Brouke M. Rose-Carpenter

October 2, 2006  

Striving for Perfection

            There is a universal desire among most human beings to restore the perfection that was once lost, Eden.  Whether or not one believes that human perfection was lost when Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, or some other story that they have heard describing the downfall of man, there is one universal truth, people want to retrieve and acquire their perfect Utopia. 

            As long as people have a faith, there will always be that longing in their spirits to obtain the perfect society, environment, and their idea of what is human perfection.  It is the constant reminder of their desire to be in this place, and the fact that at one time this was not a dream, but it was their reality and it was lost. This desire and loss is the driving force for many writers, whether it is to create fiction or to document their dreams in hopes of a dream come to life.  The expulsion from Eden has caused a chain reaction in writer’s inspiration, and using Objective 1a, a reader can see the ways Eden has greatly affected and influenced the human thought process.      

            In the Midterm by Danny Corrigan, he states, “Adam and Eve have the perfect life in the Garden, but then they lose it.  The implication is that as a result of this expulsion, humans now have an innate desire to return to what was lost.”   People constantly want to return to that beautiful world. 

            The essence of Romanticism is the appreciation for nature, which inevitably becomes the desire and loss theme, due to natures constant changing, and evolvement with death and birth.  In admiration for nature, human beings tend to become inspired to long and dream of what could have been in the Garden of Eden.  Even when the ugly sides of nature are displayed, it acts as a reminder of the loss in the banishment from the Garden.  The theme behind nature is the constant longing to regain status in the Garden.  This theme can be seen in a multitude of our texts from our class.

            To know the basis of the author’s desires, one must know what it is they desire in the first place.  In The Holy Bible, the first book of Moses, called Genesis, the Creation story is seen.  God creates the Heavens and the Earth, then everything on the earth, then animals and finally man, Adam.  Adam then names all the creatures, and then God creates woman, Eve. They live in a heaven on earth, life is perfect, they are perfect, and everything is wonderful.  They are forbidden to one thing, “the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” Of course, Eve then breaks the rules, eats an apple and Adam follows suit.  God is furious, to say the least, and they are banished from the Garden, and in their expulsion are given various punishments.  No man, nor woman, has ever been able to return to Eden as a living being.  Hence, the constant desire to return to this place of perfection.    

            To begin the evolution through American Romanticism, and the constant yearning for the return to Eden, the best place to start, is at the discoverer of America, Christopher Columbus.  In his “Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage,” written on February 15, 1493, one sees a man full of hope, promise, and enchantment.  The new world would be a place of new beginnings, a place of discovery, and a place full of mysteries.  He discovers all new islands, and is taking the pleasure of naming them.  Which gives a very biblical image of Adam naming all the animals and such, on earth.  He describes his movement through the discoveries as if, “the wind was carrying me forward.” His possibilities are endless.  He feels that even nature is guiding him to all his new explorations.  The new world is amazing, “This island and all the others are very fertile to a limitless degree,” and goes as far as to say, “Beyond comparison with others which I know in Christendom.”  This new world is beyond mans comprehension.  One cannot even begin to believe how wonderful it is without having seen it.  The way Columbus describes the new lands, and the way he feels about it is like he has found Eden on earth, the perfect Eden.  But as desire comes into ones life so does loss.

            In his other letter, “Letter to Ferdinand and Isabella Regarding the Fourth Voyage,” written on July 7, 1503, ten years later an entirely different tone is seen from Columbus.  The opening line sets his entire mood, “Of Espanola, Paria, and the other lands, I never think without weeping.”  Obviously his dream has turned into ashes.  “They are in an exhausted state” the lands that at one time were so full of hope, and filled his heart with so much joy, now only bring him pain and sorrow.  He has grown completely disenchanted with the whole vision.  The lands were taken away from him and are now being abused.  His driving force behind his discoveries was to find new land, with new hope.  A dream that was merely just that, a dream, was obtained, and then stolen and crushed.  He desired to find an Eden, and began to believe he had found such a place, but it was then taken from him and completely lost.

            In movement to the next generation of writers longing for restoration of Eden, one must look at Susanna Rowson’s, Charlotte Temple: Tale of Truth, which was written in 1791.   The Romantic heroine is Charlotte Temple; she is a very fragile, delicate, and and naïve character.  One would not call her a strong person at all, if anything the reader is driven crazy by the fact that she is such a prude, that it is annoying.  She has a good family and lots of love.  This story is more like a reversal of the “finding Eden” theme.  The home she has with her parents is Eden-esc. 

The Temples have a beautiful home and are always in their lush garden.  With such and emphasis on the families garden, the image of the Garden of Eden comes quite easily, “I think my dear,” said Mrs. Temple, laying her head on her husbands arm as they were walking together in the garden, “I think Wednesday is Charlotte’s birth day.”  Here a very biblical picture is painted, Mr. And Mrs. Temple stroll through their garden like Adam and Eve.  Their live is fairly worry free, and they living the good and wealthy, but simple life. Although this soon changes once Charlotte is carted off by Montraville.

