Popular Culture Review Volume 30, Number 1, Winter 2019 | Page 164

Crime and Sexuality in the 1955 and 1981 Adaptations of John Steinbeck ’ s East of Eden
whether or not the parent abandoned the child and , if so , whether it was for selfish or selfless reasons . ( 234 )
Almost everyone becomes separated from his or her parents , and so the viewer can relate to the parent – child plot ( Hogan 203 ). Hogan points out that the resolution often is tragic , and he also notes that the separation can last a long time ( 200 ). Thus , when Kate asks Cal , “ Who are you ? What do you want ?” the viewer accepts that she has not seen him for nearly two decades .
East of Eden has other significant cultural and historical contexts . “ Where Steinbeck ’ s novel champions individual responsibility , Kazan ’ s film attacks the hypocrisy of narrowly individualistic morality . While both the film and the book celebrate the individual ’ s freedom to choose good over evil�leaving little to subtle suggestion�Kazan ’ s film more thoroughly expresses the moral temper of midcentury America ” ( Dill 167 ). Kazan ’ s Cal rejects the authority of his father ; according to Springer , teenagers of the 1950s started to reject parental authority ( 17 ).
During the midpoint of the Eisenhower Era , there existed an antipathy for communism , almost as if it were a public health problem . The Cold War had begun seven years before Kazan ’ s East of Eden was filmed . Kazan “ drew criticism for being

among the first Hollywood insiders to cooperate with the investigation held by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Red Scare in 1952 .... [ His ] testimony cost him dearly among Hollywood ’ s elite ” ( Railsback and Michael 196 ). He and Osborn built up Steinbeck ’ s minor , fourpage storyline about the German tailor , Mr . Fenchel , who finds himself in financial arrears from purchasing too many war bonds and whom the citizens of Salinas harass after the

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