By Rowen Sullivan, Staff Writer
The long awaited Netflix rendition of John Steinbeck’s classic novel, East of Eden, has finally been released.
As with all adaptations, it is impossible to do justice to a novel that spans over fifty years in seven one hour episodes. However, with only a few exceptions, the first three episodes of the Netflix series have been faithful to Steinbeck’s original.
Using the biblical story of Cain and Abel, Steinbeck tells a sisyphean tale of fathers and sons seemingly unable to do anything other than repeat the same mistakes over and over. Set in the agrarian Salinas valley of California, East of Eden follows two families, the Hamiltons and Trasks, over multiple generations and across the country.
Two brothers, Adam and Charles Trask, struggle to navigate their relationship of deeply embedded jealousy and familial love, until they are torn apart by the appearance of a bloodied and helpless woman at their door.
Cathy Ames, written by Steinbeck as a “monster,” uses Adam as protection against her past, moving with him to California as his wife and giving birth to twin sons. When Cathy abandons Adam and their sons to gain her own independence, Adam is forced to raise the boys, Aron and Caleb, without their mother. Fortunately, Adam is guided by the tutelage of his quiet and philosophical servant, Lee, and his wise Irish neighbor Samuel Hamilton.
Despite the enduring love shown to them by Lee, the twin boys inevitably struggle with the same vices that their father and his brother did. Towards the end of the novel, Caleb is faced with the ugly truth of his mother’s character, and the choice to either accept that he will follow in her footsteps or give every last breath to becoming better than she was.
Although the novel was written almost 75 years ago, East of Eden is still discussed today because of its artful telling of unlikely love, cyclical damnation, and the age-old question: is free will actually real?
Zoe Kazan is the creator and executive producer of the 2026 East of Eden Netflix adaptation. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kazan reveals that she feels a “familial connection to the material,” not only because her grandfather, Elia Kazan, directed the 1955 East of Eden film, but also because she first read the novel when she was 15 years old and has always dreamed of putting her own spin on it while honoring Steinbeck’s original.
When writing the script, Kazan made the controversial decision of making Cathy Ames the center of the show. Kazan said, “When you’re talking about adapting something, you have to find the dramatic engine. And Cathy is the plot generator in this book” because “she’s the person that creates problems.” In the adaptation, Cathy’s psychopathic and destructive character takes prominence over other nuanced themes that are purposefully described in Steinbeck’s novel: the friendship formed between Samuel and Lee, the decisions Caleb makes to differentiate himself from his mother, and the constant allusion to the Cain and Abel story.
The show frames Cathy’s behavior as a product of assault when she was young, however, Steinbeck made clear: “It is my belief that Cathy Ames was born with the tendencies, or lack of them, which drove and forced her all of her life…She was not like other people, never was from birth.” Kazan admits that “given [her] own life experience, [she] cannot help but read” sexual assault into Cathy’s history. While it is a natural response for a person to insert themselves into the story they are reading, this particular change alters one of Steinbeck’s main purposes concerning Cathy: to analyze psychopathic behavior and question whether it is genetic.
This distinction between inherent evil, stated in the book, and unhealed trauma, described in the show, as Cathy’s motivation is essential to understanding Steinbeck’s message as a whole. His novel is about freewill and a person’s ability to choose who they are despite expectations and lineage.
Steinbeck posits that cycles can be broken and each person’s mistakes are their own, not determined by anyone but themselves. When Adam expresses fear that his sons will inherit their mother’s evil character, Lee cautions him, “Not their blood, but your suspicion of them might build evil in them. They will be what you expect of them.”
Adapting any classic novel, let alone East of Eden, is a tall order. Zoe Kazan has given this adaptation careful attention and has done well by Steinbeck’s original, portraying the character’s inner conflicts, social ostracization, and biblical lessons with nuance as well as visual beauty. And yet, as everyone knows, the book is always better than the movie.