Steinbeck's East Of Eden: Cathy Ames Quotes

Cathy Ames makes choices based on how much it benefits her, and if it ensures that she will prosper from the choice, even if that means destroying everyone else in the process. It appears “that Cathy… was born with tendencies, or lack of them, which drove her and forced her all of her life” (Steinbeck 72). Most humans have natural instincts that allow them to function in a civil society together. Cathy is different, however, and distinct since birth. She plans and decides things unlike how the rest of society does. A chance encounter between the gray James Grew and Cathy leads to one of Cathy’s first evil actions. Nothing happens until Cathy meets him and “[f]or a time it was noticed that a flame leaped in James Grew… and then the flame went out” (Steinbeck 79).

With malicious intentions, Cathy purposefully nurtures James Grew just so she can cut him down and hurt him. She is beautiful, deceiving, and conceited. Thinking highly of herself as if everyone were below her, she believes she can do whatever she wants to obtain whatever she wants. There is another instance where a “fire broke out at about three o’clock in the morning” and by the time people arrive, Cathy’s parents and her house are nothing but ash and burnt remains. Cathy is not found at the scene, but she “left a scent of sweetness behind her” (Steinbeck 86 & 89). Within the text, it is apparent that Cathy burns her house and parents all because her parents __ mad and her father whips her. These actions are so heartless that no normal human being could accomplish them without feeling some sort of guilt or regret. Cathy, however, does not feel anything except some twisted happiness at what she has done. Afterward, she starts moving on to bigger things and learning how far she can push her boundaries of manipulation and deceit to benefit herself and punish those she feels needs