How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Monsters are variations from the accepted normal to a greater or a less degree. As a child may be born without an arm, so one may be born without kindness or the potential of conscience. (8.1.3)
First of all, Steinbeck, it's not cool to call people born without arms monsters. We guess though, that his bigger point here is that some people are missing the kindness gene—Cathy, from this perspective, is inexplicably evil. It's not like she had an unhappy childhood, or was bullied on the playground, or that her parents didn't give her enough hugs. Cathy's evil is a very abstract evil, and she embodies the idea of evil, as opposed to just doing some evil deeds every now and again. This implies that evil itself can exist in the world without necessarily having a reason for existing in the first place.
Quote #2
Maybe we all have in us a secret pond where evil and ugly things germinate and grow strong. But this culture is fenced, and the swimming brood climbs up only to fall back. Might it not be that in the dark pools of some men the evil grows strong enough to wriggle over the fence and swim free? (13.2.3)
Hey, says Steinbeck, don't judge. He thinks that we all have the capacity for evil and evil instincts within us, and the only difference between good and bad people is that the bad people let 'em loose. So Cathy might be missing that fence that keeps human evil at bay, but it doesn't necessarily mean that other people are devoid of the same evil.
Quote #3
Cathy was chewing a piece of meat, chewing with her front teeth. Samuel had never seen anyone chew that way before. And when she had swallowed, her little tongue flicked around her lips. Samuel's mind repeated, "Something—something—can't find what it is. Something wrong," and the silence hung on the table. (15.4.22)
Hm, what other thing flicks its tongue? Oh that's right, it's a snake. And by snake, we mean Satan. With a character named Adam and all this talk of Eden floating around, this snake-imagery makes total sense. (Remember that bit from Genesis about a cunning serpent getting Eve to introduce evil into the world? Yeah—this is that.) This is Steinbeck telling us that Cathy isn't just run-of-the-mill evil: she is Original Recipe Evil. Samuel's instincts are spot-on.