Cyrus Chapter Summaries

After not feeling the need to seek repentance for murdering her parents, Cathy moves on to other victims that she is easily able to seduce and take advantage of, ruining them in the process. Running from her crimes, Cathy tries to get a job as a prostitute, but instead becomes the mistress of Mr. Edwards, a pimp who falls in love with her. Cathy uses him only for protection, constantly stealing from him and making him feel insecure: “Her method was to keep him continually off balance” (94). This goes on for months with Mr. Edwards being so rapt with Cathy that his own health begins to deplete. He is so enthralled that he does not care about anything other than making

After Cathy was caught in her lies and was punished for it, she found herself drained and powerless until she met Adam and Charles Trask. When the men come in contact with Cathy, they both perceive different emotions toward her. While Charles thought she was unappealing, Adam fell “head-over-heals” for Cathy and she seized Adam’s foolishness as an opportunity for her to re-gain control. After Adam took her under his wings and her strength slowly built back up, he surrenders to her beauty and proposes. At this point, Cathy has Adam wrapped around her fingers but Charles sees through her malevolent behaviors.

In the novel East of Eden many examples show just how powerful fear can be if used for selfish gain or as a defence mechanism even though it may backfire from time to time. Fear being one of the biggest overtones (if not the biggest) allows us to see how huge an influence fear can be in a person's life and on other people. As with Cathy the main antagonist who lives to hold the fear of her blackmailing someone and men’s sexual desires over their heads to attain whatever her twisted desires are no matter what method she has to use. Cathy the embodiment of evil in the novel, who lives by fear is found consistently using it to her advantage to apprehend whatever her dark corrupted heart desires from the unsuspecting people around her.

Though Adam is favored by many throughout the book, he experiences rejection by those closest to him. The first rejection he feels is by his brother, Charles Trask. Through most of their childhood, Charles dislikes Adam because their father favors him. He is jealous of the relationship between Adam and their father because he tries so hard to please his father, but his father chooses Adam. Charles’ jealousy is seen when he confronts Adam after their father and Adam had a secret talk: “‘What did you do on his birthday? You think I didn’t see? Did you spend six bits or even four bits? You brought him a mongrel pup you picked up in a woodlot. You laughed like a fool and said it would make a good bird dog. That dog sleeps in his room… And where’s the knife? ‘Thanks,” [their father] said, just ‘Thanks’” (29). Charles believes that Adam does not even have to try to receive their father’s love, while Charles has to work his hardest to get any kind of recognition. Another person that rejects Adam is Cathy Trask, Adam’s wife. From the start of their relationship, Adam sees Cathy in a light that is not true to who she is. He sees her as the perfect wife that agrees with everything he says and wants to achieve the same dreams as he does. But this false notion of Cathy causes her to reject Adam. After moving across the country against her will and having children with Adam, Cathy believes she is ready to leave him. She tells Adam this, but he does not take it well and tries to convince her to stay. She replies “I don’t give a damn what you believe. I’m going… I can do anything to you. Any woman can do anything to you. You’re a fool” (199). She shoots Adam before leaving her twins and their house behind. Because Adam holds Cathy on a pedestal and continually

Cyrus was Astyages grandson and also the king of Persia. Harpagus was sent to kill him, but did not do so. Throughout his life he accomplished many things and fought in a number of battles. He was a well respected leader and treated everyone equally to gain his power. He expanded his power by traveling farther East, beyond the lands he was comfortable with, and fighting the more violent tribes.

Cathy utilizes manipulation to drive thoughts into people. Charles warns Adam of this by saying to him, “She’ll destroy you,” (B). An example of her power of mental capabilities is when she burnt her parent’s house down, locking them inside. No one suspected her

Another way the idea of good versus evil is expressed is by the internal conflicts of the characters. Cathy is good example of a character that has an inner conflict of good versus evil. Cathy, the most evil of all in this novel, kills her parents, manipulates Adam and Charles, attempts to abort her children, shoots Adam, abandons her twin sons once they are born, and murders Faye, her friend and boss. However, the good in Cathy overcomes the bad. By the end of the novel she becomes religious and she leaves all of her fortune to her son. Charles is also a good example of a character struggling with inner conflict. Whenever Adam beats him in a game, Charles becomes very abusive towards him; once he almost kills Adam. However, Charles also protects Adam from others and he does, in fact, love him. He "fought any boy who ... slurred Adam and ... protected Adam from his father's harshness" (Steinbeck 491). Adam is forced to join the service and is sent to war, Charles tries to keep in touch with him by writing letters. In

