"Sexuality with all its longings and pains, jealousies and taboos, is the most disturbing impulse human beings have" (Steinbeck 75). For Cathy Ames, a seductive and charismatic sociopath, sexuality and the vulnerability that accompanies it are the greatest downfall of human beings. He discovers that the key to controlling someone is through such impulses. At the age of ten he takes advantage of two boys through their sexuality, then frames them to get what he wants. This behavior continues for the rest of her life, as she spends most of her time in various brothels manipulating the owners until it is clear that she is truly running the establishment. Cathy feels so comfortable in a brothel, a place where she controls people through their sexuality, because she herself has no weakness towards such impulses, and therefore uses everyone else's vulnerability to gain control. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay At a young age, Cathy Ames realizes the power she has over other people through their sexuality and how she can exploit such vulnerability to take advantage of them. The first example of this behavior is when he deceives two boys at the age of ten. While looking for her daughter, Cathy's mother hears giggling coming from the carriage house. Upon entering, he saw that "Cathy was lying on the floor, with her skirts pulled up. She was naked to the waist, and next to her two boys of about fourteen were kneeling" and "Cathy's wrists were bound with heavy rope" (Steinbeck 76 ). Cathy's mother is horrified; but the reader knows that this accident is clearly Cathy's doing. When the families gather about what happened, the kids have a defense that seems ridiculous: "Cathy, they said, started it all, and they gave her five cents each. They didn't tie her hands. They said she remembered playing with a rope" (Steinbeck 77). To this defense, Cathy's father responds: "Do they really mean that she tied her hands? A ten-year-old girl?" (Steinbeck 77). Mr. Ames' investigation serves as a rhetorical question for the reader, highlighting the irony of the situation. He asks this question, of course, to make an idea seem completely silly. However, the reader has better insight into Cathy's personality than her father and knows that Cathy likely manipulated and framed the boys using her newly discovered sexuality. Cathy's reasoning for doing such a thing becomes evident in the tone that Steinbeck takes towards her character: he believes that she is pure evil and everything she does is solely to benefit herself. For Cathy, this event served as an experiment. The reader is unaware of what exactly Cathy says to the boys, but it is obvious that she wanted to do what she wanted with them and knew how to get it. From a young age he knows he can control people, but he uses this event and people's reactions to it to judge exactly how far he can go. When the boys are "whipped to pieces" and Cathy gets attention and sympathy, it becomes clear to her - as well as the reader - exactly how much power she has and how dangerous she will become in the future (Steinbeck 77). As an adult, Cathy takes advantage of Mr. Edwards for the first time, a married man whose livelihood comes from owning a brothel. From the day she meets him, Cathy plans to get everything she wants from him, then proceeds to achieve this goal by using her feigned innocence and feminine charm to make him fall in love with her: "He rented a sweet little brick house for her and then he gave it to her. He bought her every luxuryimaginable, she over-decorated the house, kept it too warm, and the walls were crowded with heavy framed pictures" (Steinbeck 93). Cathy has once again used her seductive mystique to gain control of the situation. She maintains that control in the bedroom : “She convinced him that the result was not entirely satisfactory for her, that if he were a better man he could unleash a wave of incredible reactions in her 'approaching with a mad and punishing rage, she sat on his lap and calmed him and made him believe for a moment in his innocence. She could convince him” (Steinbeck 94) Steinbeck makes it clear that Cathy knows exactly what she is doing and to what extent she will push herself to control a man so “hopelessly, miserably in love” with her (Steinbeck 93 The more “unbalanced” Mr. Edwards becomes, the more stable Cathy becomes and this stability leads to control. As long as it remains unreachable, it maintains this control. According to Sherry Argov, author of Why Men Love Bitches: “A woman is perceived as mentally challenging to the extent that a man does not feel he has 100% control over her. . . Sometimes it is available; other times it isn't. But she's cute. Nice enough, that is, to consider his preferences for when he would like to see her so that she can sometimes accommodate them. Translation? No 100% seal” (5). Cathy Ames does just this with Mr. Edwards to ensure control of their relationship: "It gave him an impression of restlessness, as if he might take flight at any moment. When she knew he was going to visit her, she decided of going out and coming in radiant as if from an incredible experience" (Steinbeck 94). Cathy realizes that every time she does something like this, she never fully satisfies Mr. Edwards and he falls in love with her even more because she is so elusive. As he becomes more affected, he becomes equally submissive, losing all his dignity. Cathy knows exactly what to say to put Mr. Edwards in this state. For example: "When she returned in the late afternoon and found him waiting for her, she explained to him: 'Why, I was shopping. I have to go shopping, you know.' And she made it sound like a lie” (Steinbeck 94). Cathy's sexuality and seductive charm give her control of every situation and give her power over anyone. The second brothel owner Cathy takes advantage of is Faye, a woman in her sixties who also falls under the spell of Kate, the new name Cathy takes on. when he starts working at Faye's. Like Mr. Edwards, Faye finds herself seduced by Kate's sweet, unpretentious nature: "Faye, the essence of motherhood, began to think of Kate as her daughter. She felt it in her breasts and in her emotions, and her natural morality took hold. He didn't want his daughter to be a whore. It was a perfectly reasonable sequence" (Steinbeck 223). Kate essentially seduces Faye into treating her much better than she treats the other girls at home. Faye is happy to take Kate under her wing because Kate knows, as she did with Mr. Edwards and the two boys in the shed, exactly what to say to appear innocent and adorable and thus get what she wants. When Faye asks about Kate's choice to dye her hair from blonde to black, Kate is "very clever. She [tells] the best lie of all: the truth" (Steinbeck 226). By mixing the truth with all her lies, Kate makes everything seem believable, and therefore no one doubts what she says. When he has everyone's trust in such a powerful way, he will be able to get what he wants. What Kate wants from Faye is her fortune, as Faye has accumulated a lot of wealth by owning a successful brothel for many years. As soon as Faye, 1992.