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Evelyn Hall

Miss Akers

Honors English 9

19 October 2017

The Bible had a plethora of struggling characters. Many of the characters face death,

discrimination, cruel treatment, and hardship. These characters had struggles and often did not

have help when needed. Though an abundance of characters in the Bible faced trials, one stands

out more than others. Eve is this character; she was uprooted from paradise, forced to have

painful childbirth, made unequal to her husband, and had her son die. Not only did she suffer

often, her suffering has significance. Her impact has affected mankind continually throughout the

centuries.

When God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, there was no suffering for them.

The Garden of Eden was paradise. It had everything that they needed. However, he told them not

to eat the fruit from a specific tree. They did, therefor God punished them severely. He made

them leave the paradise of Eden. So the Lord banished him from the garden of Eden to till the

ground from which he had been taken (19). This quote is referring to Adam, but Eve also

suffered this punishment. It is explaining that because Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they have

to leave Eden and work hard to survive. Another quote says I shall give you great labor in

childbearing; with labor you will bear children. You will desire your husband, but he will be

your master. (19) This text is explaining the punishment that God placed upon Eve. This is

significant because it is explaining why things are the way they are today. In the present,

mankind has to work to survive, childbirth is painful, and men are the leaders of the household.
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This is not always true, but often it is the case. The moral of this story, obedience, is also still

significant today. Which is another importance of Eves struggling. Getting exiled from paradise

and forced to suffer was a punishment that Eve had to endure.

she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, With the help of the Lord I have

brought into being a male child. Afterwards she had another child, Abel. (38) In this quote,

Eve is grateful to the Lord for blessing her with a child. One day Cain and Abel gave offerings to

God. When God favored Abes offering over Cains, Cain got jealous and killed his brother.

Which left Eve to suffer the death of her son. Eve went through painful child birth to have her

sons, but only ended up with one of them dead. Not only was one son killed, the other was exiled

and forced to wander as said in the quote, Now you are accursed and will be banished from the

very ground which has opened its mouth to receive the blood you have shed. When you till the

ground, it will no longer yield you its produce. You will be a wanderer, a fugitive on Earth. (38)

Both of Eves children, Cain and Abel, were taken away from her. After enduring childbirth, she

lost all she had struggled for. The story of Cain and Abel has several morals. One of them is to

not murder as Cain did. Another is not to be jealous. Cains jealousy led to the death of Abel.

The other moral is to think about how your actions will affect others. When Cain killed Abel, he

forced his mother to cope with the death of one son and the exile of the other. The morals about

jealousy and murder tie into the moral of your choices affecting others. An example of the third

moral is Eves situation when she lost both of her children.

Between being removed from paradise, forced to endure painful childbirth, forced to be

beneath her husband, and forced to cope with her sons being taken away from her, I think Eve

was a significant struggling character from the Bible. Her stories led to things that are still

around in the present, and taught us morals that are still present today. After all that Eve went
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through, and the morals that she taught the world, she is a very important struggling character

from the Bible.