9 Major Ways Netflix's East Of Eden Differs From The Original Book And Other Adaptations

Creator Zoe Kazan has updated John Steinbeck’s classic story for a modern audience with her new miniseries.

John Steinbeck’s classic 1952 novel East Of Eden has been adapted for the screen once again, this time in a miniseries for Netflix.

First brought to the screen in Elia Kazan’s 1955 film, and later adapted for a 1981 TV series, now creator Zoe Kazan is following in her grandfather’s footsteps as she brings the epic story of the Trask family to life.

Her new seven-part Netflix series makes some significant changes from the book, something noted by critics when reviewing the project.

And while Zoe said she set out with the goal of writing a “very faithful adaptation,” she told People: “There’s so much in this book, I couldn’t fit it all in, so I had to really kill some darlings.”

Here are the key differences between the book and the recent television show – as well as how this new adaptation differs from the iconic 1955 movie many of us already know and love…

Netflix’s East Of Eden pushes the Cathy Ames character into the forefront

When Zoe Kazan went to adapt East Of Eden, she felt it was important to shift the story’s antihero from the dark periphery to centre stage.

As a result, the malicious, cold Cathy Ames steps into the spotlight in this new adaptation, rather than focusing the story on the Trask brothers, as previous takes on the story have done.

“She’s so arresting, so shocking, singular, fascinating, and mysterious,” Zoe told W Magazine.

The showrunner used letters Steinbeck wrote to his editor about Cathy as a guidepost for expanding the character.

“Late in his writing process, he would say things like, ‘People will hate [Cathy] not because she is foreign, but because she is familiar’,” Zoe claimed.

“He was wrestling with the good and bad inside of himself, and I see that bifurcated into Cathy and Adam in the book.”

Zoe explained that she also approached writing Cathy from a different perspective from the book’s original author as a woman who “grew up in a body that was sexualised and targeted”.

“I read some of [Cathy’s] experiences differently than he does,” Zoe suggested. “And yet it was very important to me to find textual support for everything I was doing.

“Any places I imagined a little beyond the page, I needed a doorway to walk through that felt accurate to the book and its intentions.”

While Cathy is still an antihero in Netflix’s East Of Eden – this new adaptation gives the character more agency

Seven decades after the book was written, Cathy stays a much-spoken about character in fiction.

Cathy was originally envisaged as a chilling characterisation on the author’s tumultuous relationship with his ex-wife, Carol Henning Steinbeck. In recent years, read through a modern length, audiences have humanised Cathy in their readings, with some theorising she may have mental health issues, and connecting her behaviour with trauma.

The new adaptation has taken more modern readings of Cathy to........

© HuffPost