To be perfectly honest, I can’t stand the man. Cyrus, Adam Trask’s father, clearly played a huge role in shaping his son’s life and his son’s views, because he was primarily responsible for the discipline and regular life lessons of his children, as opposed to his wife who merely cared for them basics-wise.
Yes, he was there for his children as in he did what he felt was best for them (which I disagree with) and he was, I’m sure, an awe-inspiring figure to have as a father, but he lied. About everything he ever did. And maybe that was a good thing at first, just because it made him feel better about not being able to fight for more than…a few days, honestly.
But when the lies he told about being at every battle and every meeting started to become his own reality, instead of feeling badly for him, I just got angry. He created a demi-god for his sons to worship and his wife to respect, a person who did not exist. He cheated on his first wife and contracted gonorrhea, and got his leg shattered in the first battle he fought in. I wouldn’t call that at all admirable. And yet his stories became his life.
Perhaps Steinbeck considered it redeeming that Cyrus was an expert at war, and his strategy and his ideas were genius. He had a knack for all things fighting-oriented, but when it got to the point where I as the reader couldn’t tell if things happening were real or made up, it was just annoying. Adam, Cyrus’ older son, grows up revering his father, and fearing him. When he spoke of battles, maybe he was always right but it was not because he’d been there an experienced it. He studied.
It would have been less frustrating if he had at least admitted that he had hardly fought. But his lies were to keep him going as well as his family – and it seems very cowardly to have to believe your own lies instead of the real truth. I can only imagine how crushed and disappointed Adam would be if he ever learned that his father was not the war hero he claimed to be.
I have to wonder if anyone would even have believed him if he’d come out and said, “I lied. I didn’t really fight at every single battle in the Civil War, my stories aren’t true.” But he didn’t, because he probably didn’t even realize that he was lying. I find it disgusting and not at all admirable. He seems like a horrible person – and then that’s not even talking about the way he treated his second wife, Alice. She was good in his eyes only for housework and maintenance. He dealt with the discipline, the raising of the children. He really only wanted her because he wanted someone to take care of Adam – as in, meet the basic needs and make sure he had food and stayed clean.
Some father he was.
There was one part in the book that I’ve read so far that redeemed him some as a person – and that is the conversation he has with Adam about life and why he wants Adam to become a soldier so badly, on page 27.
You asked a question. I guess I’ll have to answer. Maybe it’s good and maybe it’s bad to answer it. You’re not clever. You don’t know what you want. You have no proper fierceness. You let other people walk over you. Sometimes I think you’re a weakling who will never amount to a dog turd. Does that answer your question? I love you better. I always have. This may be a bad thing to tell you, but it’s true. I love you better. Else why would I have given myself the trouble of hurting you? Now shut your mouth and go to your supper.
It is a long conversation between the pair of them about life and why certain things have to happen. I sort of expected Cyrus to come out and say that he had lied, but he didn’t. It was to that respect not redeeming but I did admire the way he spoke to his son.
Of course later on that gets Adam beat up by his brother, Charles, who is very jealous. But even Cyrus’ reaction to that is good – he wants to kill Charles, and would if he found him before his rage died down. It is because of this that Adam becomes even more the loved son. I guess in the end Cyrus was a good father, if not a good man. I still do not like him, though. And I don’t think that’s going to change.
Comment if you disagree.
