“It doesn't matter that Cathy was what I have called a monster. Perhaps we can't understand Cathy, but on the other hand we are capable of many things in many directions, of great virtues and great sins. And who in his mind has not probed the black water?”
– John Steinbeck,
East of Eden, Chap. 13, 1952 

Water, as I mentioned in a previous rabbit hole, is often used as a symbol of the unconscious mind. – RHW

“It is as though the words were not only indelible but that they spread out like dye in water and color everything around them. A strange and mystic business, writing.”
– John Steinbeck,
Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters      

James Dean got his big break when he was chosen to play Cal Trask in the film adaptation of Steinbeck's East of Eden. This was the only film of James Dean that was released before his death. Giant and Rebel Without a Cause were released after he died.