In the late 1880s to early 1900s, a woman’s place in America was considered to be housewife and mother. Women who defied this norm were seen as outcasts, and they unsettled the masculine ideology of the time. John Steinbeck puts this controversial gender-prevalent bias to the test in his novel East of Eden. Steinbeck’s East of Eden harbors a controversial storyline in the lush valleys of Salinas, California during the turn of the 20th century. Steinbeck was inspired to write this book based on his family’s stories. It centers on two families, the Hamiltons and the Trasks, and that of a young woman who is likened to the devil incarnate. The woman, Cathy Ames, is widely considered to be the novel’s major flaw by critics. Steinbeck, after all, in writing a book based loosely upon his family’s history, added her in. Cathy Ames is the fictional villain who seemingly has no empathy for any living thing, and is constantly doing terrible things. The flaw appears to be that Cathy’s evil actions have no drive or goal to them—she is simply evil. Though Cathy seems like a static villain character, she manages to defy the social and domestic norms of the time, making her methods and motives more complex. Steinbeck portrays Cathy — an exemplar of women’s often underestimated power and potential — as the antithesis of the female archetype through her monstrous acts and refusal of domesticity to show the struggle for independence from a male-dominated society.
Steinbeck details how Cathy repeatedly escapes from or manipulates domestic situations that threaten her own independence in order to highlight the oppressive ideals she is running from. Steinbeck, the narrator, ponders, “if rather than running toward something, she ran away from something, we can’t know whether she escaped” (182). There are numerous times that Cathy runs away from oppression or manipulates it so she emerges in control. An example of which are her interactions with her parents. After beating Cathy for not wanting to go to school, her parents are happily surprised to see her dive into her academics with the wish of becoming a teacher. “‘I don’t think she’ll be teaching school long with her looks,’ said Mr. Ames” (84). Steinbeck illustrates the bias towards females when Mr. Ames insinuates that Cathy will be married in no time because of “her looks.” If a woman was married, she was expected to be a housewife, which meant leaving her job behind. Mr. Ames’ doubt that Cathy would still be teaching school connotes the looming dome of domesticity that threatened to suffocate Cathy during her childhood. Yet, Cathy’s wish to become a teacher was merely a guise to lull her parents into a false sense of ease before burning down her house—her parents inside—and leaving. Cathy is escaping, with questionable, usually deadly results, but in her mind she is justified because she has escaped the control of others.
Cathy ends up in a whore house owned by Mr. Edwards, and for a time, she is able to manage him. Upon discovering her deception and intentions of control rather than love, Mr. Edwards mercilessly attacks her. This is the second time Cathy has been beaten for overstepping her “womanly” duties to obey, and here Steinbeck portrays the unhindered physical rage of the opposite sex in retaliation to her insubordination. This attack frightens Cathy, and she takes refuge in Adam Trask’s trusting arms, “Mr. Edwards had really frightened her. That had been the only time in her life she had lost control of a situation. She determined never to let it happen again” (120). Cathy strives to be dominant, and a loss of control threatens her. From then on, Cathy manipulates Adam, determined to always be in control so that she would “never” lose “control of a situation”, because that would leave her vulnerable to the oppressive nature of society. When Cathy is pregnant, she finds herself trapped, for she can no longer leave the once temporary safety net provided by Adam. Now stuck in a potentially domestic lifestyle, just two weeks after her twins are born, Cathy shoots Adam and leaves her family behind. Nikki Garcia, in her master’s thesis for Harvard, Steinbeck’s Female Characters: Environment, Confinement, and Agency, reasons that,
Her responses to this environment may not be what we consider rational, but we need to focus on a larger system that Steinbeck is examining—a system that explores female roles and responses within a world defined by patriarchy. If you force any group of people, women included, into a box, one day they will fight, scream, and claw their way out (29).
When she says “responses to this environment,” Garcia is referring to Cathy’s monstrous acts, some of which are the shooting of Adam and killing of her parents. The “environment” being a “world defined by patriarchy.” Cathy is simply trying to stay independent, and her responses are rationalized because they are her escape mechanism. Garcia broadens her defense of Cathy by including that if any group of people were to be oppressed, one day they will rebel, even if that means they must “fight, scream and claw their way out.” Cathy frequently must fight her “way out” of these oppressively patriarchal situations, and Steinbeck details her struggle to show the backlash women receive when they try to be independent from men.
