"She'll destroy you, Adam"

Part 2 of an 8-part series on East of Eden.
Today's newsletter addresses Chapters 9-14.

My marriage and family therapy students wanted to talk about Cathy. I assigned this novel in one of my seminary classes, and they had strong feelings about this woman. They were having trouble seeing her as human – and that's saying a lot for a room full of therapists.

Why is she so terrible? What happened to her to make her so heartless? How is it possible to have any sympathy for her?

They needed a reason for her manipulation. They wondered about a hidden traumatic history.

But, Steinbeck does not provide such a history. It doesn't matter where she came from; it matters that she brings embodied evil into the story. And we watch as various folks respond to this sort of evil. Perhaps we even see some of ourselves – our capacity, our temptations – in Cathy.

"It doesn't matter that Cathy was what I have called a monster. Perhaps we can't understand Cathy, but on the other hand we are capable of many things in all directions, of great virtues and great sins. And who in his mind has not probed the black water?" (SCE, 131-132)

Let's explore three aspects of Cathy this week.

Cathy as a Monster

Cathy – did you catch the detail that her feet look like "little hoofs," a reference to the Devil? – continues to be a monster in Chapter 10 as we read about her evil ways and her relationship with the "whoremaster" Mr. Edwards, a family man from Boston who falls in love with Cathy, then schemes to kill her. And we learn what happens to Cathy when she drinks. The chapter ends with Cathy near death on the doorstep of a house that turns out to belong to Adam and Charles.

Mr. Edwards tries to kill the monster, but it survives.

And one of the novel's major questions becomes: Who can truly see the monster?

How are we to respond to the monstrous? How are we to feel about Cathy?

Read chapters 15-19 this week. In the Steinbeck Centennial Edition, that's pages 154-225. In the Penguin Classics Edition, that's pages 156-227.

Cathy as Cain

In Chapter 11, Cathy meets Adam and Charles, two brothers living uneasily together. From the moment Cathy arrives, before saying a word or taking any action, Charles is wary, and Adam is enthralled. Two different responses to match their personalities.

"She had won the sheriff. He ranged himself with Adam. Only Charles was against her. When the brothers were in her room, and it took two of them to help her on the bedpan without hurting her, she studied Charles' dark sullenness. He had something in his face that she recognized, that made her uneasy. She saw that he touched the scar on his forehead very often, rubbed it, and drew its outline with his fingers. Once he caught her watching. He looked guiltily at his fingers. Charles said brutally, "Don't you worry. You're going to have one like it, maybe even a better one." (SCE, 114)

Charles doesn't trust her and thinks she's a devil. Why? What does he see that Adam doesn't? Himself? Charles really sees her and doesn't trust her. And Cathy understands this reality.

In contrast, Adam cares for her, dotes over her, and falls in love with her. Yet, Adam doesn't actually see Cathy. He sees his version of Cathy.

"Suddenly he knew joy and sorrow felted into one fabric. Courage and fear were one thing too. He found that he had started to hum a droning little tune. He turned, walked through the kitchen, and stood in the doorway, looking at Cathy. She smiled weakly at him, and he thought, What a child! What a helpless child! and a surge of love filled him.
"Will you marry me?" he asked."

Cathy's alignment with Charles, along with her new forehead mark, suggests that she is now a Cain figure as well. Revengeful and scarred. Cursed. They recognize and understand each other. Cathy is incapable of relationity – she's never experienced warmth toward anyone. But she and Charles share a connection – and a bed.

What's the purpose of this mark of Cain on Charles and Cathy? Is the mark for protection or for shame?

Cathy as Eve

By marrying Adam, Cathy becomes Eve. Now, I would argue that Eve undeservedly receives a terrible reputation in the Christian tradition. Genesis treats her more generously than later interpreters. But, in the tradition, Eve is seen as a wicked seductress who tricks her husband and brings sin into the world. Eve is the original sinner.

Listen to Tertullian, a 2nd-3rd century CE Christian theologian –

“You are the Devil’s gateway. You are the unsealer of that forbidden tree. You are the first deserter of the divine Law. You are she who persuaded him whom the Devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God’s image of man. On account of your desert, that is death, even the Son of God had to die.” Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1968), p. 14.

Eve also serves as the first and eternal Mother. And although she is not happy about it, Cathy is pregnant as Adam takes her to his Eden, to the Salinas Valley, against her will.

Has she eaten the forbidden fruit? What will be Cathy's role in Eden?

Keep reading!

Reading Schedule

Week of June 15-21: read chapters 15-19
Week of June 22-28: read chapters 20-24
Week of June 29-July 5: read chapters 25-30
Week of July 6-12: read chapters 31-39
Week of July 13-19: read chapters 40-48
Week of July 20-26: read chapters 49-55

A Benediction (Or Miscellaneous Thoughts)

It's not too late! Ask a friend to join the Summer Book Club! If you know someone who might want to read East of Eden with us, forward this email to them.