Analysis Of Cathy’s Character In East Of Eden By John Steinbeck
In the book East of Eden by John Steinbeck talks about his life and who is and why. In the book, he named his mother Cathy. Cathy is a psychopath, murder, and all over crazy. All she wants in life is money, freedom and not to get caught or seen by anyone from her past. Steinbeck reveals Cathy’s character by showing us her past and what makes her do what she does.
Cathy values her reputation and the way she lives. In the book she performs uncharacteristic actions like murder, abortion,prostitution, and owns a brothel, most women back then did not do those types of things. Cathy is also a psychopath and that is what leads her do the things she does. After Cathy pregnancy she went into postpartum depression and that made everything worse for her and her mental health and she ended up shooting her husband Adam, but Cathy was always unstable as a kid and ends up killing her parents at a young age for no reason and then ran away. Cathy also wants to pursue things in her life, but she couldn’t because of her kids, so she runs away. Cathy does things based on what she wants, this reveals that she is selfish, a psychopath, and not a good person.
Cathy wants three things in her life, her body, freedom, and money. Her main needs are freedom and her looks and body. In the book East of Eden she says ”And when they thought they could tell me what to do-oh! That’s when I fooled them best.” This quote reveals that she doesn't care about anybody but herself. After Cathy shoots Adam she runs away and runs a brothel to earn money, if she was pregnant she would not be able to work or have the same body she had before her babies. Cathy knew if she had her kids she would not have her freedom so she tries to do an abortion on herself so after her kids were born and the post pardon depression came in she only knew one way to get out of it and that was to killed Adam so she shots Adam and Takes off and runs away. First the abortion, then shooting Adam this reveals that she doesn’t care about anybody but herself and she will do anything to get what she wants. With all that Cathy has done comes fear.
Cathy tries to act tough, but she is very fearful of her past and it ruining her life. Cathy is very fearful of Mr. Edwards because of what he did to her and what he could still do. In the book East of Eden Mr. Edwards beats up Cathy so bad that he almost kills her after he did that Cathy runs away but is fearful that Mr.Edwards will come back for her. She is also scared of getting caught by the law from murdering her parents and that the truth will come out about Adam. Also after leaving her kids as a baby she is scared that one of them will come looking for answers. Even if you are a Psychopath you still have that conscious fear of everything catching up to you.
After reading parts one through three I can interfere that Cathy is cold hearted, selfish, and is mentally unstable.” I believe there are monsters born in this world to human parents...the face and body could be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul?.” This quote shows how the character was her own monster and she had problems with herself. It also proves how Adams describes Catchy as crazy and proves my point about her mentality. Throughout the book all the thing Cathy did was murder, trying to kill her kids while she was pregnant, and shooting Adam this shows that she is cold hearted and selfish because even if she did not want kids she could have given them up for adoption and told Adam that what she wanted or she could have divorced Adam after the birth and moved away and lived a new life the way she wanted.
Throughout the book the author reveals the character of Cathy as a psychopath and selfish. He reveals Cathy by telling us her story about her murders, trying to kill her children, and doing whatever it takes to get what she wants. The way Steinbeck wrote about Cathy and how she was not a normal girl and wanted to be a prostitute by her discussion made me believe that she had a problem from the beginning and that she could get her way when she wanted it. He showed us her by how depth he went into what made her crazy. Steinbeck reveals Cathy’s character by showing us her past and what makes her do what she does.
