ignatius, I looked this one up: appendicitis. (The source quoted a passage from a John Steinbeck memoir.)
^^^ I thought so but wasn’t sure.
I think there are two characters that I will always remember from this book: Lee and Cathy/Kate. IMO, Steinbeck did a pretty good job of bringing a balanced, sensitive, generous, and intelligent Lee to life. Lee is compassionate, a server who–excepting a short stab at life on his own–gives up his whole life for others. He relinquishes control of his own self for the service of others. Cathy, on the other hand, made an impression, all right, but because of her evil actions. I found her to be evil AND cold. She’s the definitive psychopath, the ultimate narcissist. All of her actions seem motivated by a need to control everyone and every situation with absolute lack of compassion. She has a brutal sociopathic antipathy for any other human who upsets the carefully controlled order she’s established. I think the only times she is moved occur when she’s afraid of losing control. And when she does lose control, like the times she drinks, look out!
I thought you might be interested in Steinbeck’s take on this:
When Adam meets Kate he’s able to give up Cathy (who she is vs. all she isn’t). Samuel gives him the opportunity to take that step into reality should he so choose and in effect gives him his life back. Had no one ever told Adam of Kate, he would still pine for the Cathy he thought he married and never understand that that Cathy never existed. Instead of knowledge crushing Adam (a chance Samuel opted to take) it empowered him.
Aron does the exact same thing with Abra. However, Abra has no reason or desire to be seen as other than who she is. Cathy/Kate learns young to hide herself behind other people’s perceptions of her as good - figuratively - almost literally - pulling a mask over her face to hide her thoughts.
Thanks, ignatius. I feel like Steinbeck’s entries are often like an answer key in the back of the book. 
Another parallel: Caleb reveals the existence of Kate to Aron, just as Samuel reveals her to Adam. However, Caleb acts out of spite, whereas Samuel acts out of love. While Adam is empowered by the revelation, Aron is destroyed. Why do you think that is? Perhaps if Aron had been older when he learned the truth (as Adam was), he would have been able to process it better.
@PlantMom, I agree with you as regards Cathy, which is why I have trouble believing that her bequest to Aron was an attempt at redemption. I see it as one final opportunity to wreak havoc–to “gift” her angelic, traumatized son with the profits of whoring.
I think she committed suicide because she saw that absolute control was slipping from her grasp. And although that may be true, I believe she far overestimated any threat that Ethel might pose to her.
I like Steinbeck’s letters but my favorite one has nothing to do with E of E.
Just something about that “My brain feels fat.” 
The letters really are interesting. I loved the way he saw himself a tinkerer and inventor in the mode of Samuel Hamilton. I really want to see what his paperweight that works on a slanted desk looks like.
@Mary13 - Yes! It seemed odd to me just how freaked out Kate was by Ethel. As evil as Cathy/Kate was, and as many dastardly deeds she had already done, it seemed to me that Ethel should have been no threat at all.
Can someone remind me what happened that Cathy ended up in Adam and Charles’ barn? She crossed someone, right? There were a few times I found the storyline a little hard to follow.
I do love that description, though, @ignatius! “My brain feels fat.” I’ve definitely felt like that, too.
Yes, she is beaten to within an inch of her life by Mr. Edwards, a “respectable” brothel owner who falls in love with her. He keeps her as his mistress, buys her a house and lavishes gifts upon her. Cathy begins to steal from him, mortgages the house for cash, changes the lock, and then reveals her truly horrible self one evening when drunk. Soon after, he finds an old newspaper clipping about the fire in her childhood home and puts two and two together, realizing that she is far from the nice girl he thought. Angry at how he’s been duped, he takes her on a trip into the country and beats her. “He thought he only meant to punish her,” but things get out of hand and he goes in for the kill.
She survives and crawls along the road until she reaches the house where Adam and Charles live.
Cathy never forgets Mr. Edwards and plans to seek revenge one day, but that never happens.
Kate views Ethel as a threat and threats don’t exist in Kate’s life. Few glimpse the real Kate: the sheriff and Samuel Hamilton “know” her but neither threaten her. Kate and the sheriff can coexist - call it a working relationship - and she seldom sees Samuel. On the other hand, Ethel threatens Kate; bottom line - Ethel knows too much, as did Mr. Edwards and look what happened there. Ethel may be no more than a beaten-down whore but just by seeing past Kate’s facade and threatening her, Ethel takes on gargantuan proportions in Kate’s mind. Kate never loses control and with Ethel she has. Obviously Ethel is no match for Kate but she just by having something on Kate, she elevates herself to danger level.
I think Cathy’s brain felt fat. 
Seriously though, we do see her begin to lose her ability to think quickly and zero in on an effective (and evil) plan of action. After a lifetime of skillfully manipulating others, she first seems thrown by Adam’s visit, screaming after him when he doesn’t succumb to her wiles. Then, she appears unnecessarily flummoxed by Ethel and later perplexed by Cal and Aron’s visit. She is all questions at that point, “What would her son do? What had he done after he went quietly away?..Why had [Cal] brought his brother? What did he want? What was he after?” (p. 546). She no longer has the self-assured confidence of her younger self.