Steinbeck utilizes Cathy’s physical virtues and her body’s aversion to her pregnancy as a symbol of her defiance to her feminine—maternal—nature. Steinbeck contemplates if “nature concealed a trap” (72) when it designed Cathy, but left subtle hints of her monstrosity. “Her hair was gold and lovely […] Her nose was delicate and thin […] Her ears were very little, without lobes […] They were thin flaps sealed against her head” (72). Steinbeck begins describing her with the classic archetypal traits of a woman. The hair, “gold and lovely” sets a relaxed, sweet tone, followed by the adjectives “delicate” and “thin.” Steinbeck is painting a picture of the beautiful, “delicate” woman before adding a more ominous description of an abnormality: her ears. They are described not just as small, but seem to be inhuman, “thin flaps” rather than ears. Steinbeck’s observation connects to his earlier speculation that “nature concealed a trap.” Her abnormalities are symbolic of her capabilities to manipulate, the ears an example of how she always knows what is happening. Steinbeck extends his logic by illustrating her other abnormalities, “Her body was a boy’s body, narrow-hipped, straight legged, […] her feet were small and round and stubby, with fat insteps almost like little hoofs” (72). Cathy’s physical stature resembles that of a boy’s just as her thinking resembles that of a man’s. Steinbeck continues to indulge Cathy as inhuman when he describes her feet “like little hoofs.” The Devil is often portrayed in works of literature as having hoofs, and Steinbeck utilizes this image to shed a sinister light upon Cathy, even while she is still a child. Though she has these features, they are still concealed to the public through her innocent and lady-like demeanor. Claire Warnick, MA in Comparative Studies from Baylor Young University, in her thesis Cathy Trask, Monstrosity, and Gender-Based Fears in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, states,
Her physical performance of femininity, since it adheres so closely to cultural ideals of
feminine beauty, gives her control over other people…This attraction she has for others makes it easy for Cathy to find victims for her monstrous behavior. Much like the legendary siren, Cathy proves to be irresistibly alluring but also deadly (33).
Warnick is referring to the multiple times men have tried to help and protect her because they believe she is too delicate. An example of this is when Adam feels he must care for her, even after she has healed from her extensive injuries from Mr. Edwards’ attack. Men assume they must protect her because she appears to be the “feminine beauty” archetype that has been recurrent throughout history. Warnick relates Cathy to “the legendary siren” due to her “irresistibly alluring” essence but hidden monstrous nature. Sirens, in legend, have deceived men with their beauty before leading them to their doom, and Cathy is no exception to this myth. Her physical traits give Cathy the means to control and manipulate men, ultimately defying her place in society.
Not only does Cathy defy feminine norms by using her appearance for manipulation, but her body subconsciously rejects her pregnancy, which is symbolic of her battle against domesticity. When Cathy is unhappily pregnant, Steinbeck displays her body’s utter disregard for sustaining life other than hers: “She was misshapen; her belly, tight and heaving and distended; […] [b]ut the great lump was local. Shoulders, neck, arms, hands, face, were unaffected, slender and girlish. […] There was no quickening of milk glands, no physical planning to feed the newborn” (182). Even in her pregnancy, Cathy is abnormal. Steinbeck’s description of Cathy’s belly as a “lump” connotes that it is like a disease to her, a tumor. Her body is “misshapen” from it, and Steinbeck’s use of the adjectives “tight,” “heaving,” and “distended” connote pain and unhealthiness related to the pregnancy. To underscore the strangeness of Cathy’s pregnancy, Steinbeck depicts how the rest of her body was not preparing to “feed the newborn.” The entire top half of Cathy looked “unaffected”, even “girlish”, signifying her body’s clear aversion to her pregnancy. Her body’s refusal to provide for the baby is a symbol of her defiance towards her womanly, and therefore maternal, nature. Cathy not only uses her archetypal beauty to seduce and control men, but simultaneously defies the womanly stereotype associated with it through her refusal—conscious and subconscious—of domesticity.
