Poetry, Eve as Hero

One semester I taught a course on poetry.  Each day I handed out copies of the poems we would discuss the next class, and I encouraged my students to mark them up and when we had the discussion the next class day to keep taking notes. 

There is an Adam and Eve Poem tradition in the poetry world and I created a rather large packet of many of these poems for each student to read and again, mark up.

I also included pages, essays written by other multi-cultural scholars and writers, including Rabbi Harold Kushner’s book explaining his version of Eve as the hero. 

In religious texts, there are plenty of descriptions of when Eve bit the apple, and if you do a close reading, many describe her reaction.  She is overwhelmed with emotion like she’s on a bad acid trip or something.

Kushner describes Eve as the hero for this reason.  She’s crossed a line between good and evil, and now she can witness, firsthand, what it’s like to be God 24/7.

After taking that bite, Eve sees all the evil in the world.  She also sees what God sees and forgives on a daily basis.

I simply asked my students what they thought of this version.  They discussed their feelings in class, and they wrote a response essay.

I would never proselytize any specific religion in my classroom or make my students feel like they must like or agree with anything I show them. I simply wanted them to see what others have to say about Eve and the tradition of writing poetry about Eve.

Having been baptised and raised Catholic, I was told that Eve ruined everything for humanity, just like Mary Magdeline. Kushner’s interpretation struck me as a compasionate, feminist reading that makes much more sense. For God has nothing to do with sexism or misogyny. God is compassion, and so is Eve. So is Adam and Steve.

No matter what others may tell you.