East Of Eden Prejudice Analysis

Prejudice is defined as a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. Common prejudices such as racism and sexism provide simple examples as to how easily prejudice clouds one’s judgment. Prejudice is displayed in Lee’s choice of stereotypical dialect, in Cathy’s apparent innocence, and in Adam’s shame in being a single father. The negatives of prejudice are just one of many themes in John Steinbeck’s novel, East of Eden.
As a young girl, Cathy Ames begins her sociopathic path of destructive relationships that continues until her death. John Steinbeck introduces Cathy to the novel with a few sentences about why people are monsters: believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents. Some you can see, misshapen and horrible, with huge heads or tiny bodies. . . . And just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted

Edwards beats her. They take her in, against Charles’s better judgment and Adam is quickly taken with her. She continues her manipulative pattern by driving the brothers apart. Adam reveals his plans to marry her to his unsupportive brother and decides to take his half of their inherited money and move across the country to Salinas Valley, California. Adam is pushes to buy farmland and settle when he learns that Catherine is pregnant. To Adam, Catherine has no faults, making what happens next all the more surprising to him.“Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure—never sure of her because you aren’t sure of yourself?”(69) After the burden of pregnancy is lifted off of Catherine, she plans to leave, as she only uses Adam until she is well again. When Adam pleads with her to stay, she shoots him, and leaves him to raise their twin