Catcher In The Rye Free Will Analysis

Throughout the story major characters demonstrate free will by either choosing the path of good or evil. Known as the force of evil in the story, Cathy/Kate chooses her path of evil by exposing Steinbeck’s belief of free will. Her selfish human desire, leads her to continually choose evil over good. Constantly taking advantage of others to benefit herself, Cathy knows what she has done wrong but continues on her path of destruction of others. The qualities of lying and deceit are exhibited from Cathy at a very young age. Cathy was playing with two boys when she tied her own hands and pretended to be raped. The two boys said that it had been Cathy’s idea: “Cathy, they said, had started the whole thing, and they had each given her give cents. They had not tied her hands. They said they …show more content…
Her human desire for attention takes control, as she becomes the talk of the town. This experience is her first time acting out evil. She is beginning her transformation from innocent kid to one full of evil. Though Cathy understands its wrong, in her own twisted mind she continues to act with villainous intentions. Another incident from her childhood showing her evil intentions is when Cathy burns down her house with her parents inside and pretends to die inside with them. To decrease suspicion of it being her who did it she decides to rob her house: “If it had not had not been for murder, fire, and robbery, might have been a coincidence.” (Steinbeck 87). Cathy is smart enough to rob her house so that it does not look like an inside job when the townspeople do not find her body. She is a mastermind who decides to kill her parents and frame it on a robber who is non-existent. The killing of her parents shows her free will to want to be independent without her parents telling her what to do. She uses her free will to cut her ties with her family members. This shows the rebirth of Cathy in her true evil