The Truth About East of Eden
The Bibliofilles
Sophie and Chaya dissect the controversy surrounding Netflix's adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden, focusing on the show's sympathetic reinterpretation of Cathy Ames. They contrast this
Key takeaways
- Netflix reimagines Cathy Ames as a trauma-driven survivor with a sympathetic backstory, directly contradicting Steinbeck's explicit text which describes her as an inherent 'monster' born evil.
- Steinbeck anchored the novel's philosophical core on the Hebrew word Timshel (or Timshol), deliberately interpreting it to mean 'you may conquer' rather than 'thou shalt,' emphasizing human agency over predestination.
Main topics
- East of Eden book vs Netflix adaptation
- Cathy Ames character reinterpretation
Notable quotes
"It literally says on page 89... can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The fact is Steinbeck here is acknowledging that you can be born bad. Fact."
Conclusion
The episode serves as a compelling defense of Steinbeck's original thematic intent while
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) Steinbeck was open to interpretation, but I really wonder how he would have felt about this interpretation of Cathy. I Speaker 1 (0:09) actually don't think he would have been okay with it. I wasn't seething, but I was like, this is Speaker 2 (0:14) going to really anger people. That is not what happened. I don't know anybody. who's read this, who would interpret it in that way. Speaker 1 (0:24) Some see her solely as an evil monster. LA Times, Angel, no offence. Steinbeck, who wrote this, specifically calls her that. So not some, everyone. Speaker 2 (0:41) Hello and welcome back to the BibliaFills. I'm Sophie. And I'm Chaya. And boy, do we have a good episode for you today. But before we get into it, I'd just like to say on behalf of both of us, thank you so much for making the time to join us here today. As ever, we really do appreciate it. Now, Speaker 1 (0:57) back to business. What an episode. And why do we say what an episode? Because we are going to be talking about what I think is going to be... the cultural discussion for at least the next two weeks. I thought you were going to Speaker 2 (1:10) say two years and I was going to agree. I feel it's because we have been so consumed by this novel. And I know there have been novels in the past where we felt that they've slightly taken over our lives. But for me, this one has been on a different level. I literally feel like I've been swimming in an ocean of East of Eden. Speaker 1 (1:30) And... Why we've been doing that. I mean, when Sophie says that, and you might think, okay, that's hypeable. She has been in email correspondence with the Steinbeck Centre, with an archivist at the Betty Guy Foundation. Yes, Speaker 2 (1:43) so Betty Guy, there's actually more on Betty Guy in our Falling Further, East of Eden companion. I don't want to give too much away, but she was an artist who was... very closely involved with the Steinbecks. And it's a fascinating, fascinating story. But yes, I have been in pretty regular email correspondence with the wonderful Lisa at the Steinbeck Centre in Salinas. I mean, it's quite insane. But when we go, we go hard. And that's the truth. Speaker 1 (2:10) And that's why we get on so well, because we're both absolutely obsessive. Speaker 2 (2:14) Deranged. Speaker 1 (2:15) And we wanted to create a literary companion to this. novel which is constantly called the great american classic i'm just Speaker 2 (2:25) looking at yours versus mine so i took mine on holiday and and it suffered but i like to think we suffered together in our like as in yes it was it was emotional yours looks very nice well because Speaker 1 (2:37) i've bought a new i bought a new one for for our research i have a battered old one but if you're here and you're thinking what's going on so east of eden by john steinbeck who is a Nobel award-winning and Pulitzer award-winning author. Yeah, Speaker 2 (2:53) he's the legend of the arts, isn't he? I mean, he's considered one of the greatest American writers. Speaker 1 (2:59) He is back in everyone's minds because Netflix adapted East of Eden and it came out at 8am yesterday on Thursday the 1st of October. Speaker 2 (3:11) I've squeezed in two episodes because we were hard at work on getting our literary companion out. And I had other things to do in life. I get a message from my learned friend to my left currently. And it was at 5.30 in the morning. Yeah. Informing me that she had watched the entire series. And they are long episodes. They're almost an hour each. I don't know how she does it. I actually don't know what's wrong with you, but I love you so very much. You are a legend. You need to go to bed after we've recorded today. And still, you look fantastic. Thank you. You're so kind. Speaker 1 (3:46) And yesterday I wasn't watching it. I was in Chessington World of Adventures, a theme park with my children. We then went to Brighton for dinner. So I literally... Speaker 2 (3:54) I Speaker 1 (3:54) love that. We only walked in at 9pm. And yet you watched all of that. I did watch a tiny bit of it in the car. I've Speaker 2 (4:01) watched two and I... Speaker 1 (4:03) Not with the kids Speaker 2 (4:03) watching, I might... No, a little bit this morning and I had to quickly do a turn it off, turn it off. But it is the talk of the arts world at the moment, this adaptation, I would say, and it has been in the making. I think the idea was first pitched and taken on by Florence Pugh as Cathy. She accepted the role in 2020. Really? Yeah, and if you think to that time, I mean, that was... COVID time. It