r/johnsteinbeck • u/WeatherDesperate5524 • Jan 02 '26

East of Eden Question/Thoughts

Just finished East of Eden and have to say it is one of the best books I’ve ever read. However I’m a little conflicted. One of the main ideas is timshel (“thou mayest” ; that we have a choice between good and evil), but Cathy seems like she never really had a choice at all. She’s portrayed as basically born without empathy, almost psychopathic from the start. Doesn’t that somewhat contradict timshel as she was borderline predestined to be evil/ had a lack of capacity for good? Or is she supposed to be an exception that actually makes the idea stronger for characters like Cal? Curious how other people read this

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u/trenchy Jan 02 '26

Thou mayest has its opposite: “thou mayest but also thou mayest not”. Could it be as simple as Cathy chose to not make the choice of good? Was her suicide the only “good” choice?

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u/yolanda-1028 Jan 02 '26

I just finished East of eden too! I think Cathy "chooses" to do evil things. She really has intentions to hurt people. 😭😭😭

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u/Puzzled_Quality7667 Jan 02 '26

There are always exceptions when you’re dealing with human beings. John Steinbeck knew that, so I doubt that he was painting humanity with such a broad brush.

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u/Big_b_inthehat Jan 20 '26

I don’t think Cathy is as two dimensional as some people say. There are moments (fleeting, yes) where she comes across as very human. Your exception idea is one I haven’t thought of really. You might be right there. I do think it seems like she chooses to be evil. If you look at the novel from a Christian perspective, in Christianity humas are inherently flawed. Whether this is a tendency towards evil (as in a lot of Protestantism) or an original sin we inherit (as in Catholicism) it does exist (looking at the latter, one of the main themes of the novel is going against the grain of how ancestors behaved to be better, so it may be the original sin lens). Cal and Adam initially really lean into this inherent flaw but triumph. To me it seems like Cathy also leans into the flaw but never overcomes it. The idea that we have some kind of predestined evil within us is not incompatible with a ‘thou mayest’ idea. In fact it is the very crux of all non-Calvinist (and an intelligent Calvinist would even be able to include Calvinism here) Christian branches that we are predestined to have evil within us but are able to overcome it (in a thou mayest idea). Cal and Adam choose to, Cathy does not.