adam, in hebrew, means man or humanity. in the book, he's often portrayed to be good and exemplary. he helps people in need, his ethics and values resonate with (what he, what we, believe as) good and things happen in a way that makes him look like a hero, but if you really focus on the details, he projects what he believes to everyone around him and he only believes what he wants. the way he only sees the good in everything makes him look naive and he actually acts cowardly more often than not. everyone wants good things to happen, nobody wants misfortunes, but life doesn't always go our way.

here's where cathy comes in. i think, in genesis, she would be the forbidden fruit. she doesn't cause people to sin, the choice has always been there, she just reveals that everyone has the capability to sin, but it's up to them to fall into temptation or not. her character is pretty complicated. cyrus once said to be a soldier once must be stripped off all their distinguishable features so they look, act and talk the same. in that sense, cathy's deviation from 'goodness' is so starking that she's portrayed as a monster. her refusal to conform to adam might also be parallel to the rise of feminism during the time this book was written because at that point in history, women had already begun advocating for equality and criticizing the patriarchal system of society. she symbolizes defiance, she's nonconformity. cathy is a monster because she distresses people by making them realize there is difference and evil in the world. charles warned adam that cathy, the forbidden fruit, will ruin his life and i firmly believe this is because she will make him realize that not everything is good. she will open his eyes to evil. the kinship charles and cathy feel towards each other is born from the acknowledgement that evil exists in the world.

one thing i really love about this book is steinbeck's analogy between stones and hardship and how the first three main characters react to them. adam wants to get away from the ranch to somewhere where 'stones' don't exist. he searches and explores and is willing to go hundreds of different ways, just to avoid the stones. that's cowardice. though, in the end, it does work out for him, he can't help but be completely blind to the truth, even when it's right in front of him.

cathy, unlike adam, faces the stones, but she has someone else do the dirty work for her. she keeps her hands clean from hardship, and that's why, throughout the book, they mention her hands a lot. in a conversation between liza and samuel, liza asks, "her hands, samuel, her hands—what was she doing with her hands?" to which samuel replies, "nothing i guess." cathy makes someone else take the fall for her and the pain she eventually had to endure in her hand is her punishment for it.