feels like a lifetime ago. And here we are six years later and it's out. That's astonishing. Speaker 1 (4:35) It has broached huge conflict because there is marked differences between this beloved text and the show that we're going to get into. And when you say marked, Speaker 2 (4:49) it's key to stress this. They are fundamental differences. This isn't just sort of, oh, something slightly different happened in a chain of events. This is really rewriting, rehashing who some of these characters really are, in my opinion, which changes everything. It does Speaker 1 (5:11) change everything. And if you haven't read East of Eden, but you want to watch the show, we've got you. I mean, to be fair, the literary companion that we've created is for every kind of reader. as is this podcast episode, I feel. Because if you're about to watch it, we'll tell you that there's a few spoilers when they're coming up. I don't think there'll be many. Yeah, we've Speaker 2 (5:31) got to try and do that. Sometimes we forget, but there might be some spoilers and hopefully we won't slip up. I don't think we will. We Speaker 1 (5:36) can edit them out. Speaker 2 (5:37) Yeah. Speaker 1 (5:38) And then if, but then if you're a staunch lover of this text, I mean, we've got so much research in those companions that you... really can't come across widely on the internet. Speaker 2 (5:49) I also think that this is a text, granted now a lot more people are reading it. I think last weekend it was number 10 in the paperback bestseller charts in The Times. But I think for a lot of people, this is a book that many read years ago. It was something, I think some people studied it in school. It's one of those, it's like serious heavyweight. came out in 1952. It's been read by a lot of people. And as we've said before, sometimes when you've read something a long time ago, and for me, that can even be two weeks ago, I've already forgotten it. So hopefully coming back to our companion will give you that bit of kind of refreshed, I guess, energy to like really remember what happened in this book. Speaker 1 (6:29) And then all of our crazy rabbit hole research. So what is it about? And Sophie, you encapsulated it so beautifully because the central question that Steinbeck is seeking to answer is, are you born bad and do you have choice? Exactly, which also centres on a particular word. Which we're going to get to. We will. So this is his multi-generational saga ruminating on family, the nature of good and evil and the power of choice. It explores the biblical stories of Cain and Abel. It is almost an allegory. the fall of Asmoneve through the intertwined destinies, and I'm going to say this very specifically, of two families, Netflix, thank you, the Trasks and the Hamiltons. Cathy functions as a chilling and destructive force in the saga, but she is only one aspect. Now... We're going to get to the differences, but it is the story of brothers at its heart. It Speaker 2 (7:27) is. And in many ways, this book is what you could describe as the great American novel. It really fits in that category of literature. It's so expansive. America, specifically the Salinas Valley in California, is a character. in her own right. Like you are very much in that kind of territory. So I say, if you're into the great American novel, multi-generational family sagas, which I absolutely love, like this book makes me think of more modern books in a way, like The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, Pachinko, these books deal with the generations and the generations are absolutely essential in terms of how this novel functions. Speaker 1 (8:10) Now there are two central families, as we've just said. the Trasks and the Hamiltons, the Trask family, the father of Cyrus, he has Adam and Charles. Adam and Cathy have their twin sons, Cal, Caleb, and Aaron. And you then have, in the book, might I say, the Hamilton family, Samuel, Liza and their nine children, including George, Will and Olive. And so those are the central characters of the book. And when you say it's so expansive, you're absolutely right, because it's a time of such tumult and change. But Steinbeck is also writing a love letter to the land and to the paradise that he envisions. The prose is really quite deep. There's a lot of introspection around the characters. It is, as he says, his magnum opus. That is a complete kind of retelling of the Bible. I Speaker 2 (9:09) mean, for him, this book was everything. And he's said how it was actually everything that came before was a practice for this. And I mean, I have not read any other Steinbecks and I'm definitely going to now, but it's really so important as a piece of literature. Speaker 1 (9:27) But you have read all of his letters? I have Speaker 2 (9:29) read... all of his letters. I mean, the letters are themselves fascinating because I actually now, I read the novel, then I read the letters and I'm going to sound like a total nerd and probably incredibly annoying, but I actually think that you cannot get a full picture. of Speaker 1 (9:50) this book without Speaker 2 (9:50) those letters. Speaker 1 (9:51) And to explain, he wrote almost daily letters to his editor as he was writing. Yes. Speaker 2 (9:57) So Steinbeck's editor was a chap called Pascal Cavicci, and they have a very important and unique relationship. I mean, Steinbeck was a man married three times, and arguably the relationship with Cavicci was the most kind of constant one in his life. And again... I think understanding that relationship is really important to understanding this book. But we talk about that in more depth in The Companion, so I won't go