Steinbeck opens a window into Cathy’s true self and feelings through her consumption of alcohol to show that being monstrous is her coping mechanism for staying independent. Mr. Edwards, who has fallen under Cathy’s seductive spell, finds her true intentions when he coerces her into consuming alcohol. As Cathy drinks the alcohol, “Her eyes became set and cold. Mr. Edwards felt a fear of her. Something was happening to her which neither she nor he could control” (95). Cathy’s true stance on him emerges, as her eyes become “set and cold”, indicating her emotional removal from him. Steinbeck hints that Cathy cannot control this sudden crack in her delicate façade when he denotes, “something was happening to her which neither she nor he could control.” Alcohol is therefore Cathy’s vice, a window into her contempt for men—and her malevolent intentions.
Cathy endures another alcohol-induced lapse several years later when Adam comes knocking on her brothel door, wanting to see the woman who ruined his life. Cathy has now named herself Kate, and the two drink together. Once she has let her guard down, Kate affirms that her way staying in control within a patriarchal society is to have an advantage, through blackmail. Kate reveals all of her blackmail she has gathered each time important men visit her brothel: “She took out a photograph. ‘Look there, that’s a state senator. He think’s he’s going to run for Congress…Look at this! This piece of white blubber is a councilman; this big red Swede has a ranch…Look here! This is a professor at Berkeley’” (320). Kate prides herself in having control over powerful men. She emphasizes the extent of her power by listing their honored positions, such as a “state senator” and “councilmen.” As she points them out she demeans them with insults, even calling one “white blubber.” These are respected men in society, and Kate exposes the reality of their fraudulence and sins. Steinbeck displays Kate’s incredulousness when she repeats “Look here!”, emphasizing her profound sense of disgust, while simultaneously revealing pride in her evidence. To Kate, these pictures are trophies, and she is the victor; they are the proof she needs of the hypocrisy steeped within the male-dominated society. In response to Kate’s outburst, Adam acknowledges, “I’m beginning to think you’re a twisted human—or no human at all” (320). Adam now sees how Kate operates, and is beginning to realize that she had never been the perfect woman he thought her to be. Kate’s candid and jaded response displays her utter hatred for humanity,
'Do you think I want to be human? Look at those pictures. I’d rather be a dog than a human. But I’m not a dog. I’m smarter than humans. Nobody can hurt me…I have a hundred beautiful pictures in there, and those men know that if anything should happen to me…each one with a picture, would be dropped in the mail, and each letter will go where it will do the most harm. No, they won’t hurt me’ (321).
Instead of being insulted by Adam’s statement, Kate is pleased. She denounces humanity because of the hypocrisy and sin revealed in each of the photos, viewing herself as better than the filth of mankind, and believing she is “smarter than humans.” Steinbeck illustrates her psychological removal from society when she describes humans as the other, as if she is not one of them. Once again, she glorifies her blackmail, calling the pictures “beautiful,” for they are the key to her destruction of men. Instead of men hurting her, with the letters she is able to turn the tables on them and deal the “most harm.” Kate assures Adam that “nobody can hurt [her],” but appears to reassure herself when she repeats it a second time: “No, they won’t hurt me.” Kate’s use of “nobody” when describing who can possibly harm her insinuates that she is sure of her control; yet, when she repeats it, there is a hint of uncertainty. “No, they won’t” produces a hesitant tone, and connotes doubt of her control over men. Steinbeck uses Kate’s concern to display the reason behind her monstrous actions: a fear of men hurting her, as they have done in the past. Kate has done terrible things, but men have often reciprocated her actions. First her father, who beat her into submission, then Mr. Edwards, who beat her as revenge for her manipulation. Adam tried to push her into a life of domesticity and so she ran from him. Men have tried to shape and correct Kate’s life, and her actions have simply been to ensure her independence and survival.
Steinbeck continues to show how Kate will stop at nothing to be in control and independent because her sense of safety has been skewed by her constant struggle with society. Kate goes beyond the manipulation of men to a point of obsessive control, even over other women. Steinbeck notes, “What made Kate so effective was that…[she] never hurried…she was mistress of a technique which is the basis of good wrestling—that of letting your opponent do the heavy work toward his own defeat” (239). Steinbeck insinuates that every action she takes is strategic, which makes her “so effective” because she “never hurried.” By equating Kate’s technique to wrestling, a masculine sport, Steinbeck implies that she is as competent as any man. Steinbeck highlights her “technique” to show how well-practiced Kate has become at manipulating others.
