How Cathy is evil in the book "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

The prosecution will begin by establishing the character of the defendant, and further prove that the criminal acts committed by Ms. Catherine Ames were not random, but rather a part of a cynical mindset that deliberately caused harm. Catherine Ames was without a doubt, a stunning work of beauty with the power to make all heads turn everywhere she went. She have lovely gold hair, big hazel eyes, pointy small chin along with a delicate nose, and high cheekbones giving her a heart shaped face. She was an adorable child that became an irresistible woman with the power to make all man fall head over heels. With a timid smile and a soft spoken voice, this appears to be the perfect woman.

However, let us not be fooled by her angelic appearance. Catherine Ames is a cruel, manipulative, sadistic being who knows how to get anything she wants through the lust from men. She was able to use her beauty to her advantage even as a young child. The very first incident was when Ms. Catherine Ames used her wittiness and manipulative skills to inflict moral and physical pain to two boys. The boys received immense punishments for actions that she herself encouraged, but declared herself a victim to preserve her reputation.

Cathy used her sheer beauty and manipulation to seduce her Latin teacher James Grew. When she had James Grew's heart in the palm of her hand, she denied him any affection or love, making him commit suicide. Cathy took an educated kind man and turned him into rubble just because she could.

As Cathy grew she became more destructive and morally impotent. It became quite clear that Cathy had no respect for authority when she ran away from home and went to Boston. She was pushed to the edge after being caught trying to run away from home and was beat and punished. Driven by agitation she stole all her father's money out of his safe. She cleaned the cellar and stuffed papers all around the edges of the foundation to block the draft. She oiled the hinges, the lock of the kitchen door and the hinges of the front door. She continued to prepare, on the night of the crime, she put on an old apron to protect her clothes and found a jelly jar and carried it to the carriage house. She then found a chicken, cut its head off, and filled the jar halfway with the blood. She then buried the evidence of the chicken. She then took off the apron in the kitchen and put it on the stove. She poked the coals until the apron caught on fire. Again before leaving she hid the evidence of the jelly jar. She remorselessly locked her parents in their house and set it on fire. Her parents sad death did not make Cathy shed a tear as she was looking into a new exciting career: prostitution.

When she meets Mr. Edwards she is keen to provoke him to become sexually attracted to her. After he puts her up in his own house, keeping her from his wife and providing for her, she begins to steal from him. She also locks him out of his own house and takes control of his property. When he realizes something horrible about Cathy, he attempts to get her drunk one night. While drunk she stabs him with a broken wine glass. Driven by her intoxication, she stabs him in the cheek and sends him running away from his own house. Her impulsive and evil nature was evident through her actions that night.

After a bad run in with the whoremaster Mr. Edwards, Cathy successfully manipulated Adam Trask to fall in love with her. After Adam had provided Cathy with unconditional love and support during her weak time, she repaid him by sleeping with his brother Charles behind Adam's back. After they moved to California to start off new Cathy and Adam had their twins she coldheartedly did not want to look at them claiming "No. I don't want them" After she recovered from giving birth, she abandoned Adam and the twins. After abandoning her husband and children Cathy became a working girl in a whorehouse. Now under the alias Kate, Cathy manipulated Faye the owner of the whorehouse into signing a will giving everything to Cathie upon Faye's death. After, slowly and painfully killing Faye, Cathie assumed control of the whorehouse. When it was thought that Cathy could not go any lower, when her son Caleb discovered the truth about her and wanted to be a changed man, she told him he can't and he will become exactly like her as he grows up, sinful and damned.

It's quite clear that Cathy is not a noble human being with good intentions. Her life has been filled with nothing else but hatred for others and schemes to get as much money as possible. Evidence presented here after show the criminal acts that Cathy has committed throughout her life, crimes that she admitted to performing without remorse.

Cathy had committed crimes against law of the nation and crimes against religion as well. Even though she is no where near of being religiously moderate, she still followed the religion of Christianity for her marriage to Adam Trask. Cathy did commit some major felonies toward God such as committing adultery. First, adultery means having sexual relations between an individual who is married and someone who is not the individual's spouse. In Christianity, adultery is considered a major sin which shows betrayal and lack of trust by that individual in the marriage. In the last two lines of Chapter 11, it states "Suddenly Charles laughed. "The Poor bastard," he said, and he threw back the blanket to receive her." Cathy did not care if she slept with Charles. Better yet, she does not embrace her marriage by sleeping with Charles. She is an embodiment of pure evil driven by self-hatred, desperation, and a love of pain, and Cathy destroys lives without any sense of remorse. She wanted something to satisfy her cruel nature and did so behind Adam's back.

In the bible, Cathy is directly compared to Eve when Eve eats a forbidden fruit and introducing sin into the world. Cathy did the same by committing a forbidden act of trust and friendship. This proves to show the hypocrisy that exists in Cathy with no moral influence or structure.

Cathy, without mentioning anything to her husband Adam, tried to abort her two children with a knitting needle while Adam was out obtaining information on his plot of land. If that isn't terrible enough, Cathy gives the reason that she has a family history of epilepsy and did not want to pass it on to her children which is a blatant lie. This attempt at abortion was a complete secret from Adam until she was found unconscious due to a great lose of blood. Cathy tried to murder her unborn children while Adam was away and didn't even tell him that she was pregnant in the first place. This was a disgusting act of attempted murder upon two completely helpless and vulnerable unborn children in which Cathy should be punished for.

After Cathy attempted to murder her unborn children Cathy moved onto bigger and more horrific things. She attempted to murder Adam, her husband. A week after the birth of newborn twins, Cathy decides that she is going to abandon them and leave Adam alone. Before leaving, Cathy pulled out a handgun and shot Adam. Luckily she had bad aim and only hit him in the shoulder but we all know that she was aiming to kill him. After Cathy shot Adam, she ran out of the house and out of Adams' life forever. This is the second time Cathy attempts to murder someone in her life. First it was her unborn children, and now her husband. Cathy is nothing but a murderer and cares for nothing but to inflict pain upon others.

Another sin in which Cathy tries to commit is suicide. Suicide is not illegal by law in the nation except for some states, but this act of killing oneself is considered a sin and a crime against god. One of the commandments states that specifically "Thou shall not kill" which can pertain to a person's life or their own life. In page 554, Cathy takes her own life by using a cyanide pill. This by far is much is strongly against the teachings of God and it goes against one of his commandments. God said there will be consequences for whoever commits suicide and that would be punishment in hell. Cathy may have her reasons to commit suicide, such as arthritic pain, low self esteem, and a painful life. However, this is the life she chose to follow as being sick and maliciously evil towards others which caused the downfall for her life.