Hey all....here's this week's prompt for the blog.
What do you think of Cathy Ames. What do you think is driving her action - do you think she is realistic, or too monstrous?
What do you think of Cathy Ames. What do you think is driving her action - do you think she is realistic, or too monstrous?
What do you think of Charles and Adam Trask, and their relationship with their father, Cyrus? In many ways, the family resembles the family of Cain, Abel, and their parents, Adam and Eve. Other than their names beginning with "C" and "A," in what ways does Steinbeck draw this comparison and why does he do so - does it really add anything to the story?
What do you think will happen to the two twin sons of Cathy and Adam? Will they resemble Charles and Adam - and thus Cain and Abel - the stage is certainly set with their names, "C" Caleb and "A" Aron? Or will they grow from the experiences of their father and his brother?
-Clay
-Clay
Not being an expert on biblical stories I probably didn’t pick up on all of the Cain and Abel references, but one example of the parallel is when Adam and Charles give birthday gifts to their father. Charles diligently saves up money to buy him a fancy knife, while Adam gives him a stray puppy, a gift that did not require money or thought. Despite Charles’s thoughtfulness, their father much prefers the puppy, making Charles so angry and jealous that he beats Adam nearly to death. Similarly, Cain and Abel each offer gifts to God, who somewhat arbitrarily prefers Abel’s gift of sheep to Cain’s gift of grain. Cain’s ensuing jealousy drives him to murder his brother. Also, I think that the scars both Charles and Cathy have on their foreheads are versions of the “mark of Cain” as a distinguisher of evil.
ReplyDeleteI think that Steinbeck’s use of the Cain and Abel story sets up the conflict between good and evil, a recurring theme in the novel. So I believe that it adds to the story in that respect because it provides a context and story of comparison. I thought it was interesting that Charles, unlike Cain, did not manage to kill Adam, perhaps illustrating a more eternal and constant struggle between good and evil, though evil still seems to be the more powerful force.
Cathy Ames, in my opinion, is one of Steinbeck's most chilling and complex characters. In telling the story of her childhood and ascendency to violence, Steinbeck prefaces her introduction with a musing on the existence of human "monsters" who are born without the innate, a priori capacity for goodness or love. In this sense, these people, including Cathy, are sociopaths. Steinbecks treatment of sociopathy may seem naive or primitive to some, but investigation into the issue yields startling evidence that some sociopaths indeed seem to have at always had at least some natural predisposition towards sociopathy, later complimented by external traumas. Placing the character of Cathy into this story is very appropriate given how strongly laid in the novel is the theme of good and evil, whether it is inhereted or learned, and if men can really overcome it.
ReplyDeleteCharles and Adam, and later probably Caleb and Aron, play out their own version of the Cain and Abel myth in which the longing for the approval of the father that triggers the violent hatred of one brother for another. Cyrus feels an instinctual preference for one of his sons over the other, despite the best attempts of Charles to please him. Because Charles was rooted in his love for his father, he took out his anger for his father's arbitrary rejection of him and his offering out on Adam, who didn't even really love Cyrus. How Aron and Caleb will turn out will depend on how Adam differs/learns from his own father's example of parenting.
This doesn’t really address the previous two comments, but this topic is something I somehow paid particular attention to as I read. The book is divided distinctly by region – the Hamiltons move westward (from Ireland), the (Cyrus) Trask family farm is in Connecticut (the East), and Cyrus dies in Washington (the East). I think it is no mistake that, in extending the Cain/Able story that is the bedrock of this book, the East represents the land outside of Eden to where Adam and Eve were banished. Continuing the metaphor, California represents Eden, or at least a cycle of rebirth and purification. But this draws me to two questions:
ReplyDeleteIn the Cain/Able metaphor, three distinct elements occur. Cain kills his brother Able (which doesn’t physically happen in the book, but perhaps we can take Adam’s emotional distance and bleak life in the Army as a death). Cain is then given the mark of Cain (Charles’s scar) and sentenced to wander the earth. This is where I don’t entirely understand Steinbeck’s reversal of the story. Why is that Adam, the pure-minded chosen son of Cyrus, wanders the world (literally between continents) purely out of desire? And although Cain is forced to live as an outcast of society, as Charles does, why is Charles incapable of leaving the Trask farm?
The other question I had was, before being banished to the east of Eden, what was Cyrus’s original sin that will be passed on through his progeny?
I think that Cain and Abel are a definite parallel to Charles and Adam Trask. Natalie aptly pointed out both the contention over presents and the near death beating Charles gives Adam. I think the major dichotomy from the biblical tale comes with the post "incident" relationship, where we get to see how the relationship between Adam and Charles becomes even more complex through their correspondence. I think this also speaks a bit to Garner's questions. What role does the survival of Adam play in changing the fate of Charles (as a Cain figure)?
ReplyDelete