Netflix's "East of Eden" Gives Steinbeck's Satan Figure a Sympathetic Backstory, and Fans Are Divided

Netflix’s new adaptation of“East of Eden”is sparking a serious debate, because the streamer took Cathy Ames, the character John Steinbeck himself described as“a total representative of Satan,”and gave her a tragic backstory. Writer Zoe Kazan says the goal was for audiences to identify with every character, even the ones who seem evil. Florence Pugh, who plays Cathy, says the show explores her history to explain why she behaves the way she does.

Not everyone’s on board. Critics argue that humanizing Cathy erases the novel’s central moral framework, including the Hebrew concept of“timshel,”which is all about the power to choose between good and evil. If every villain is just a product of trauma, the argument goes, then evil stops being a real choice, and the story loses its soul. The article also connects this trend to the real world, pointing to sympathetic online portrayals of figures like Luigi Mangione.

So where do you land? Is a complicated villain better storytelling, or did Netflix sand off the whole point of a classic? Sound off in the comments, we’re reading every take.