Eden, written by John Steinbeck, is a complicated retelling of the biblical story of Cain and Abel, focusing on the general struggle between the bad and good. This was first seen in Adam and Charles Trask, followed by Adam's sons Aron and Cal Trask. The absence of a maternal figure in these two cases of sibling disagreement increases the need for recognition and love from parental figures. Yet both maternal figures in the Valley of Eden choose to abandon their children, leading them to find this love elsewhere. Adam's mother killed herself when he was just a child, Cal and Aron's mother, Cathy, immediately runs away from her life of obligation and never thinks about her son's well-being. Cathy could never have been a mother because she had no maternal instinct and believed she was evil. Although it is evident through her manipulative ways and wickedness that Cathy is the satanic "Eve" of this retold religious story, by the end of the novel her monstrous nature is called into question and Steinbeck opens up the possibility that Cathy is much more vulnerable than as it originally appeared. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Ever since Cathy was a child, she had taken advantage of everyone she approached through the use of her sexuality, believing herself to be smarter than everyone, and fueling her anger with her hatred of ignorant humanity. Living on a farm in Connecticut with her parents, Cathy was always getting into trouble, from being found tied up and naked with two boys, to torturing a local Latin teacher to committing suicide. Overall, Cathy is able to exploit men with her seductiveness, "sexuality with all its desires and pains, jealousies and taboos, is the most disturbing impulse human beings have... Everyone was hiding that little hell in himself, while publicly pretending it didn't exist - and when he was involved in it he was completely helpless” (Steinbeck 75) Cathy not only uses her erotic ways to get what she wants, but also uses physical pain and ultimately l After arguing with her father over Cathy's escape attempt, Cathy had had enough. One night Cathy leaves an apron in the oven of her house, locks all the doors, steals her father's money and leaves hers. parents to die in her childhood home, catching fire. Enjoying every second of her act and feeling no remorse, Cathy's cheeks "were bright with color, her eyes shone and her mouth opened in her little childish smile." The murder of her parents is Cathy's first truly evil act that Steinbeck displays in the book, showing how much hatred she is capable of and how far she will go to get what she wants. After not feeling the need to seek repentance for her parents' murder, Cathy moves on to other victims whom she can easily seduce and take advantage of, ruining them in the process. On the run from her crimes, Cathy tries to find work as a prostitute, but instead becomes the lover of Mr. Edwards, a pimp who falls in love with her. Cathy only uses him for protection, constantly robbing him and making him feel insecure: "Her method was to continually keep him off balance" (94). This goes on for months with Mr Edwards becoming so enraptured with Cathy that his health begins to fail. He's so fascinated that he doesn't care about anything other than making Cathy comfortable. Mr. Edwards finally sees through Cathy's facade when she gets drunk on wine, uttering vicious words that Mr. Edwards can't forget: “You fat slug. What do you know about me? You think I can't read every rotten thought you havehad?". Mr. Edward's image of Cathy is now distorted and shattered completely when he learns of her parents' murder. He becomes so scared that he takes her to an alley, beats her, and leaves her to die. Adam Trask then finds Cathy and nurses her back to health only to fall in love with her against his brother Charles's wishes: “She ain't damn good, I tell you. She's a whore... won't you get rid of her? Please, Adam. Throw her out. It will tear you to pieces. It will destroy you, Adam, it will destroy you!”. Just like Mr. Edwards, Adam is completely blinded by the love Cathy allows him to feel for her, leaving his brother and moving to California. Cathy soon discovers that she is pregnant and tries to have an abortion several times to no avail, leaving her completely stuck. When she finally gives birth to twins, she shoots Adam in the arm and disappears, changing her name and never looking back on that seemingly insignificant moment in her life. In his last words to Adam before leaving, "his voice was dead and metallic." Cathy tells her husband that she "doesn't care" about him, and when he asks her about their newborn children, she replies, "throw them down one of your wells." Most new mothers immediately fall in love with their child as the maternal instinct takes over their entire being. For Cathy the exact opposite happens. Not only does she leave behind her children, but she also leaves behind Adam, her husband, who had taken her in when she was at her lowest point. This leaves Adam soulless and desolate, a shell of a person with nothing inside. Steinbeck explains Adam's thoughts and feelings by explaining how he “saw the world through gray water. From time to time his mind struggled to make its way upwards, and when the light broke in it only gave him mental discomfort, and he retreated back into the greyness.” Adam remained closed within himself and his gray world for years, completely ignoring the key moments in his children's lives. By only being with Adam for about a year, Cathy managed to shut him down completely when she left, paying a huge emotional toll that destroyed the lives of her husband and her own children. Cathy is capable of being completely toxic to those around her, destroying their humanity as well as her own, leaving the reader to constantly wonder whether she is capable of empathy or kindness. After years of retreating into her hateful patterns, Cathy begins to examine her previous beliefs to see if her motives were well-judged. When Cathy has created a new life for herself as a brothel owner, Adam visits her on the day her brother dies and is finally able to see her true self: "I know what you hate." You hate something in them that you can't understand. You don't hate their wickedness. You hate the good in them and can't reach it. I wonder what you want, what final thing'. Adam can see that all of Cathy's plots are hiding what she hides deep within herself, something that she herself doesn't yet know. This refers to when Steinbeck first introduced Cathy as a character: “I believe that there are monsters born into the world of human parents. Some you can see, deformed and hideous, with enormous heads or tiny bodies. . . . And just as there are physical monsters, can't mental or psychic monsters be born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a distorted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, couldn't the same process produce a malformed soul?” Cathy is born without having that little piece that is inside everyone else, the little piece that makes you moral and capable of purity. Instead, Cathy is filled only with malevolence and fear. As Cathy grows, her fear of the world increases, forcing her to completely shut everything out and hide,.