Adam Trask

Character Analysis

Adam is the first man. Duh. Okay okay, he's actually the main character of East of Eden, but we're also partially serious. Being the son of Cyrus, he has to play the Adam role; being the brother of Charles, he also has to play the Abel role; being the father of Cal and Aron, he also has to play the God role. Talk about expectations. But Adam the character has some set characteristics too: he's resentful of his authoritarian father, he's not very good at taking care of himself or anybody else, and he tends to see the world as he wants to see it. Also, somebody should really throw the guy a parenting handbook.

Innocent as Adam

Adam is naïve-with-a-capital-N. After all, you wouldn't expect the world's first man to be very, well, worldly. You know how in Genesis Adam  and Eve start out naked in the Garden of Eden? That's because they are too innocent to realize that walking around naked is, well, weird. Despite the fact that Adam has travelled the world and seen many things, he still manages to get the wool pulled over his eyes time and again—or rather, no one pulls the wool over his eyes so much as he pulls it over his own eyes. Ladies and gentleman of the jury, let us present:

Exhibit A: When Adam sets eyes on his Eve (Cathy, who is really more of an anti-Eve), there is no convincing him that she's actually a manipulative whore. We're told, "nothing Cathy did or said could warp Adam's Cathy" (13.2.4). And boy does she play him for a fool. She even tells him outright that she plans to peace out as soon as she can, but does Adam listen? No.

Exhibit B: Adam is convinced that Aron is the greatest thing since sliced bread. He thinks that Aron's a smart college boy, when in reality it hurts Aron's brain to think about things that aren't just black or white. Also, Aron is just as resentful of Adam's meddling parenting as Adam was of his own father's.

Exhibit C: If Adam didn't have Lee to take care of him he would probably forget to eat or accidentally set himself on fire or something. Raising two kids is pretty much out of the question—it takes Samuel Hamilton beating him up just to get them named. Adam is more than just innocent, though: Adam is a man-child. Like Lee says to Cal, Adam in his simplicity can only behave one way:

"He couldn't help it, Cal. That's his nature. It was the only way he knew. He didn't have any choice." (49.3.76)

Yeah, complexity isn't exactly Adam's thing. We should actually come to accept this from a character who is allegorically based on the biblical Adam; after all, he was born yesterday, and he knows nothing about evil until Eve comes along and decides that apples are the greatest things ever. Think of him as the beta-version of a person: stumbling along, making mistakes (sometimes major ones), and not immediately learning from his errors. Hey, we all have to start somewhere.

A is also for Abel

You could say that Adam unwittingly starts all of the drama by being Number #1 Son. Now, he doesn't want to be his dad's favorite, and in fact, he can't figure out for the life of him why Cyrus would pick him over his tough, athletic brother. Cyrus doesn't know why either:

"You're not clever. You don't know what you want. You have no proper fierceness. You let other people walk over you. Sometimes I think you're a weakling who will never amount to a dog turd. Does that answer your question? I love you better." (3.3.31)

Call it bad luck, but Adam is stuck being his dad's favorite. The point is, Adam doesn't ask for Cyrus's favoritism, and he certainly doesn't want his brother's jealousy either. But Charles sees Adam as the thing standing in between him and his dad's love.

Now we're about to get biblical. In Genesis, Cain murders Abel because God likes Abel's offering better than he likes Cain's. It's not that Abel was a jerk or anything like that; it's that Cain's rage is misdirected as jealousy towards his brother. Adam, in this case, is an unwitting victim just like Abel. But there is one teensy problem: Cain is supposed to kill Abel. Charles doesn't kill Adam, though, and that means we're in for some unfinished business.

So the Cain and Abel boss battle gets pushed to the next generation of Trask brothers, and Adam stops being Abel so that he can focus instead on being Adam.