Crime and Sexuality in the 1955 and 1981 Adaptations of John Steinbeck ’ s East of Eden
CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXTS
Kazan ’ s feature film adaptation of East of Eden as well as Harvey Hart ’ s television miniseries adaptation are shaped by the historical and cultural contexts of , respectively , the first half of the 1950s and the early 1980s in America . Both eras share certain characteristics , including melodrama , one kind of which Frye describes as “ comedy without humor ” ( 167 ).
In the relationship between Cal and his father , Adam , there is much conflict . Cal hates that Adam favors his twin brother , Aron . In order to please his father after Adam ’ s disastrous business venture of trying to transport ice-packed lettuce by train , Cal commits what seems to be a crime in Adam ’ s eyes but really is not : war profiteering during WWI , as Cal has decided to buy beans from poor farmers in the Salinas Valley at a very low price and then resell the beans to the British . Adam ’ s rejection of Cal ’ s gift of thousands of dollars and his suggestion that Cal pay it back to the farmers he “ robbed ” leads Cal to commit another crime that really is not : he emotionally “ kills ” Aron by taking him to meet their notorious mother , Kate , whom Aron believes to be dead .
In the early 1980s , melodrama swept television in the form of “ nighttime soaps .” Regarding Hart ’ s East of Eden miniseries , Time magazine reported , “ While this eight-hour TV movie has clear cultural pretensions , it is really 99-and-44 / 100 % pure soap ” ( Corliss 68 ). Hart ’ s version bears “ a form ... dominating the television ratings in series such as Dallas , Dynasty , and Falcon ’ s [ sic , Falcon ] Crest .... [ T ] he longer format was more capable of realizing Steinbeck ’ s epic sweep by including the first two-thirds of the plot excised in the earlier film ” ( Railsback and Michael , 94 ). Railsback and Michael also noted that the miniseries abandoned Steinbeck ’ s development of archetypes for prurient pursuits . By the time East of
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