u/DinnerOut2001

So, in short, Robert E. Lee’s affection for state, family, and property superseded his oath to the USA. I understand there are many who defend him still, but if this happened today, he’d be painted as a traitor. So I’m wondering why there are still so many in defense of him still. Also, this makes me wonder why so many influential people in the past didn’t see him as a traitor, like Eisenhower. I’m genuinely wondering, not trying to argue, just trying to learn.

At the end of the East of Eden, Cathy leaves everything to Aron. There's this whole monologue how Cathy relates to Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, making herself small so that she can escape from the cruelty of this world, depicting herself and her thought process before she became predatory/sociopathic. Initially, I read leaving her will to Aron due to recognizing an innocence in him that she once had - maybe one that she attempted to protect earlier in her life? I know that other readings of this act depict her leaving the will as a final way to drive a wedge between Cal and Adam or Cal and Aron, but Cal has already taken Aron to the brothel to reveal that Cathy is his mother, which damages Aron's view of who he thought his mother was. Cal decided to do this on his own, and I am not so sure that leaving the will to Aron would significantly do more damage. I just wish there was more inner monologue from Cathy, because I do feel like we are only getting the narrator's perspective of her, which is misleading. Obviously Cathy has committed terrible acts, but is this final act a sort of reaching for that sense of innocence that she once had? I think just making her evil is too simple. Even the reader of Paradise Lost is meant to sympathize with Satan's character in a way, even though we would not condone his behavior. Are we meant to empathize with Cathy due to her upbringing, and if so, would we then have even a remote sense of sympathy for her character looking back on this time before she became who she was?

As I have explained above, there is a small sense of redemption that can be found with Cathy. Many readers will disagree with this, which is okay. When I read Blood Meridian, there was no sense of redemption with The Judge. I find his character probably the most evil in literature, because he almost seems like a force of nature, whereas Cathy is a human being. The Judge is not simply evil either, but is made out to seem like a cosmic reality. As stated above, I think we could also find more redemption in the character of Satan from Paradise Lost, due to his human traits, than we would be able to in The Judge. Thoughts?

At the end of the novel, Cathy leaves everything to Aron. There's this whole monologue how Cathy relates to Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, making herself small so that she can escape from the cruelty of this world, depicting herself and her thought process before she became predatory/sociopathic. Initially, I read leaving her will to Aron due to recognizing an innocence in him that she once had - maybe one that she attempted to protect earlier in her life? I know that other readings of this act depict her leaving the will as a final way to drive a wedge between Cal and Adam or Cal and Aron, but Cal has already taken Aron to the brothel to reveal that Cathy is his mother, which damages Aron's view of who he thought his mother was. Cal decided to do this on his own, and I am not so sure that leaving the will to Aron would significantly do more damage. I just wish there was more inner monologue from Cathy, because I do feel like we are only getting the narrator's perspective of her, which is misleading. Obviously Cathy has committed terrible acts, but is this final act a sort of reaching for that sense of innocence that she once had? I think just making her evil is too simple. Even the reader of Paradise Lost is meant to sympathize with Satan's character in a way, even though we would not condone his behavior. In the end, Cathy is still terrible for the crimes she has committed. I do think this leaves the reader wondering not only about her development as a sociopath but also the society in which she was made. Are we meant to empathize with Cathy due to her upbringing, and if so, would we then have even a remote sense of sympathy for her character looking back on this time before she became who she was? Does this last act of giving everything to Aron emphasize Cathy looking inward on her life, recognizing the possibility that how she lived might not have been worth it?