and ultimately commits suicide.

In her death, she entrusts everything to Aron.

(This can be seen as Cathy’s only redeeming moment; she saw something in Aron that she could never become even though he was her flesh and blood and in her final moments develops a love for her son.

This is also seen as Cal’s avoidance of inheriting the sins that Cathy has caused, which is what the author had intended to imply)

Cathy Ames is neither a “psychic monster” nor a “malformed soul”. Yes, indeed she lacked the ability to love, and wasn’t in touch with her own feelings; however her story closely resembles those of individuals who spiral down the wrong path and chose to run away from their problems rather than to fix them.

What makes Cathy Ames so frightening to people is not her lack of humanity, but that she is someone who simply went down the wrong path. A situation that could happen to anybody.

Note: This was mentally exhausting to think about, it's like trying to justify something you know is wrong but at the same time it's not.

- L