Why Netflix’s East of Eden Cut a Major Section of the Book

Netflix’s East of Eden received rave reviews from critics after it debuted on the streaming platform earlier this month. The miniseries, starring Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott, Mike Faist, and Hoon Lee, adapted John Steinbeck’s celebrated 1952 novel about the Trask family’s struggle with the nature of good and evil in late-1800s America.

But while creator Zoe Kazan’s adaptation remains very faithful to the source material, fans of the book were quick to point out that she cut some significant storylines. Namely, the Hamilton family—represented by actor Ciarán Hinds in the miniseries. In contrast to the Trasks’ generational trauma and biblical parallels, the Hamiltons better represented the hardworking, immigrant families of the era. Still, despite the Hamiltons’ larger presence in Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Sam Hamilton (Hinds) appears in just around two episodes of the seven-episode series. What happened?

According to Kazan, the story just didn’t have the space. So, she decided to frame the story from Cathy’s (Pugh) point of view instead—even though the narrator in the novel is a descendant of Sam Hamilton, who Steinbeck based on his own grandfather.

“It became clear to me pretty early that if I was going to keep it at eight episodes or fewer, I was not going to have enough real estate for the Hamiltons,” Kazan told Variety. “A lot of the Hamilton stuff is quite emotional and deeply meaningful to the greater themes of the book. Tom Hamilton is probably my favorite character in the whole thing. But at a plot level, it’s really episodic. It doesn’t build in a dramatic narrative sense; it doesn’t go someplace the same way that the Trask storyline does.”

Throughout the novel, Sam Hamilton helps Adam recover and acts as a father figure for him. He goes through heartbreak as well—his oldest daughter Una dies young on the Oregon Trail, and his son Tom takes his own life after accidentally causing the death of another one of his siblings. They suffer through just as much melodrama as the Trasks, if not more so, even if the Trasks receive all the attention. But for Kazan, Cathy was the one character that she believed deserved the spotlight this time around.

“We’ve talked in the press about this new emphasis on Cathy Ames. That was more in response to the 1955 film, which really sidelines her, than the actual book, which I think is fascinated by her,” Kazan told Variety. “Cathy is the plot engine of this book. She is the troublemaker. She fascinated me from the start. I’m so curious about her—and I think Steinbeck was too—so I don’t see it as being quite as revisionist as maybe some of the articles have been framing my take as.”

That 1955 film, directed by Zoe Kazan’s grandfather Elia Kazan, also cut out most of the Hamilton family’s story for time. So, even though it’s clear that Zoe Kazan’s emphasis was to focus on Cathy, audiences miss out on the fact that East of Eden actually centers around two families once again.

Fans still loved Ciarán Hinds’s portrayal of Sam Hamilton, and there’s no stopping Kazan from making something of a spin-off of the miniseries that tells the Hamilton family’s story. After all, she stated that “these stories can be told again and again by different people,” because with each new telling there’s “so much that was unexplored.” Maybe next time, the Hamiltons won’t get the boot.