An example of Kate’s devastating technique is her calm dismantlement of Faye’s control of the brothel. For years, Kate undermines Faye, the maternal brothel owner, even though she comes to see Kate as her own daughter. One day Faye presents the idea of the two of them moving to Europe, as mother and daughter. Rather than being joyful, Kate is intimidated by Faye’s ideas of how she should live, and despises being told what to do. Danielle Woods, in her UNC Wilmington thesis Defying Domesticity: Steinbeck’s Critique of Gender Politics of the Postwar Generation in East of Eden reasons,
Not only does Faye directly threaten Kate’s independence by trying to convince her to give up her career and move to Europe, but Faye represents a type of woman who threatens Kate’s independence as a whole. By submitting to society’s wishes and conventionally acting as a somewhat domestic and maternal woman, Faye and women like her assist in maintaining the conventional restraining norm (Woods 16).
Woods broadens Kate’s fear of Faye into a fear of any woman who submits to a domestic life. Though Faye is a madam, Steinbeck portrays her as maternal, and as Woods notes, “somewhat domestic.” Here, she is referring to Steinbeck’s description of her brothel, “It was the cinnamon-scented kitchen of one’s grandmother” (Steinbeck 218). Steinbeck’s description of the brothel is a picture-perfect symbol of domesticity, likening it to the “kitchen of one’s grandmother.” Faye is one of the women that unintentionally “assist in maintaining” this conventional domestic and “restraining” norm of which women are burdened. This scares Kate, because it is what she has been trying to escape all her life. Kate strives to be a powerful force against men and society, but women who submit to the same ideals that Kate runs from are aiding the patriarchal, oppressive system. Her action to fix this “problem” is to poison Faye, which installs her as the new madam of the brothel. Once Kate is in control, she finds success and independence in the one profession that is both improper and the undomestic.
After a time of being independent in her position as madam, Kate’s yearning for authority is replaced with an intense paranoia of losing it. Kate’s brothel slowly deteriorates, “The paint had long disappeared from the clapboard walls and no work had ever been done on the garden” (313). Steinbeck illustrates the brothel to explain Kate’s current condition. No longer is the brothel a warm, welcoming place as it had been under Faye; now it is a dingy, dilapidated house. The paint “had long disappeared”, showing the true condition of the brothel under Kate’s rule. The paint is symbolic of Kate’s once charming demeanor which she has now discarded, for she no longer needs alcohol to reveal her true self. She does not try to hide her monstrous ways because she has achieved the independence she had always yearned for. This can be seen when Joe—her future assistant—first encounters Kate, “The dame thought and acted like a man—only tougher, quicker, and more clever…Kate made a slave of him just as he had always made slaves of women” (499). Instead of acting feminine as she has done in the past, Kate has almost entirely discarded her womanly presence, trading it for the cold, business-like demeanor of a man. Her often underestimated power is flaunted through her control of Joe, making him her “slave.” Yet as Kate grows older, she develops arthritis in her hand, and feels she can no longer use her body to manipulate or seduce men, because it is essentially turning against her. Steinbeck provides commentary that a woman’s way of control is often through her body, and not her mind. As Kate’s body begins to deteriorate, she relies more and more on her mind, which instills a sense of paranoia within her as she reflects upon her previous actions. At one point “Kate was startled out of control. Joe read her quick start, the apprehension, and then the almost hopeless fear and weariness” (512). Earlier in her life, Kate had made sure never to be startled, and Steinbeck highlights this change in her persona along with her unexpected loss of control. Steinbeck continues to unearth feelings that Kate has never been associated with: “hopeless fear and weariness.” Kate realizes that she may not be able to escape from her problems or paranoia this time, due to her degenerating condition and old age. Kate’s once steel-framed persona is cracking under the weight of her previous actions and impacting her conscience, showing that she is more than just the monster Steinbeck details her to be.
