East of Eden

Beneath the Surface 

      Though Steinbeck may have received much opposition for portraying women as inconsiderate and depraved, there is a reason for them beyond what is implied.  The women are indeed horrible examples of females, but without them, the book East of Eden could not have gathered much fame.  Behind every man there is a woman, either good or bad, who strongly influences the actions and choices the males make, thus making the women in the novel more powerful than they appear.  They seem to have minor roles in the book; however, they can make a drastic difference in the story by simply altering their decisions.   

      Through Cathy’s character, Adam is able to learn a valuable lesson he will never forget.  He trusts her, and she ends up betraying him and killing him emotionally.  Samuel and Lee talk of the incident (when Cathy shoots Adam) and Lee states that “he still walks around like a ghost.  He’s a dead man unless [someone] can wake him up” (255).  A major portion of Adam dies when this striking event occurs to him, and it comes to show that without women, the men cannot function.  They are basically “ghosts” just walking around aimlessly, with no real motivation to accomplish anything in their lives. 

      In addition, it appears as though Liza Hamilton keeps her husband Samuel in order.  Once when Samuel is sick, he asks Liza for a drink so he can feel more relaxed, but she refuses because she “hate[s] alcoholic liquors” (43).  Samuel, a full grown man, must ask his wife if he can have a drink, and it comes to show that women are the ones in control of their households.  They dominate their men and order them around as they desire. 

      Another example of this is Cathy and Adam.  Although Cathy does not love Adam, he is truly in love with her, and will sacrifice anything for her.  He decides to establish a Garden of Eden for her just to make her content, even if it will cost a lot of money.  She also has him turn against his own brother, and they argue about her; Charles views her as evil and not trustworthy because he knows that “she’ll destroy Adam” (123).  The fact that Cathy makes Adam oppose his brother, his own flesh and blood, comes to show that the women can control the men no matter what obstacles come in the path. 

      Cathy also has the opportunity to ruin her sons’ lives if she identifies herself as their mother.  Aaron, as he does later discover the truth, takes the news horribly, and later dies because of it.  Cathy has the power to ruin someone else’s life, which is significant in the piece because the story revolves around her.  The mere fact that she can destroy another human being without much difficulty is amazing.  The amount of power she holds in her hands throughout the entire story is superfluous.

      Since there are corrupt males such as Charles and Cyrus in this work, it is not reasonable to automatically assume Steinbeck’s opinion on women, for he writes of wicked males as well.  It almost seems as though Steinbeck anticipates the protest of those who believe that women in the book are stereotypical because he characterizes the men in almost the same way as the women.  Charles is almost the equivalent of Cathy with a smaller role, but of equal depravity.  Steinbeck does this to balance out the female and male characters, so that one gender does not appear to be superior to the other. 

      Without the women in the book, the majority of the problems in the story would vanish.  They tend to generate many of the sufferings, and the men unite to overcome them.  An example of this is when Lee and Samuel collaborate to take care of Adam when Cathy abandons him.  The women add conflict and plot development to the novel or else there would just be characters with no real involvement with each other.  The females make it more complex, and they add numerous twists to the story, which cannot be done if only males are present.

      Steinbeck’s use of women is to help stress the importance they have in the storyline.  They can easily manipulate the men in the book, thus affecting the outcomes of the events.  Steinbeck’s intent is obviously not to degrade women; his story shows that they play such a huge role in lives, fictional or non-fictional.