East of Eden

East of Eden by John Steinbeck, is set during the semi-expansion period of the west, set mainly in Salinas, California, the characters of this book vary from the worst evil, to the purest good.  The Characters I've met thus far are Cathy Anderson, who is psycho evil.  Adam Trask, who is not fully good, but he is manipulated by Cathy into a bad person.  Charles Trask, is Adam's evil half-brother, their father is Cyrus Trask, who lied and made himself into a war-hero even though he only fought in one skirmish and was injured and lost his leg.  He says that he played a big part in the Civil War, that he gave the top generals strategies on how to win the war, reality, he did nothing.  His first wife, who we only know as Mrs. Trask, was a cold hard woman, killed herself after her husband returned home with a peg-leg.  Young Adam was only a few months old at the time so he was raised by his father's second wife, Alice, who gave birth to Charles. Charles was always perfect at everything, except he was abusive to Adam.  Charles never knew fear so his father did not force him into the army, while he did force Adam into the army. 

The other family that is in the book is the Hamilton’s, who live in Salinas, while the Trask family lives on the east coast.  The father Samuel is an Irish immigrant who is very nice, he looks into situations in a deeper way than most men, he always has the worst of lucky making his land prosper but he can find water on everyone’s land, and help them do the best.  Liza is his wife, she is not cold, but very proper she is dead-pan and sees the obvious and deals with it.  They have several children who are very bright as their father, and go on to live good lives.  Adam later moves into California near the Hamilton’s and they help him. 

The person in this book that baffles me the most is Cathy Anderson, this lady is messed up, since she was very young too.  Cathy un-like many people she was the perfect liar.  It is said that she never forgot what she lied, so she could never get mixed up.  She knew when to tell half-truths, when to tell the truth to sound like a lie.  She could make people do what she wanted, whoever she wanted dead, they were.  She could make people kill themselves, loose all self-worth and she enjoyed it.  She was patience, if something was in her way; she waited and waited sometimes for years until the time came for her to strike.  She killed her own parents; she caused her teacher to kill himself.  She left her new-born twins to die, she shot her husband.  She was a whore, and a good one, without ever being taught she knew "tricks" they don't explain those and I don't want to know.  She took a man who ran a brothel-type business and made him like putty in her hands; she made him feel weak, took away all sense of manhood but made him keep coming back for more. He tried to kill her but did not succeed. 

This book is very intriguing to me, it is described as a triumph of good over evil, I know who the evil is, but I’m curious to who the conquer will be.  I hope I find out soon.