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Characters

Trask household

Cyrus Trask Cyrus Trask is the family patriarch who commits the "original sin" that determines the action of the novel. The cruel father of the brothers Adam and Charles, he lies about his record as a Civil War hero and gains an important administration job in Washington D.C. which allows him to leave an ill-gained inheritance of $100,000 to his sons.

Mrs. Trask The first Mrs. Trask is the deeply religious mother of Adam Trask who commits suicide soon after her husband Cyrus Trask returns home from the Civil War and infects her with gonorrhea.

Alice Trask Alice Trask is the passive mother of Charles Trask and caring stepmother to Adam Trask. She rarely talks. She smiles, however, when no one sees her. Adam leaves her little gifts of love, but she wrongfully believes them to be from her son, Charles.

Adam Trask Protagonist of the early part of East of Eden, Adam Trask is a benevolent and deeply honest man who grows from a dreamy, misdirected youth into a passionately alive man who comes to care deeply about his sons, Cal and Aron, after he snaps out of the trance imposed upon him when Cathy leaves him.

The son of Cyrus Trask, he falls in love with Cathy Ames when she wanders injured and helpless into his farm. Adam represents the biblical character Abel who was slain by his brother in a jealous rage. His blessing of his son Cal at the end of the novel authenticates timshel, the novel's central concept which mandates that humans are not predestined to fail or to succeed but have free choice.

Charles Trask Charles Trask acts out in anger against his half-brother after their father Cyrus favors Adam's gift of a puppy over his gift of an expensive knife. He is representative of the biblical Cain figure who kills his brother when God favors the gift of Abel's lamb over his gift of grain. He has a dark brown scar from an accident and remains on the family Connecticut farm as Adam wanders and manages to amass a fortune of $100,000 that he leaves to Adam and Cathy.

Cathy Ames/ Kate As more than one character points out, Cathy lacks some human quality. Growing up she perpetrates criminal acts, such as framing two neighbor boys for rape, driving a young man to kill himself, and burning down her parents' house with them locked inside. In a cold-blooded plan to make money, Cathy becomes the mistress of Mr. Edwards, a successful pimp from whom she steals. Mr. Edwards eventually discovers the thefts and beats her nearly to death. She manages to crawl to the Trask brothers' farmhouse and seduce Adam Trask. She takes advantage of his plan to move to California as a means of escape.

After giving birth to twin sons, Cal and Aron, Cathy tells Adam she is abandoning them. She shoots Adam when he attempts to stop her from leaving. She works as a prostitute, eventually poisoning brothel-owner Faye and taking over the business. She gives her employees drugs, encourages sadomasochistic sexual practices and blackmails her customers. Late in life she commits suicide after encountering her son Aron.

Aron Trask Aron Trask is the fair-haired twin son of Adam and Cathy Trask and the twin brother of Cal. Deeply religious and celibate, he plans to enter the ministry to escape the world. He is favored by Adam, much to Cal's chagrin, and is in love with Abra Bacon. When he discovers his mother, who abandoned him as an infant, is still alive and working as a prostitute, he leaves Stanford and runs away to join the Army and dies soon after.

Caleb Trask Known as Cal, the dark-haired son of Adam and Cathy is jealous of his seemingly perfect twin brother, Aron Trask. Loving his father deeply, he persists in doing the wrong things for the right reasons, and failing to see the further implications of his actions. Cal represents the novel's second Cain figure, indirectly killing his brother Aron (Abel) whom he forces to enlist in the Army. Ultimately, however, he demonstrates the novel's major concept of timshel, that people can overcome their background and choose free moral lives.

Lee Lee is the Chinese-American cook and housekeeper to Adam Trask's family. He speaks in a Chinese pidgin dialect to "survive" life in America. He brings up Adam's children from the time they are abandoned by their mother. A philosopher, he is a heartfelt friend to Samuel Hamilton and Adam Trask and forms the third insightful part of their dialogs. He researches the Cain and Abel story for years and brings to life the novel's central concept of timshel, or "thou mayest."

Hamiltons

Samuel Hamilton Samuel Hamilton is the much-beloved and admired Hamilton family patriarch who acts as a mentor for Adam Trask and stands in sharp contrast to Cyrus, the dishonest Trask family patriarch.

