Adam and Faye both desire to fill a void inside of themselves and attempt to use Cathy to fill it. Adam comes home from the war unable to settle himself and stay in one place due to his haunting past. That is until he meets Cathy and marries her. He moves once more trying to leave his past behind him and start new with Cathy and begin a family together. His mind allows his to create the illusion of happiness and wholesomeness with Cathy because he wants it to be there so bad that he fabricates it. Cathy even bluntly tells Adam that "(she) didn't want to come here. I am not going to stay here. As soon as I can I will go away"(pg. 175). He even allows himself to think that Cathy will not leave him even when she tells him so herself. He is blinded by his love for her and thinks that he will be able to get her to stay with him. Meanwhile, Faye sees Cathy as the daughter she never had and sees her as an opportunity to create a small family that she does not have. She even takes Cathy in and asks her to be her daughter. Faye is haunted by a past that she ran away from many years ago, and begins to create a new one for herself with Cathy. She even suggests that they run away and move to Europe and start over. Here it shows how Faye wants to settle down with Cathy and start all over just as Adam tried. Faye also like Adam has a deep need to care for people. She has her whorehouse where she brings in girls who are running from something and shelters them and so she sees Cathy as another person she can devote her time to. Adam cares for people during the war to soothe himself from all of the death and he too sees Cathy as another person he can take care of.
Regarding Cathy, the narrator says: “Who knows but that she
tried to tell someone or everyone what she was like, and could not for the lack
of a common language.” Both Lee and Samuel know upon meeting her “what she is
like”. So does Charles. What qualities in Cathy are transparent to those that
care to notice?
Samuel noticed Cathy’s eyes when he
first met her. He noted that “the eyes were flat and the mouth with its small
up-curve at the corners was carven”(pg 173). Instead of Cathy having emotion in
her eyes she just simply looked spaced out and as if she was not there. When
they are sitting down eating he also describes “chewing with her front
teeth…and when she swallowed, her little tongue flicked around her lips”(173).
During her birth both Lee and Samuel noted that there was something animal like
with Cathy. They all also notice the scar on her forehead and see it as something ominous. Although, Samuel and Lee both see something foreign in Cathy Charles recognizes something familiar in her and knows that she is no good. They all notice her animal like features and see that there is something foreign and not human like in her. Her scar on her forehead also brings about suspicion especially how it changes colors.
Is Adam's despondence after Cathy leaves him authentic greif? Or does he get masochistic pleasure from it, as Samuel suggests? What does it say about Adam that he, too, rejects his infant sons for more than a year, ignoring them, not bothering even to name them? If Adam is an "A" charactwe, and thus "good" is that convincing? Appealing?
Adam's response to Cathy leaving him is a "pity party". He sits and feels bad about himseld and thinks only of negative thoughts. He neglects his children, following in his father's footsteps, because he sees them as a reminder of his loss and a punishment instead of seeing them as a blessing. He wants to wallow and drown in his sorrow rather than starting over and overcoming his pain. It is more laziness than anything; he does not want to fight and mend his broken heart and take care of his children which is why Lee takes over. It is virtually imposstoible for a person to be all good. The reader can tell that he still is a good person and he just hit a bump in the road. When he is compared to Cathy the reader can definitely tell that Adam is good. Ultimamitely able to snap out of his funk and take care of his repsonsibilites and thus proving that he is good.
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