Why do folks think that Cathy went with Adam to California at all? That seemed unrealistic to me, based on the logic and psychology of that character.
Cathy has to follow Adam. She has no resources (i.e., money, health, …) other than Adam. Charles won’t go along with her staying on the farm; he makes that clear. Heading to California with Adam looks to be her only option. Adam may be protection of another kind also: Cathy can’t have anyone (Charles, sheriff) looking too closely into her. Plus Mr. Edwards remains a threat - even greater now - should he know she lives. Remaining on the farm without Adam as gullible protector isn’t even a possibility.
Thanks, ignatius, that’s helpful. I wish Steinbeck would have shown a bit more of that desperation in her character; I think she would have come across as more real that way. Steinbeck seemed to conceive of her as simply a bad seed, born as evil to the core, which is less interesting than a bad or evil person with some recognizable emotions.
I think it made sense for Cathy to leave the East Coast - too many people knew who she was. Still seems weird to prefer working at a whorehouse than married to a pushover. I never really believed in Cathy - which to me was a fatal flaw for the novel. I wondered if perhaps her irrationality at the end was a touch of syphilis in addition to the arthritis.
I didn’t entirely believe in Cathy at first, but two things convinced me.
One, although Steinbeck calls her a “monster,” her story begins (mostly) at age 10, when she is found tied up in the barn half naked with two boys. Given that afterward, “Cathy did not speak for a long time,” I interpreted this as sexual abuse, not manipulation.
Two, the book Wisconsin Death Trip, by Michael Lesy, with news accounts and photos from the 1890s. Granted that’s Wisconsin, not California, where the winters are long, but it’s all there: suicide, arson, poisonings, insanity…Apparently this book influenced the book “A Reliable Wife,” by Robert Goolrick, if you want another story about a creepy woman.
I also don’t think Steinbeck would have Kate leave her money to Aron if it didn’t mean something, so I’m still with the redemption idea. There’s too much in the book about choices and “timshel” for that decision to just be a continuation of her character. There are moments throughout where Kate flinches in recognition of who she is and what she’s doing, though it’s buried very deep.
Does Steinbeck say any more about this in his journal? I don’t have a copy of that, so thanks for posting some of the entries–very interesting!
Steinbeck discusses Cathy throughout but he writes this about her death:
FWIW - I agree with @buenavista that Kate left her money to Aron, not for spite, but as an attempt at apology/redemption. I’m not sure I’d think that if she hadn’t been attending church to watch him in the choir and for the fact that she never damages the boys’ relationship with Adam by spitting out that he may not be the father.
Also Steinbeck points out that sometimes Cathy does tell the truth - to no avail with Adam:
Remember Cathy also tells Adam she doesn’t want to go to California - to no avail.
Actually Cathy has her best relationship with the sheriff. They talk: he listens not only to what she says but between the lines and calls her out when dishonest. She respects his clarity and colors within his lines.
By the way the sheriff is real - Steinbeck just changes the name.
I have noticed that Cathy remains Cathy, never Kate, in Steinbeck’s letters. (Correct me if I’m wrong, @mathmom.) I wonder why.
As for working at a brothel, I think Kate likes cruelty - likes to inflict pain. She can’t find that outlet on a farm with Adam, Lee, and two boys. I’m not even sure she would have found satisfaction with Charles - more so than with Adam but still. She has a streak of cruelty that Charles doesn’t. He’s just mean and with a black temper but I’m not sure he’s a match for Cathy on the day-to-day pleasure in hurt.
@buenavista - I don’t think Steinbeck intends us to see that scene as rape. He introduces Cathy from the start as a “born” monster. It’s right there in the first paragraphs of Chapter 8. I take him at his word that Cathy is someone who learned early on to use her sexuality to manipulate people. He constantly contrasts her beautiful looks with her secret nature, even before the scene in the barn. I think her terror, is at the consequences of being caught. I think it’s possible she was a little frightened of herself and what she had discovered about herself. It’s no accident that her brothel becomes the S and M brothel. I think this quote is very telling:
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@ignatius he calls her Cathy far more often than he calls her Kate, but he does call her Kate on a few occasions. On May 28, 30 and 31 he’s talking about how he’s going to show Kate only through her actions, but not let you get into her mind. I think he’s leading up to her murdering Faye. He refers to her briefly on August 7 worrying that some scene may sound false.Then on October 16 he says he’s going to “finish with Kate”. The next day though he refers to “the final Cathy scene” and on October 18 he says he’s winding up “Kate and Joe”. Everywhere else though it’s Cathy. (According to google books 30 Cathy’s and 7 Kates. )
^^^ Thanks