John Steinbeck uses the theme of evil throughout East of Eden. This theme is presented through a few characters in the book, mainly Charles Trask and Cathy Ames. Both characters posses evil within and also have no problem showing their malicious ways. Although Cathy's diabolism is that from a more profound source of evil, while Charles' evil is more lucid, both characters have devilish qualities that Steinbeck emphasizes throughout the novel.
             Charles' evil is first seen in chapter 3. Charles beats Adam because Adam was victorious in a game of peewee. Later on in chapter 3 Charles hits Adam again because he is jealous of the affection Cyrus gives to Adam. When Adam and Charles take a walk at night, Charles comes along simply so he can beat Adam again. Adam tells Charles that Cyrus and him were talking about the army Charles got angry and called Adam a liar and then said "Your crazy mother drowned herself. Maybe she took a look at you. That'd do it" (29). There was no reason for Charles to say such a heinous comment to Adam. They were talking about Cyrus' conversation with Adam; it had nothing to do with the comment made by Charles. The reason Charles said it is because he just trying to make Adam feel bad in anyway possible. Not only was what Charles said horrible it was evil. Telling Adam that the reason his mother killed herself was because she looked at him, is a vicious thing to say to your brother. Charles beating on his brother was evil that came from jealousy. Jealousy is also a form of evil because when one is so envious of another person's life, and his brother at that, to the point where it leads to violent acts towards that person, then jealousy is evil. Charles obviously is jealous of Adam and his relationship with his father and the attention he gets, it is seen it in his actions and words towards Adam. Charles' evil ways are similar to the actions of another evil character, ...