Montraville has a serpent like quality about him.  He has a sneaky power of persuasion and preys on the weak, which reminds the reader of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, that lead to Adam and Eve’s downfall.   He convinces Charlotte he loves her and that she must sneak off with him.  At the peak moment, weak Charlotte passes out and is abducted to go with Montraville.  Charlotte is taken from her Eden and is now living this new punished life.  Needless to say Charlotte does not have a happy ending; she is abandoned, and dies with her new born baby in her arms, shortly after her father finds her.  Her father takes his new Granddaughter back home, to their Eden.

Their family comes full circle, with the new granddaughter in their lives, they feel like they never lost their Charlotte after all, but in the end a snake returns.  Mrs. Crayton, the character whom persuades Charlotte to see Montaville, is brought into the Temple’s lives once more.  Mr. Temple assists her in her time of need, and when she comes to, and realizes who saved her she is grief struck once more.  She tells Mrs. Temple, “come not near me, Madam, I shall contaminate you.  I am the viper that stung your peace.” She is taking on the personification of the serpent in the Garden of Eden.     This biblical reference reminds the reader that Charlotte was not only coaxed but one serpent but two, and the serpents took her away from her Eden.   She had already found her perfect place, and lost it, but never stopped desiring to return to the perfect place that she lost. 

In the letters by Thomas Jefferson, about “the Declaration of Independence,” the reader sees a man with an American dream.  When asked to be the writer for the Declaration of Independence, he was full of hope.  In his first draft, one sees the dreams of an ideal world, brought to life.  With Genesis the ideal world is behind them after banishment, but here it is, as if they had rediscovered the ideal world and it is right in front of them, full of endless possibilities.  The Declaration is large piece if writing that is based off of hopes and dreams; although, some of those dreams are sacrificed for that moment. 

In Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration, one sees the endless possibilities of a new world, with equality all the way around, and the fact that anyone can come here and make a home for themselves and better themselves any way they see fit.  One sees his ideal perfect world, but as with anything, he does not get everything he wants.  There are sections that are dismissed, and Jefferson compromises those sections in order to get his dream started.  A lot of times one must compromise certain parts of their dream in order to cross boundaries, so that one day their dream will be come a reality.  This new land is his Eden, and even though he sees the beauty and potential of perfection in this new world, he must loose some of his dream in order to start somewhere. 

As one keeps moving through the generations, they arrive in 1826, with James Fenimore Cooper’s, The Last of the Mohicans.  Before one can even get started on Cooper’s longing to return to Eden, one has to take great appreciation on Cooper’s admiration of nature itself.  His eye for detail in nature is truly demonstrated on the pages of, The Last of the Mohicans.  His character’s surroundings are brought to life for the reader, through his vivid use of imagery.  With that said, it can only be assumed by the reader that the world he describes, as sublime as it is, is perhaps his pathway into Eden. 

The theme behind nature and in the constant longing to regain status in the Garden of Eden has been seen in various works, and perhaps this idea is the driving force for one to exemplify nature’s beauty.  Perhaps there are some writers who do not feel worthy of their return to Eden.  The emotional battle in some individuals can be explained in their feelings of unworthiness, because they feel with the fall of Adam and Eve comes their eternal punishment; which is why the reader sees this sublime natural imagery.  Nature is beautiful, but the actions that are accruing are brutal and violent. 

In The Last of the Mohicans, another loss of Eden theme runs throughout the Indians.  They had resided in the Americas all of this time without disturbance.  Free to roam, reside, and live amongst each other as they pleased.  Now Europeans have come and changed everything around them, and are destroying everything they know and believe in. Their Eden has now become their hell.  They’re fighting for the return of their paradise.  In the last chapter of, The Last of the Mohicans, Munroe tells Hawkeye, “Tell them (the Indians) that the Being we all worship, under different names, will be mindful of their charity; and that the time shall not be distant, when we may assemble around his throne, without distinction of sex, or rank, or colour!”(347)  Inevitably he longs for that perfection of Eden, through Heaven.  Since Eden no longer exists, the only time we will have that perfection is when we arrive in Heaven.  He even states that even though we have different belief systems, we all believe in a higher power and an ultimate resting place that will be perfect. One can assume that this is another moment when the individual does not strive for Eden on Earth, but feels they do not deserve it as human beings, but as spirits in death, we will then again reach the perfection that was once lost. 

   As one reads these multiple writings, one sees the influence that the loss of Eden has on its authors; and as seen in, The Last of the Mohicans, this longing for a return to Eden is spread throughout different religions and cultures.  An example of this wide spread belief in reuniting with the perfection that was once lost can be seen in the, Iroquois, Story of Creation.  It can comparatively be seen that although the Christian beliefs are not the same as the Native Americans beliefs of Ana-mysticism, the stories are remarkably similar. 

There is a universal desire to retrieve what was once lost in Eden.  Human Beings want to restore the perfection that was once bestowed upon them; a life in a perfect environment, with perfect people, in a perfect world.  It is through this desire that artist find inspiration, but more importantly it is also the driving force for people to be the best people they can be.  Any human being with faith knows that the standard to get into their ultimate resting place is to be the best person they can be, and since we have not been able to truly find the real Eden, we must look into our final destination, and do what we can to be welcomed.  So, the desire to return to Eden not only gives the tools we need to create literature, but to also succeed in life and return to Eden in the end.