3 Sides To Every Story
A lot of you readers have heard the Biblical creation story of Adam and Eve. You've heard it taught and preached from pulpits and Sunday school classrooms. But what you have never heard is the different perspectives of Adam, Eve, and the serpent…
Adam:
So here's what really happened: It all started when one day I was sitting by the river Euphrates talking with the animals that had come to tell me about their day. Besides the animals talking, it was a peaceful and happy time. My animal friends had just left when Eve ran up to me with an emotion on her face I had never seen before. (We never had experienced any negative emotions or anything, so how was I supposed to discern what she was thinking?) She came to me saying in her distress, "Oh I've done something sinful, husband! You must partake in it with me so that the Lord has mercy on us! You are his favorite creation! He will listen and forgive you!" So, because I hated seeing her that way, I took a bite of the fig. I mean I knew God said to not eat it, but he gave me her as another responsibility to look after right? So I did it. But, as soon as I bit into the sweet fruit, I knew something had changed and was wrong. I looked down and then looked to Eve in disgust and shock. We were NAKED!!! Why did we never realize? Afterward, we tried to find some leaves to use for clothes, but all the other trees were afraid to help us since we disobeyed God. The only tree that would help clothe us was the one we weren't supposed to even be around! Well, we put on the leaves and then of course we hid. I immediately started thinking of ways we could hide what we did from God. It was strange because I would've never had those kinds of thoughts before. Well, obviously God found out what we did. You know the rest of the story. What I find insane is that the very person who was supposed to HELP me dragged me right down with her. So yeah, you could say our marriage is kinda on the rocks right now...
Eve:
Yes, I know. Adam blamed me for the whole thing, didn't he? Nevermind that it was HIS job to be looking after me and keeping an eye on the slippery serpent. Every other creature knew he was no good. Well every other one except us, I guess. That day all I was trying to do was look for some grapes for Adam and me. They are his favorite. So there I was, minding my own business when the serpent walks up to me (this was when he still had legs) and tricks me into eating of the fig tree. You should've heard him though. He sounded so SMART. He definitely sounded smarter than Adam, who never tells me anything anyway. So if he sounded smarter than Adam, then he's probably as smart as God, right? Wrong. As soon as I ate the fig, I knew something was wrong. The sky seemed to kinda darken and the other trees kinda bent away from me, so I wouldn't touch them. So I did the only thing I could think of doing, I picked up another fig and ran to Adam. Surely, if he ate it, God would forgive us! Adam is His FAVORITE creation! So, I got him to eat it too. I had these thoughts in my head that told me I could easily convince Adam to do whatever I wanted him to do by showing my beauty and helplessness to him. Where did those come from? Well, as soon as he ate, we discovered we were both NAKED. I was mortified and rushed to try to cover myself with fig leaves. Then, we tried to hide from God, but it didn't work. He punished us for what the SERPENT did. If you ask me, and no one ever does, he was the only one responsible here. He knew exactly what he was doing. But I'm sure no one will agree with me. All I hope is that Adam can realize that it's NOT all my fault!
The Serpent:
Yes, yes I know. "Here comes the bad guy of the story." That is what you all are thinking, right? Well, you couldn't be more wrong. I'm the only VICTIM in this whole scenario. I was a beautiful, gorgeous, wise, and respected creature, till those two idiots got me into trouble. Sure, I may have suggested to Eve to eat of the tree. But she didn't have to. That was her choice. Besides, God always favored them above everyone else. I made the suggestion to prove a point. Any wise creature would've done as God commanded and not eat it no matter what someone else told them. But that's the point. Neither Adam nor his ridiculous wife is wise or capable. It's not fair that we should pay lip service to two lowly creatures such as those humans. To top the whole thing off, I got punished along with them for what THEY did. I got kicked out of Eden too, but does anyone else care? No. My children and descendants are killed on sight by Adam's and no one bats an eye. The angels even cut off my beautiful limbs!!! I used to WALK along the ground. I had glorious color to my body. But my punishment did not stop at banishment, oh no. God had his angels MAUL me. So now I must slither in the dirt like so much trash. If you ask me, Adam and Eve deserve every suffering thing they are going through right now and more!
So, as you can see reader, there are more perspectives to this story than you thought. Who do YOU think was in the right and wrong?
Hi Lauren,
ReplyDeleteI like that you included three different perspectives on what happened in the Adam and Eve story. I like that you also included the snake perspective as well as one could say that really the snake was not to blame because it is only the free will of Adam and Eve that made them eat the figs. Maybe it is no ones fault or maybe it is all three of them is at fault. Who knows?
Great retelling!
Hey Lauren,
ReplyDeleteIncluding the perspectives of each of the three characters is a great new twist to the story. I like how you develop each of the characters in their respective paragraphs. You add a lot of depth to the event, and challenge the reader in the end to what perspective they believe. A challenging question, as each perspective speaks as if that is the correct perspective. Again, you did a great job building each perspective and making each feel justified. I am curious to know what God's perspective may be? Due to the word count and the original story, I understand why God's perspective is not including as His perspective is mostly understood in the original story. Overall, I really enjoyed pondering their viewpoints with you. Great story, Lauren!
Hi Lauren!
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed your retelling. Your descriptions of the feelings Adam & Eve sense from the other trees after eating the fig blew me away - I'm not sure if the trees 'bending away' was in the stories you read or if you came up with this detail yourself, but either way how you incorporated it into your own retelling was really well done. Additionally, the theme of "fault" is a really compelling one, and I love the nuances you play with here - I get the sense that there's some tension between personal responsibility and blame. Also, you seem to have a keen awareness the psychology of how we justify our own actions by assigning blame elsewhere, and how each of these figures would grapple with that. There are so many other little details I appreciated as well.
What I'm left wondering is why should we consider the perspective of the snake here? As most in our culture are familiar with this story, it seems difficult to even entertain that his side of the story is worth hearing out. It was very easy for me to dismiss his character from the outset, as he seems very dismissive of the audience's concerns about hearing his side of the story. What if his character were to ease the audience into hearing him out? His tone seems (to your credit) very typical of a bad guy trying to make his case, but if he were to be a little more sly and silver-tongued, start off real charming before playing up the pity-card, maybe this would help us understand his character more?
That said, I like how you handled this character as well! Overall really enjoyable read.