They consider naming the twins “Cain and Abel” but after discussing the story of the Biblical Adam’s sons at length they opt not to, instead calling the boys Caleb and Aaron.Īs they grow older Caleb asks to be called Cal and Aron drops the extra “a” from his name. Sam literally beats sense into Adam, who, as if awakened from a long sleep, begs Lee and Sam for help getting to know his children. Sam Hamilton and Adam’s Chinese-American servant Lee are responsible for Adam’s rehabilitation. She becomes the owner of the most depraved and degenerate whorehouse in all of Salinas.Īfter Catherine leaves him, Adam goes dead inside, going a year without giving his newly born sons names. Catherine then slowly poisons Faye and, when she dies, takes over the business. She manipulates the owner of the whorehouse, Faye, so effectively that Faye wills the house and all of her belongings to Catherine. She only marries him because it is convenient for her at the time, but after she bears him two sons she shoots him in the shoulder and leaves.Ĭatherine changes her name to Kate and works her way up in a whorehouse in the city of Salinas. Cathy Trask was born without a conscience, and though Adam loves her, he is blind to her evil. But the Trasks material wealth is undermined by their moral poverty. The Hamiltons are a poor family living on dry, barren land, but Adam Trask and his wife Cathy Trask are rich from inheritance and live on a fertile and rich piece of land with a large quantity of water available. East of Eden is the story of two families, the Hamilton family and the Trask family, both of whom migrate to the Salinas Valley in California.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck