Of Apples and Innocence  | Teen Ink

Of Apples and Innocence 

November 5, 2007
By Anonymous

In the beginning, Adam and Eve were naked, though the same may not be said of the truth. Dull as the hazy sunlight that penetrated the air, thick with the smoke of apathy, the two lovers lay beneath the leaves of the golden trees. Freedom from desire and wisdom was a cage filled with the sweet scent of jasmine and the miasma of indifference. Adam and Eve were the blissful prisoners of their own ignorance, lazy as butterflies, slumbering in warm cocoons. The absence of truth is the victory of peace, and all was eternally well in the Garden of Eden.
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All was well in our generation, born to the tune of a thousand revolutions’ end. As we were raised under thick, sturdy roofs, our disasters were destined to be made within walls of our own making. Our Garden of Eden was our innocence, our belief in the possibilities of the future. Our bliss lay in the simplicity of shelter from the demons of generations past. Our apple trees grew slowly from seeds rooted in calm, though the fruits they’d bear were to blossom overnight. Every child is born beneath the same golden trees of Eden… but what is our apple? What is today’s symbol of the epic fall from grace, what is today’s forbidden fruit? When do the golden leaves fall from our trees, signaling the end of shelter and the end of childhood?

Sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll were the vices of choice for generations past, but I’d like to believe our generation is capable of outdoing the best. We’ve taken the forbidden fruit and pumped it up with growth hormones, we’ve intensified our sins as the apples fall from electronically-charged trees blossoming in knowledge that travels at the speed of light. The added element of our generation’s forbidden fruit is instant gratification. The ripe, sweet taste of fast forward will make you a believer at first bite. Our generation does not believe in the pause button, we race through every seemingly superfluous scene until the credits start rolling. We can’t stand to listen through the whole song, we can’t stand to hear a steady beat. Click click click, our generation will never hear the end to its anthems, might as well write out the second refrain altogether. We need everything expressed in an express manner. Centuries of others have been taught the beauty of patience, for thousands of years our religions have preached the delay of indulgence… but we are ripping out the tales of redemption from our Bibles and burning our bedtime story books.
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The serpent hissed of knowledge and godliness as Eve’s eyes closed to the commandments, reciting the verses she had been created to believe. Power is the most seductive temptress, and though Eve’s programmed heart resisted, her curious mind, thirsty for theatrics, prevailed. Weaving the tale of Good and Evil with its ruby-studded eyes, the serpent’s split tongue flickered against Eve’s ears… wouldn’t you like to know of good and beauty? Wouldn’t you like to know of evil and suffering? Oh, Eve, wouldn’t you like to know you’re alive?
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Chuck Palahniuk asks, “Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe get so boring that eating the apple was justified?” Perhaps, having always viewed the rotting apple core as a victory rather than a disappointment, I am bound to judge the serpent as a saint rather than a demon. The serpents of our generation free us from the true disasters of existence and allow us to be distracted by homemade tragedies. Rather than contemplate the state of this dissolving universe, we are content to think upon the shallow, footnote evils that are deemed deserving of front page bold print by the New York Times.

Perhaps we indulge in these bite-sized tragedies because of our need for distraction from the greater scheme of things. Very early on, our generation realized the fragility of human life… we fell asleep to the haunting lullabies of hurricanes and burning planes, the gentle whisper of mortality. We watch the grass die on this side of safety and hand ourselves over to temptation as the serpents promise us emerald shores. Without the blinding bright lights of puckered-lip photographs snapped at arms length, we may very well be trapped in these concrete castles with Biblically naked eyes. So the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil finds itself nearly bare as this era of power-hungry children rip the flesh from its limbs with starved fervor and false desperation. Alcohol, name brands, green leaves, and colored contacts are our vices of choice… the shallow nature of our generation attempts to cover up our early loss of innocence, but conceals like cheap foundation on porcelain skin.
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Eve, with dilated pupils and shaky hands, reached for her crimson downfall with baited breath. The fruit was deceptively light, as the consequences were heavier than Eve’s blank mind could address. Her dull teeth broke through the shiny skin, into the flesh of the apple. Innocence was drained from Eve’s fingertips as the serpent hissed and narrowed its eyes in anticipation. Eve looked around the beautiful, blossoming garden with wide eyes. There was truth, there was beauty, there was suffering, there was death, and Eve’s voice echoed across the oceans, “I am naked.”
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Our forbidden fruit tastes like deep bass beats, necessary intoxication, and corruption in the form of premature exposure to the evening news. 6th grade girls are posing for MySpace pictures in bikini tops and low slung jeans, while pre-teen boys are being trained in the art of warfare courtesy of a TV screen and a blue plastic controller. 13 is the new 21; 21 is the new tombstone. As with all the world before us, we desire what we cannot have; the difference is that with a few tip-tap-clicks of this button or that button, we can have it. We can have it all.

