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John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel East of Eden is being adapted yet again to question if identity truly is based on what you choose. Now Netflix has released a trailer for the upcoming limited series starring Florence Pugh that makes clear it’s choosing a new narration of the original story.
The novel follows the lives of the Trask and Hamilton families across a multigenerational, interconnected saga about good, evil, greed, violence, and neglect. The story, which takes place between the American Civil War and the end of World War I, begins with Adam Trask and his half-brother Charles Trask, whose father’s favoritism creates a long-lasting dynamic of sibling rivalry and toxicity that follows the Trask family into the next generation.
Adam marries Ames (who goes by Kate Trask while married), a wildly amoral woman, with whom he has twin boys, Aron and Cal Trask, and is abandoned by her after their birth. Ames goes on to become a sex worker in Salinas, California, which is a pivotal part of her character; as Ames rejects the expectations of traditional gender roles. She uses femininity as a weapon to increase her power in the only way permitted for women of the era.
Ames is regarded as one of the cruelest antagonists in contemporary literature, being Steinbeck’s allegory for Satan in this generational rendition of the story of Cain and Abel. Steinbeck even goes as far as giving Ames Satan-like physical characteristics in her later years, after losing the hypnotic beauty that she used as a tool of manipulation, destruction, and selfishness.
A born sociopath, Ames commits murders, divides families, and commits gross acts of violence over the span of the 600-page novel, leading her to be one of the most hated, yet captivating, characters of Steinbeck’s literary catalogue.
In the trailer, Ames is portrayed as a more sympathetic character, giving a soft-spoken yet emotionally captivating monologue, showcasing her hopelessness as a child.
“When I was a little girl, I imagined I could grow smaller. So small that the bad things couldn’t find me. And I could disappear. Because the world is so full of evil,” Ames recounts. As the monologue draws on, flashes of Ames’s life flash along the screen, including her youth, marrying Adam, birthing the twins, and the twins finding her years later in the brothel.
There is a consistent melancholy throughout the trailer, making the viewer feel as captive as Ames has been described in the previous adaptation of her character. While Ames is shown as monotone and calculating, there is a distinct lack of apathy that her character is known for. Similarly, the displaying of emotion and a lack of unabashed arrogance is all new ground for the character.
In Elia Kazan’s 1955 film adaptation of the novel, Jo Van Fleet plays Ames, as the movie follows the second generation of the Trask family, with Cal Trask (James Dean) being the main protagonist. Ames is a character of literal darkness, even down to the brothel where she lives and works, only met down a dim corridor in the back of the building, immediately, and aggressively casting away Cal when he comes to find her.
Zoe Kazan, the granddaughter of the 1955 film’s director, is spearheading Netflix’s adaptation and taking a new direction on Ames’ character, describing the protagonist as an “indelible antihero.”
Some might worry that this seeming new direction to humanize Ames misses the point of Steinbeck’s writing, as Ames acted as more than just a cruel, egotistical temptress character; she is the literal devil of the story. We’ll have to wait and see if the series ends up adopting a similar perspective.
While the official release date of the series has yet to be announced, the Trasks are expected to hit Netflix sometime this fall.
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