Characters


 * Character List**
 * The Trask Family**
 * Cyrus Trask** - Father of Adam and Charles. A war veteran, he uses military values and strict training to prepare his sons for the army. Cyrus’s wife died while Adam was young and he remarried to Alice.


 * Mrs. Trask** – Cyrus’s first wife. The mother of Adam who contracted syphilis from Cyrus and kills herself.


 * Alice Trask** - The second wife of Cyrus and the mother of Charles. She is quiet and scared of Cyrus. Alice dies while Adam is away at war.


 * Adam Trask** - The son of Cyrus and Mrs. Trask. At first he falls in love with Cathy Ames, the most disturbed character of the book. Cathy takes advantage of Adam's love and creates a binding hold on his life. When she leaves, he lives a purposeless life until Samuel and Lee decide to intervene and bring him out of his depression. Adam tries his best to raise his sons, he is a fair, hardworking man.


 * Charles Trask** - The second son of Cyrus. Charles was a violent and disturbed character that is envious of Adam and takes out his aggression on him. He worked on his father’s farm at a young age his and slowly his hate and jealousy for his brother started to deteriorate. However, even with his hate for Adam he misses him in his absence. In a biblical sense Charles takes on the role of Cain who displays anger and envy.


 * Aron Trask** - The twin brother of Cal and son of Adam and Cathy. Aron is honest and hardworking; he follows the ideals of his father. Aron uses the church as an escape from the pains of society and plays the role of Abel.


 * Caleb Trask** - Twin brother of Aron and son of Adam and Cathy. Cal is jealous of his brother who is clearly smart and well liked. Aron had stronger moral values, which made him stand out amongst the twins. He learns about Cathy’s destructive past and fears he is constrained to the same behaviors. Out of jealousy and spurred hatred he takes Aron to see their mother and meet her for the first time, and Aron subsequently goes to war and dies, leaving Caleb to feel extreme guilt, until his father 'sets him free'.


 * The Hamilton Family**
 * Samuel Hamilton** - Head of Hamilton family. Although never rich, he lived a happy life and was well respected throughout the community. Samuel was known as a great handyman and often the doctor for many families within the Salinas Valley. Samuel never asked for money from anyone and acquired a heavy debt because of his ability to trust people too easily. He moved his family from Ireland to the Salinas Valley in California. He developed a close friendship with Lee and Adam Trask.


 * Liza Hamilton** - Mother of 9 children and wife of Samuel. Liza is morally based and has strict values that she instills wishes to instill in her children.


 * Will Hamilton** - Son of Samuel and Liza. He becomes a successful businessman however; the business dealings cause him to become isolated from the Salinas Valley community and also his family.


 * Tom Hamilton** - Son of Samuel and Liza. In contrast of his brother Will, Tom is passionate and an outstanding member of the community. He blamed the death of his sister on himself and commits suicide due to his tremendous guilt.


 * Dessie Hamilton** - Daughter of Samuel and Liza Hamilton. She has a dressmaking shop, but is crippled by stomach pains when she visits her brother Tom. Tom gives her salts to help ease the pain but only makes it worse and in the end she dies from her illness.


 * Other Characters**
 * Cathy Ames, a.k.a. Kate**- The wife of Adam Trask who lived a troubled life from a young age. After murdering her parents she becomes a prostitute. She leaves the business when she marries Adam. After giving birth to twins she shoots Adam in order to escape, and then return to prostitution. She takes over a whorehouse where she previously worked and takes photographs of powerful men that are her customers in order to have the power to blackmail them. Her manipulative ways allow her to run a successful business but lead her into a foreseen fate.


 * Lee** – Educated housekeeper of Adam and son of Chinese immigrants, Lee acts as an outside voice in the family’s issues. He is very intellectual and he often advices Adam and his sons on many decisions.


 * Abra Bacon** - The daughter of a corrupt government official, Abra falls in love with Aron. After Aron retreats to the church, to run from the worlds problems, she leaves him. Abra then falls for Cal and spends a lot of time at the Trask house, becoming very close with Lee. It is during this time she learns that she can choose her own moral direction.


 * Faye** - The head of the whorehouse where Cathy works. She and Cathy grow very close and she writes a will in which she gives everything to Cathy, who then poisons Faye over time and eventually kills her because she feels trapped.


 * Ethel** - A prostitute who learns of Cathy’s murder of Faye. Ethel tries to blackmail Cathy, in order to force Cathy to help her escape trouble in the town, but is found dead soon after.


 * Joe Valery** - A bouncer at Cathy’s whorehouse who tries to beat Cathy at her own deceitful game, by tricking Cathy into thinking that he has information about Ethel in order for Cathy to pay him, however, he knows that Ethel is dead.