Getting to no

There are any number of things that one could focus on in the story: the admonition not to eat of the one tree, the snake-like creature who lets the cat out of the bag (not dying, though we never find out how it knows this), the unsuspecting pair, the hapless defense ... and, as it is, in all the interpretations that were mentioned last time(and more) one of these "facts" have been the focus of interest. What I don't like about that approach, however, is the fact that I don't think you can get to any particular good interpretation based on any given "fact" or select combination of "facts". What is the point of the story? And it is this point that each of the allegedly fact-based interpretations apparently misses. They come up too short. They are only theological or sociological or psychological or ... . What's the bigger story here?

Without the admonition not to do something, we have no story. Without a foil (the snake-like creature) to initiate the tension-causing situation, we have no real story. Why? Because without a combination of these two events, our hero and heroine would never be in a position to make a choice. The situation is "rigged" if you will to enable them to choose. The story, in my mind, is about being able to make choices.

And why is this so important? Without the ability to make choices, we are not free, pure and simple. The degree of freedom which we can express is directly related to the scope of the choices we can make. Sure, after the "event", things end badly, in a sense, but not really. What happens thereafter is that our hero and heroine are simply responsible for the choices they make. Throughout the course of their lives, they will continually make choices, some good, some bad, some that turn out great and some that are disastrous. Just like the rest of us.

The important thing for me is that the protagonists in our little tale were eventually earned the right to say "no". It may be preferable many times to simply say "yes", but without the ability to say "no", we are not free. But, as the story points out, this is one of the hardest things we ever learn to do, which makes being free one of the hardest things we have to learn to be as well.