When Cathy is first introduced, the narrator calls her a monster, but in chapter seventeen, the narrator begins to doubt his claim, pitying her “waiting for her pregnancy to be over, living on a farm she did not like, with a man she did not love” (138). By including a statement discussing her unhappiness gives Cathy a human motivation to escape, although her escape is evil. When Cathy leaves, she shoots Adam because he attempts to stop her, but she does not aim for his head or heart to kill him, only a shot to the leg, which is enough to stop him, but not enough to kill him. A fatal shot would have been easy for Cathy, however, she had no reason to, so she only damaged Adam enough to achieve her goal. Unwanted pregnancies and unhappy marriages are all situations women attempt to escape, and in some cases, in extreme ways, like shooting their husbands. Humanizing Cathy connects humanity to evil.

Adam sees in Cathy only the good things because he is blinded by her looks to see what she really is. Others, like Lee, see right through her and can see the evil within her. Adam and Cathy seem to be doing fine and move to King City to have a life together. One day Cathy is found lying on the floor with blood everywhere so Adam calls the doctor. He finds out that Cathy was trying to kill her baby that she was pregnant with and says “ ‘Have you met Mrs. Laurel? She’s wasting and crying for a baby. Everything she has or can get she would give to have a baby , and you-you try to stab yours with a knitting needle’ ”(135). Cathy lied to the doctor and said she didn’t want to pass down her Epilepsy which runs in the family. She lied to trick him into believing that she didn’t want her sons to suffer but really wanted to kill her kids to not have them at all. Any other woman would’ve loved to have kids and would’ve wanted the best for them. But Cathy, she didn’t want kids and hated the fact that she was going to have some and this rejection propelled the plot of East of Eden by unintentionally disturbing the future of the kids because of this

From the very beginning, Charles Trask is is suspicious of Cathy when she shows up to the Trask’s farm. Charles even states, “You know what I think? I don’t think I’m half as mean as you are under that nice skin. I think you’re a devil” (116). Also, on the way home, Samuel Hamilton remembers the eyes of a criminal who was being executed. He realizes that Cathy’s eyes were similar to the criminals and that she also had evil traits. Lee recognizes Cathy’s evil when working for her as a servant. However, Adam is not able to recognize this because he only sees Cathy as what he wants her to be and not for what she actually is. For example, when Adam and Cathy move to the Salinas Valley, Adam thinks that Cathy wants to go and is a good wife, but Cathy does not actually want to go. Also, Cathy tries to kill her baby because she doesn’t want children, but Adam is happy and overjoyed when he finds out that Cathy is pregnant. In addition, the only people who Cathy fears are the people who are able to see her true self, like Samuel Hamilton, Charles Trask, and Lee, but takes advantage of people who are unable to see this quality of her, like Adam Trask and Mr.

Ruth walks into the shed, but soon after, a British soldier captures her. The soldier takes Ruth out of the shed, and Adam is in hot pursuit. His efforts to free Ruth are successful, and he heads back into the woods to fight the British.

The story begins with a prison guard arriving at Mrs Spencer’s door to give Paula the unfortunate news that her husband, Charlo has died. Then Paula explains the marital status between her and her husband, which is that they are separated. She talks of their wedding,

When Beth goes out looking for Ellen she gets in an accident and is taken to the hospital. That night Dan goes to Alex’s apartment and attacks her and tries to strangle her, but then stops. While they are catching their breath Alex tries to stab Dan with a kitchen knife, but he gets it from her and leaves. Dan brings Beth home from the hospital and helps take care of her, Dan is downstairs as she starts a bath when Beth discovers Alex in the room with a knife. Alex attacks her and Dan hears the screaming and rushes in to attack Alex. He tries to drown her in the tub, but she comes back alive and is then shot by Beth.

Cathy soon understands that her grip on Adam is faltering and she needs to act quickly to keep him. She first tries to prove to him there is only evil in the world by showing him pictures of reputable men in her whorehouse with women committing degrading sexual acts

As soon as Catherine enters the room there is a loud burst of thunder. Catherine approaches Nelly in a quiet yet cautious manner. Nelly can tell that something is bothering Cathy. She is very hesitant and finally tells Nelly that Edgar Linton has asked her to marry him. Catherine has accepted his marriage proposal, but she questions if she was right in doing so.