Appendix 3.2: Sample films - synopses and character lists
EAST OF EDEN US 55
lettuce harvest: finally he constructs a connection between
his mother's world of business and knowing 'what people are
really like, what they want' and his father's idealism, his
wanting to do 'some little thing for humanity'. Adam's
venture into refrigeration fails and his money is lost. Cal
borrows $5000 from Kate and invests, with the help of local
businessman Will Hamilton, in bean futures. War breaks out
and the price of beans rises, making a handsome profit on
Cal's investment. But Cal's offering is refused by Adam,
firmly entrenched in the biblical values of nineteeenth
century ranchers' America:
I'd be happy if you'd give me something, well, something
honest and human and good, like your brother's given me.
If you want to give me a present Give me a good life
That's something I could value.
This rejection leads directly to the denouement: Cal forces
his brother to confront reality in the form of their mother,
Kate, and this experience so disturbs Aaron that he gets
drunk, tears up the town, and finally enlists. When this news
reaches Adam he rushes to the troop train where the sight of
the drunken Aaron, smashing his head through the train window
and laughing maniacally as the train pulls out, precipitates
Adam's stroke. Finally, thanks to the intervention of Abra,
Adam makes his peace with Cal and the film ends in a high
angle medium long shot of Cal seated by his father's bed. He
is loved by Abra, loved by Adam and now he can enter into the
world of modern America as a man.
In this conclusion to the narrative Aaron's moral rectitude
and idealistic intransigeance is revealed to be inadequate:
faced with the unexpected and unacceptable in the form of his
mother he goes beserk, joins up, and disappears from the
story. Cal's desperate need to understand himself, to order
his confusion from within, as it were, leads him to take a
pragmatic approach to events. It is this pragmatic attention,
the narrative closure suggests, that is appropriate to modern
American society.
Female characters in order of appearance, character groups
|
1_____ |
X-X * A XA Λ- XA »—∙ V— VA A. V-» -*- X χ ɪ. XA X— A— VX A- XA JXX X— VA A- VA Λ * X-X X—- f VXX X VA A- VA X-X v- X— A- XxJ ɪ- X-X XA Women and girls on the outskirts of Monterey |
K⅛i_______ 4_____ |
|
2_____ |
Kate |
2_____ |
|
3_____ |
People in the street, Monterey town centre_______ |
4______ |
|
4_____ |
Sally |
4______ |
|
5_____ |
Two women watching Kate as she leaves the bank |
4______ |
|
6_____ |
Anna, the maid at Kate's place____________________ |
4______ |
|
7_____ |
Abra |
2______ |
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