Curse and Mark of Cain - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

• In John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden, Charles' scar on his forehead is allegorical of the "mark of Cain".
• In the musical Children of Eden, the mark of Cain is the revolving element of the show.
• Hermann Hesse uses the Mark of Cain as a motif in his novel Demian, where it symbolizes a person seeking his true self.
• The Mark of Cain is a British television film broadcast in 2007.
• Karl Edward Wagner's character Kane is described as one of the first humans, cursed to immortality and wandering after murdering his brother Abel, and to be immediately recognizable by his "murderer's eyes."
• In the Indigo Girls song "Become You" by Amy Ray, the mark of Cain is compared to Southerners' legacy of injustice and the Confederacy
• In White Wolf's role-playing game series Vampire: the Masquerade, the curse of Cain (spelled Caine) is that of vampirism.
• Neil Gaiman's The Sandman includes the character Cain directly as well as Abel (whom Cain repeatedly kills and who is in turn repeatedly resurrected) as inhabitants of the dream lord's realm. Cain is sent as a messenger to hell in Season of Mists as Lucifer will not kill him due to the mark, which is here a small black circle on his forehead, lest he suffers God's punishment.
• In the Final Crisis event Cain is reborn on Earth in the body of the immortal villain Vandal Savage, sporting a tattoo-like mark covering his whole face.
• In the Spider-Man comics, Kaine, a flawed clone of Peter Parker, can burn others with the palm of his hand, leaving what is dubbed the Mark of Kaine.