We are the generation that will pay $150 for a pair of jeans conveniently pre-destroyed for us, ‘cause do we really have the time to spend climbing trees and breaking in knees when nuclear clouds could replace the fluffy whites of our childhood at any given moment? We thrive on this corruption. We give ourselves to Abercrombie and Fitch catalogs. We give ourselves to MTV. We give ourselves to the streets. We depend not upon morals or convictions but upon the white cords that connect us to the wafer thin devices blocking out everyone and everything around us. We are constantly plugged into the consumerist mantra, addicted to the ability to drown out our thoughts with the desire for more more more. In never being content, in always craving the bigger and the better, we are prepared to meet true deficiencies with diverted eyes. These vices are our battle gear. Even so, we lose the war. We are all-too aware of our premature corruption. The forbidden fruits fail to fill our empty stomachs. Hey kid, get busy living or get busy dying.
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God was betrayed. He expelled the two lovers from their garden, forbade them from ever returning. Eve and Adam were cold and lost and confused by the world around them. This was a world of anger and desire, a world which they knew nothing of, having been cradled at the breast of innocence for so long. But God’s decisions are final; for all time, mankind was to live and die in this savage jungle.
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Who’s to criticize our generation for falling prey to the same temptations that shifted mankind to the edge and brought us to the fall from grace? Are we to blame for our eager hunger? The difference between our lives and the Garden of Eden is this: where Adam and Eve had lush gardens and their blissful ignorance, we are not even assured of tomorrow’s existence. We are living in a new era of crisis, the battle between preparation for the future and living in the present. Whereas Eve chose to give into the serpent, perhaps we have been bitten with the desire for knowledge because we have had Good and Evil thrust upon us. None of us chose our early fall from grace, no one is to blame but the changing world around us which will claim our fathers lives but will never claim responsibility. Our lives are merely side effects of a past generations’ revolution. We are not fighting these wars, we are watching them… a television without a remote control… the one scene we can’t fast forward.

So we choose to be aware. We choose corruption over innocence; we choose throbbing heartbeats over deep slumber. We have had the pacifiers ripped from our lips, can you blame us for screaming? Our generation has sat back and watched, confused, as buildings have burned and oceans have raged. These serpents have come and tempted us and we have accepted their offers of Knowledge, in hopes that maybe we could understand the Good and the Evil that smiles at us from the front page of every Wall Street Journal and tabloid magazine. We have given into temptation, we have fallen from grace. But, hell, what has grace ever offered us? The Garden of Eden meant blindness and clamped lips. There was always this fire, this pain… by giving into our vices, we are consequentially free to acknowledge the burning we always knew was there. Blame it on the serpent, but this generation has bitten into the forbidden fruit willingly. We’ve seen both sides of blessing and have chosen the road of the demons. Innocence has never meant more than ignorance, and for once, a generation is handing itself over to temptation without a fight. These apple trees are dying, and so are we. Let’s rip the forbidden fruits from fallen branches… let’s die wise.
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In the beginning, Adam and Eve were naked, and of this truth they were painfully conscious. The truth had always existed within the walls of Eden, Adam and Eve were simply blinded by the golden shimmer of their own grace reflected off the shiny skin of the forbidden fruit which they had not dared to eat. (Is it an outrageous lie or a coping mechanism when we ignore the truth?) Sharp as the lightning that pierced the sky, the two lovers fell from grace. Adam and Eve were genuinely aware of their nakedness and their corruption. Freedom from innocence and ignorance was an open door to a land of vices and evil, but a true land. The Garden of Eden was never more than a cocoon; and it was time for the very first generation to break free its wings. Eternity was never enough.


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This article has 14 comments.


on Nov. 11 2015 at 9:29 pm
Lucy-Agnes PLATINUM, Clarksville, Ohio
22 articles 0 photos 53 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world." - Justice Antonin Scalia

Very true, MakeItShine! I couldn't have said it better. Jennifer S., I pray that God will touch your heart that you may use your amazing talent for writing in a better way in the future.

on Nov. 11 2015 at 9:27 pm
Lucy-Agnes PLATINUM, Clarksville, Ohio
22 articles 0 photos 53 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world." - Justice Antonin Scalia

So basically you're saying good is evil and evil is good. Actually, sin only makes us blind; it doesn't help us to see. The word "know" as it is used in this passage of the Bible means "to experience." It's not that they were stupid before they ate and wise after. Adam and Eve might have had a concept of good and evil before they ate the apple, but it wasn't until they ate it that they actually knew what evil was like.

on Feb. 9 2012 at 1:27 pm
TerraAnimusPatronus BRONZE, Eden, North Carolina
1 article 0 photos 61 comments

Favorite Quote:
«You are either the best kept secret or just surrounded by blind people.»

