Good vs. Evil and Cathy\'s Role When

GOOD VS. EVIL AND CATHY'S ROLE

When you come across a fictional character that possesses true evil attributes and has not got a single good bone in his/her body, you are likely to respond in one of the two ways. That is, you would either reject the character terming it too monstrous to be believable or you would view it as a literary device used by the author to highlight his main theme. The first reaction however leads to nothing constructive, on the other hand the second type of response paves way for further and deeper analysis of the writing. This is how we seek to study John Steinbeck's novel "East of Eden" which contains one of the most iniquitous fictional characters in contemporary literature. This character is introduced to us as Catherine Ames "Cathy," who later changes her name to Kate. Cathy's personal attributes are so brutish in nature that readers fail to relate to her. But instead of rejecting her, it is important to find out why she was placed in the novel in the first place. This is what brings us to the subject of main themes and we realize that Cathy is used here as a device to serve author's purpose i.e. To effectively accentuate the theme of good vs. evil.

Catherine is not only a highly manipulative psychopath who thinks of no one but herself but she is indeed presented as one perpetual negative force in the novel, which brings out the worst in everyone. In other words, she doesn't possess evil only within herself but also negatively impacts the lives of everyone connected with her. For example, it is her evilness that destroys the life of her kind husband, Adam and later re-emerges as a brutish force in her son, Cal's personality. However it is when Cal recognizes the evil influence of his mother that the battle between good and evil formally begins and we notice that despite all odds, it is the good that triumphs in the end.

From the beginning till mid of the novel, it was evilness of Catherine that emerged a winner on every important occasion. She manages to get away with her parents murder and later fools Adam with her good looks enough to marry him. But she refuses to feel even a bit of remorse even when she is found cheating on Adam. In short she was a monster in every sense of the word as the narrator points out, "When I said Cathy was a monster it seemed to me that it was so." (242)

Cathy keeps winning till the day her sons finally confronts her about their past. From this instance onwards, evil is pitted against the gentle yet powerful force of good to shed light on the eternal conflict of good and evil that has been hurting human beings from time immemorial. John Steinbeck notes, " We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is" (415).