Not only is intertextuality relevant to intertwining different disciplines, but it is also very important inside certain subjects themselves. Specifically to English, intertextuality can help gain a better understanding of the various authors’ messages or themes. One simple tool that can be used to compare novels is characterization. Just by addressing the similarities or differences in characters between novels, the reader can better interpret the characters by enhancing their observations of the character’s strengths and their flaws. In Jean Toomer’s Cane and John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, two characters, Karintha and Cathy Ames, are both very similar; through their similarities, the readers have an enhanced understanding of their vivid personalities.
One comparable trait that the two young ladies display to others is their beauty. They both are described as having very admirable physical features, and are looked upon by men often. Karintha is described as, “…carrying beauty, perfect as dusk when the sun goes down” (Toomer 3). Cathy is observed as just as lovely; “As though nature concealed a trap, Cathy had from the first a face of innocence. Her hair was gold and lovely; wide-set hazel eyes with upper lids that drooped made her look mysteriously sleepy. Her nose was delicate and thin, and her cheekbones high and wide, sweeping down to a small chin so that her face was heart-shaped” (Steinbeck 74). But their beauty also can cause them trouble. The readers know that Karintha was torn from her innocence much sooner than she should’ve been when they read, “This interest of the male, who wishes to ripen a growing thing too soon, could mean no good to her” (Toomer 3). This abrupt lack of innocence torn too soon embedded in Karintha could be part of the reason why she grew to become so cold hearted. Although for Cathy, she used this common trait of uncontrollable sexuality to her advantage. For example, “At ten Cathy knew something of the power of the sex impulse and began coldly to experiment with it. She planned everything coldly, foreseeing difficulties and preparing for them” (Steinbeck 74). Cathy started to use sex and manipulation at a very young age to get what she wanted, which in turn also caused her to become even more cruel in the future. Karintha and Cathy have everlasting beauty; although this trait is positive for them personally, it creates a naive blindness in the people around them.
The two ladies cruel and callous personalities are also all the more inhumane when looked at in comparison with one another. With their hateful acts also comes the forgiveness and blindness of the people who surround them. Those around them could never see past the outer beauty that each girl holds, thus making them seem all the more innocent when horrible acts happen because of them. In Cane, Karintha “…stoned the cows, and beat her dog, and fought the other children… Even the preacher, who caught her at mischief, told himself that she was as innocently lovely as a November cotton flower” (Toomer 4). Not only did Karintha exhibit vicious traits, but so did Cathy. She engendered many horrible acts throughout the entirety of the novel, but at a young age she decided to burn down the home of her parents, with them possibly inside, in order to gain her own personal freedom. Steinbeck writes, “Cathy worked quickly but without hurry. She put on an old apron to cover her clothes… In the chicken yard she caught a little pullet, took it to the block and chopped its head off, and held the writhing neck over the jelly jar until it was half full of blood. Then she carried the quivering pullet to the manure pile and buried it deep. Back in the kitchen she took off the apron and put it in the stove and poked the coals until a flame sprang up on the cloth… Cathy walked lightly, almost dancingly around the house and into the street… The fire broke out at about three o’clock in the morning” (Steinbeck 85) to display her lack of guilt and regular human emotions after committing a violent act emphasizes her wickedness. Although extremely horrifying, these deeds are not the end of the ladies awful trail of destruction.
Another similarity between the lives of these two women is their mutual pregnancies and their want to be rid of the babies. In East of Eden, Cathy became pregnant with twins. When she gained the knowledge that she was pregnant, she tried to kill them both by attempting self abortion. She had no need nor want for children. She acted as if she had a complete lack of love towards the two boys, which is displayed further when she decides to abandon them shortly after their birth. In Cane there are indications that Karintha killed her child after she birthed it; “Karintha is a woman, and she has had a child. A child fell out of her womb onto a bed of pine-needles in the forest… Meanwhile, the smoke curls up and hangs in odd wraiths about the trees, curls up, and spreads itself over the valley… Weeks after Karintha returned home the smoke was so heavy you tasted it in the water” (Toomer 4-5). The second ellipses can give an interpretation to the reader that Karintha killed her first born child because of the imagery of burning pine needles that Toomer uses to describe the scene. Additionally, the ellipse provides a sense of mystery and a sense of something unknown, which most readers would interpret to be the death of the child. Although it could be argued that Karintha killed her child out of less malicious reasons than Cathy, that the child could have been born to her out of rape, it still does not lesson the clearly merciless act she committed by murdering her own child.
The quote,“There was a time when a girl like Cathy would have been called possessed by the devil. She would have been exorcised to cast out the evil spirit, and if after many trials that did not work, she would have been burned as a witch for the good of the community” (Steinbeck 72) displays the evil that the readers were supposed to think of when they thought of Cathy Ames. I think that possibly, although arguably less malicious, Karintha could be looked at in the same way. By reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck before Cane, I was able to gain a much better understanding of Karintha by seeing her through similarities displayed in Cathy. The intertextual relationship between these two characters allows readers to better understand their personalities and actions, which eventually will lead to a better interpretations of the two different works as a whole.