My question about young Cathy

Ok, so I have a quick question about one of the early "stories" about Cathy, specifically the one about her and the two boys in the barn. Are we to believe that the ten year old Cathy orchestrated the sexual situation? I mean, I understand that she is not a good person... possibly evil... maybe even the devil incarnate, but this scene really did disturb me. I just want to know how other people interpreted this scene.

Genesis

So I am not sure how up to speed with the bible we all are so it might be good to try and get us all on approximately the same page. Since this is supposed to be a retelling of the book of genesis, specifically the story of Cain and Abel I thought it might be good to post some background. The following is the Wikipedia version of the bible passage in question. I don't actually have a copy of the bible in my apartment so I can't vouch for its accuracy but I think the gist is pretty much there even if the language is not strictly speaking accurate.

¹Adam knew his wife Eve intimately, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, "I have had a male child with the LORD's help."^{[28] 2}Then she also gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel became a shepherd of a flock, but Cain cultivated the land. ³In the course of time Cain presented some of the land's produce as an offering to the LORD. ⁴And Abel also presented [an offering]^[29] — some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions.^[30] The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he was downcast.^{[31] 6}Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you furious? And why are you downcast?^{[32] 7}If you do right, won't you be accepted? But if you do not do right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it." ⁸Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field."^[33] And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

– Genesis 4:1-8

I gather that this story is meant to recounted in East of Eden through Adam Trask's sons (although I haven't gotten that far yet). However it seems to also apply on some level to Adam and his brother as well. There actually seem to be many parallels to various Genesis stories. The ones I have noticed so far have to do with both brotherhood and the father son relationship. In particular the rivalry between Jacob and Esau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob) as reflected in Adam and Charles. Also the sacrifice of Isaac (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binding_of_Isaac) which is paralleled by Adam's relationship with his father.

Something that interests me is the notion of both Charles and Cathy as being scared or marked. I think this is supposed to tie in to the notion of the "mark of Cain" although I am not quite sure how all the pieces fit together as the mark of Cain is apparently controversial. The following is the bible excerpt (with interjections) from Wikipedia about the source of the mark or curse of Cain. More info can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mark_Of_Cain

"What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth." (Gen. 4:10–12)^[2]
When Cain complained that the curse was too strong, and that anyone who found him would kill him, God responded,
"Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over",^[3] and God "set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him" (Gen. 4:15).

Hopefully that is helpful. Wikipedia has a pretty good summary of all of Genesis, but it seemed a bit long to post here, so if you are interested check it out, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis.

I think this might be best for discussion once we all finish but one of the questions I have been trying to keep in mind while reading is why Steinbeck feels that it is important to re-tell this commonly known story. What lesson or value dose he feel he is imparting to his reader by telling this story?

Before I ask a question I would like to know where everyone is

Ok, I have a question for everyone, but I am not sure of two things: Has everyone read up to or passed where I am, is it an appropriate question to bring up on the blog or should I wait until we meet. I am finishing chapter 8 and I have a question regarding that chapter. Are we all at least there?