Kate finds a way of coping with her paranoia by having Joe build her a space to escape to: “she went to the lean-to, the gray room, and closed the door and sat in the darkness, listening to the pain creep back into her fingers” (527). She can block out the world in the darkness, and keep her pain to herself. Steinbeck describes how the pain from the arthritis “creep[s] back into her fingers,” a physical reminder of her slow descent from control. She wallows in the darkness and silence, agonizing in her pain. John Ditsky, in his book Essays on East of Eden, in regards to Kate, notices that "she is depicted as retreating to a gray room to rest her eyes; the suggestion that Kate cannot bear the sight of very much reality” (35). The gray room is a symbol of her increasing despair of losing the control she once had. Ditsky points out that Kate “cannot bear the sight of very much reality”—the “reality” being her weakened condition. It is a place of refuge for Kate, a place where the world is just “darkness” and “pain.” In this space, Kate reflects on her life, and while doing so she remembers a memory of herself as a child,
“Most of the time [Kate] knew she was smarter and prettier than anyone else. But now and then a lonely fear would fall upon her so that she seemed surrounded by a tree-tall forest of enemies. Then every thought and word and look was aimed to hurt her, and she had no place to run and no place to hide. And she would cry in panic because there was no escape and no sanctuary” (Steinbeck 548-549).
Steinbeck has revealed Kate’s underlying, if not subconscious drive to be in control through her forgotten struggle as a child. He depicts a side of Kate that has been hidden for years, once again showing that she is not an emotionless villain. From a young age Kate knew she was different, that she was “smarter and prettier,” but she was also constantly afraid. Steinbeck uses the metaphor “tree-tall forest of enemies” to inspire a sense of dread. A “tree-tall forest” connotes darkness and fear because often sunlight cannot reach the ground; the trees loom, oppressive, much like the society of men. Kate felt she was the victim as a child, and that every “thought and word and look was aimed to hurt her.” These fears account for her reasoning behind her monstrous actions, because she feels she must protect herself. Steinbeck continues to illustrate Kate’s “panic” from her paranoia as a child, showing her true emotion that she had learned to hide so well, even from herself. He explains her consistent attempts to “escape” in the past were a way to stay in control of her “panic” of people hurting her. It was crucial to be independent of any oppression because that was a sanctuary from her paranoia. Kate sought refuge from her panic behind her cold eyes and monstrous actions, always believing that the world was bad, and never considering that people could be good.
Ultimately, Kate kills herself, taking back the control she had lost. Before her death, she also regains her physical appearance—taken from age and arthritis—by dolling herself up: “She went to her dressing table and combed her hair, rubbed a little rouge all over her face, covered it lightly with powder, and put on the pale lipstick she always used” (550-551). Kate makes sure that she looks beautiful, and by putting on the “pale lipstick she always used,” Kate demonstrates she is still the same woman she had been in her prime. Kate chooses to have complete control over her death by not only killing herself, but determining what she would look like to others when they found her. Kate’s death is a fitting end to her tortured life, because she decided her fate, not society. Throughout her life, Kate had been accused of being different because she did not want to fit into the archetypal template of the maternal, feminine woman. Her death gave her the ultimate freedom from the patriarchal society that had oppressed her for so long, but simultaneously proved that her struggle against domesticity is what led to her downfall.
Cathy/Kate did terrible things, however, she demonstrated a woman’s potential to gain power and control. At the root of her reasoning she was a woman struggling to be independent in a male-dominated society, trying to escape the oppression she had endured throughout her life. Cathy/Kate’s direct refusal of domesticity serves as an example to women that they can be more than the archetypal maternal figure that women have been seen as throughout history. Through her devastating actions, Steinbeck utilizes Cathy/Kate as a way to exhibit the negative impacts on a woman’s psyche that come from living in a male-dominated culture. Had Cathy been left out of the book, Steinbeck would not have been able to illustrate the harrowing hypocrisy of this biased society for the main storyline revolves solely around men. Through Cathy, he presents the argument that women can be more than domestic housewives and have the potential to be equally as dangerous and powerful as men. Steinbeck urges the reader to fight for their independence, and to recognize the different forms of oppression that can debilitate a person, both mentally and physically. Consequently, he warns that those oppressed will fight to be free, and Cathy is an example of the extremes a woman, or anyone, will go to to avoid oppression.