A self-educated immigrant from Northern Ireland, he demonstrates the positive principle of life. Although he farms the most barren land in the Salinas Valley, he is enormously prolific, fathering nine children and enjoying life to the fullest until the death of his favorite daughter Una saddens him deeply and permanently.

Samuel Hamilton was indeed author John Steinbeck's grandfather who emigrated from Northern Ireland where he was self-educated from borrowed books. Although Samuel experienced initial distrust from his new California neighbors because of his Irish background, in time he wins their hearts with his goodness and hard work as a blacksmith and pseudo-doctor. Although he never achieves wealth on his poor farm, he is happy with his lot. His family never goes hungry and have everything they need. Reminiscent of a biblical patriarch, he fathers a dynasty of nine children. Like many Irish, he tends to dream of the future, always attempts to improve things, and, fearful of his wife's scorn, drinks whiskey on the sly.

Liza Hamilton Liza Hamilton is the wise mother of the nine Hamilton children and the tiny wife of Samuel. Strict and hard working with good sound sense, she acts as a counter-balance to her dreamer of a husband. Unlike him, Lisa is pragmatic to a fault and abhors drinking until, that is, the doctor prescribes port wine in her old age.

Dessie Hamilton Dessie Hamilton is the happy go-lucky and most beloved daughter to Samuel and Liza. She opens a dressmaking business in Salinas, and falls in love with the wrong man who causes her deep distress she can share with no one. After she closes her business, she moves back to the ranch where Tom inadvertently gives her a medication that causes her death.

Olive Hamilton Olive Hamilton is the daughter of Samuel and Liza Hamilton who becomes a teacher and mother to the narrator (and the mother of the author) John Steinbeck. As an example of a loving mother, she contrasts the nefarious non-mother Cathy Ames.

Tom Hamilton Tom Hamilton is the son of Samuel's heart. A poet who remains on the farm after his parents grow old, he sinks into deep depression after his much-beloved father dies. He accidentally causes the death of his sister Dessie and kills himself out of guilt.

Una Hamilton Una Hamilton is the deeply unhappy daughter of Samuel and Liza Hamilton. She marries a photographer and moves to Oregon where he keeps her in great poverty. Her death causes the beginning of Samuel's demise.

Will Hamilton Will Hamilton is the son of Samuel and Liza and the antithesis of his dreamer father. Samuel. Practical to a fault, he was born to be a businessman. The first to sell cars in the Salinas Valley, he becomes Cal Trask's business partner.

Others

Abra Bacon Abra Bacon meets Aron as a child and falls in love with him until she realizes as an adult that Aron has been in love with an idealized version of who he believes her to be. Daughter of a county supervisor in Salinas, she learns her father is a thief. Her maturity and goodness contrast with the evil Cathy. Lee, who loves her like a daughter, shares with her the knowledge that she doesn't have to follow in her father's footsteps.

Mr. Edwards Mr. Edwards is a businessman who runs a New England prostitution ring and leads a double life. His deeply religious wife knows nothing of his business affairs. Mr. Edwards falls in love with Cathy when she approaches him for a job. Soon, she had him completely in her power. He leaves her for dead near the Trask farm after nearly beating her to death.

Ethel Ethel is a prostitute at Faye's brothel who digs up the empty bottles of poison used by Kate to kill Faye. She attempts to blackmail Cathy but is later found dead by Joe Valery.

Cotton Eye Cotton Eye is the brothel's piano player who is addicted to opium. Kate slyly tells Faye she feels sorry for him to gain her sympathy and cast her in a positive light.

Faye Faye is the good-hearted madam of the Salinas whorehouse who comes to think of Kate (Cathy) as her daughter and leaves the brothel to her in her will before Cathy poisons her.

Horace Quinn Horace Quinn is the sheriff who as a deputy covered up Kate's life as a prostitute to protect Adam and the twins. Later in the novel, he informs Adam of Kate's death and tells him that Aron is his mother's beneficiary of $100,000.

Joe Valery Joe Valery is an ex-convict bodyguard and bouncer who attempts to control Kate who is fearful her murder of Faye will be discovered. As her arthritic pain increases, Kate comes to rely more and more on him and when she realizes that he is extorting money from her, she commits suicide, but not before turning him in to the sheriff.