Buetiful i loved it and our generation is more corrupt then the last but more wiser and stronger we know good and evil and each comes with its burdens good iz living in constent fear that you have sinned and need to be forgiven and hopefully get into heaven but what if your children don get into heaven u will never see them but u cant cry u cant care for them like u did on earth and sin has its gratification but with an eternity in punishment which one to choose

on Aug. 17 2011 at 4:31 pm
MakeItShine SILVER, Pembroke Pines, Florida
9 articles 0 photos 30 comments

Favorite Quote:
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
~C.S. Lewis.

It's sad to see such a talented writer with such a hideously skewed worldwiew. The Garden of Eden was not ignorance of anything but evil, because it didn't exist yet. It was bliss, in that they could worship God in perfect holiness--for eternity, if not for the serpent.

Apparently that same serpent has wrapped himself around you and whispered lies into your ears. You are deceived. 'Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die' always ends with death. What we do in life echoes in eternity. Ignore God and wisdom, embrace the serpent, and eternity will reflect your choice.


on Jul. 4 2011 at 1:42 pm
Destinee BRONZE, Oakville, Other
3 articles 0 photos 303 comments

Favorite Quote:
Blegh. - Abraham Lincoln

Hauntingly beautiful prose. Absolutely amazing. This is definitely the most well-written article I've come across on TeenInk. You have a passion for words, I can tell. :) 

on Apr. 29 2011 at 12:49 pm

This article is verry well written, and almost pursuasive. I like how you went back and forth from history to present.

I don't agree with your philosphy. Most of what you say is true, but just a little wrong makes it very wrong.


MadMouse GOLD said...
on Apr. 7 2011 at 7:14 pm
MadMouse GOLD, Springfield, Missouri
15 articles 11 photos 37 comments

Favorite Quote:
'The only things worth doing on the weekend are completely pointless and wastes of time."

This is amazing! Beautiful writing; I absolutely love it.

on Apr. 7 2011 at 9:56 am
SATAN4LIFE BRONZE, Waterboro, Maine
1 article 0 photos 29 comments

Favorite Quote:
"FRIDAY, FRIDAY, GOTTA GET DOWN ON FRIDAY" - Rebecca Black

This is a beatiful peace of fictional writing.

on Mar. 29 2010 at 5:42 pm
i never said i was innocent. wish i was, but that was never the case. thanks for clarifying though. :)

on Mar. 29 2010 at 6:52 am
I agree with the majority of what you have said, but none of us are innocent. We have all sinned and fallen short of God's glory and thus, are all very guilty. And the guilt began with Adam and Eve's decision to eat the apple. They chose sin over God's perfect plan for their lives. We have the same choice. Will we choose sin or God's percect will? Its all up to you.

on Feb. 13 2010 at 3:53 pm
the_Horsegirl SILVER, Minneapolis, Minnesota
8 articles 0 photos 118 comments

Favorite Quote:
People need dreams, there's as much nourishment in 'em as food.
--Dorothy Gilman

If there is such a thing as truth, it is as intricate and hidden as a crown of feathers.
--Isaac Bashevis Singer

Beautifully written, you make a good point.

on Dec. 8 2009 at 10:17 am
write4life GOLD, Macon, Georgia
12 articles 0 photos 45 comments
I agree! not all of us choose corruption over innocence. and innocence is so much more than ignorance. i choose innocence not because i dont understand another way, but because i DO understand the alternatives. every choice has consequences, whether good or bad. and the consequences for choosing innocence are far more desirable than those for choosing the temporary satisfaction we can have in this world. to answer your question, grace has offered us redemption, freedom, a chance to have so much more in the long run than we could ever have here. we don't have to accept it, but if we do, we will be rewarded both here and in eternity. grace is the only thing that keeps us going every day. those who deny God could be struck dead at any moment, but because He is merciful, he continually offers second chances to realize and claim the truth that will set us free.

on Dec. 8 2009 at 1:20 am
Die wise? I don't think so. I'd rather die stupid and live with God (who has all the answers anyways) forever than die "wise", still not know it all, and be separated from my Savior forever.