How does Samuel Hamilton Die in East of Eden?

Netflix’s ‘East of Eden’ follows the story of the Trask family as each member is confronted with their own sense of good and evil. While some Trasks struggle to come to terms with their darkness, the others are blinded by the light of their goodness, leaving both sides unable to see the world as it truly is. Adam Trask, especially, suffers for it, less from others and more from the concepts he’d created in his head. Fortunately for him, two people care for him enough to pull him out of his own misery. One of them is an old man named Samuel Hamilton, whose wisdom serves as the moral guiding light that brings Adam back from the brink of devastation. However, one day, Samuel leaves, and the next time Adam sees him is at his funeral. SPOILERS AHEAD.

A Family Tragedy Weakens Samuel

While the Netflix show reduces the Hamilton family to its patriarch, with brief appearances from his wife and his one son, John Steinbeck’s ‘East of Eden’ prominently features the Hamilton family. They serve as a stark contrast to the Trasks, whose conflict with light and darkness is a far cry from the love and care shared by the Hamilton siblings. However, even all this goodness is not enough to save them from their tragic fates. Samuel and Liza Hamilton have a total of nine children, all of whom go their own separate ways. Samuel’s hearty nature puts her at the center of the family, with everyone basking in his light. Despite his financial destitution, he never changes and remains a delightful person, constantly in awe of the world.

It is this ability to see people and appreciate them that also allows him to save them, in some way, particularly in Adam’s case. As his children grow older, they move out, get married, and start their own businesses and families. The house gets emptier, but watching his children find their purpose and flourish keeps Samuel happy. He loves all of his children, but he has a special place in his heart for his daughter, Una. She marries a man whose passion for photography takes him to another state. Una moves with him, and she lives a life of hardship while supporting her husband’s passion. And then, one day, that passion kills her. It is insinuated that she died because of being exposed to the chemicals her husband used for his photography.

Samuel Hamilton Dies of Old Age and a Broken Heart

The news of Una’s death shatters Samuel. While he has seen pain and suffering in the world, this is the first time that it comes so close to his family that he is unable to forget death’s face. After his daughter’s passing, Samuel recedes into himself. He loses the luster of his laugh, and the zest that he’d had even in old age is sucked out of him. Even his children can see that some part of him died with Una, and he is not the same since. In fact, they get so worried about him brooding over his own grief on his desolate farm that they come up with a plan to cheer him up.

His daughter, Olive, invites him and Liza to live with her and her children in Salinas for a while. Samuel knows exactly why this invitation has arrived, and he also knows that after Olive, the rest of his children will extend invitations of their own. He will be forced to comply and visit every single one of them because the others will be angry with him if he doesn’t. Seven of his children live away from the farm, and even if he visits each of them for a month, he would be gone from the farm for most of the year.

Still, in his wisdom, he knows it’s time to move on from the farm. And in many ways, he also knows that he will never return there. The thing is that he is getting old, and he might have lived longer had his original flair not gone out with Una’s loss. But her death has left a gaping hole in his heart, which slowly chips away at him from the inside, until one day, his life force is gone, and he dies. It happens so fast that Samuel never gets to visit more of his children. He dies at Olive’s place in Salinas and is laid to rest with hundreds of people attending his funeral, showing just how loved and revered he was.

Read More: East of Eden: Did Cathy Kill Her Parents? How did Mr. Grew Die?