The Serpent within the Modern Garden of Eden

Francis Espiritu

ENGL 48B

Zitkala-Sa Journal

Author Quote: "Judewin had told me of the great tree where grew red, red apples; and how we could reach out our hands and pick all the red apples we could eat. I had never seen apple trees. I had never tasted more than a dozen red applies in my life; and when I heard of the orchards of the East, I was eager to roam among them. The missionaries smiled into my eyes, and patted my head. i wondered how mother could say such hard words against them. (Zitkala Sa 1112)

Internet Source: Bonnin/Zitkala-Sa was born and raised on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota by her mother, Ellen Simmons, whose Yankton-Nakota name was Taté Iyòhiwin (Every Wind or Reaches for the Wind). Her father was a white man named Felker, about whom little was known. Zitkala-Sa lived a traditional lifestyle until the age of eight when she left her reservation to attend Whites Manual Labor Institute, a Quaker mission school in Wabash, Indiana. She went on to study for a time at Earlham College in Indiana and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. (Wikipedia; Zitkala Sa)

Summary: Zitkala Sa wanted to go with the missionaries to the East in order to study. She wanted to be able to go not only to study but to eat all the apples she wanted. To her, apples were rare, and if anything, a delicacy. By going East, she would not only be able to receive an education, but would be able to indulge in all of the apples she could possibly dream of eating.

Personal Opinion: With how I see it, the red apples serve as the forbidden fruit that was in the Garden of Eden. In a sense Zitkala Sa herself could be seen as Eve, while Judewin and the Missionaries could be seen as the Serpent. The irony in that is the fact that the Missionaries wanted to take Zitkala Sa and "tempt" her with education and all the red apples she possibly wanted. It is as if they themselves were going against the very religion they teach and corrupt "Eve" in her Garden of Eden, the reservation she lived on. However is it truly wrong to become educated, and possibly help one's people in the future? Because knowledge is truly power, but by going to get educated, could that possibly make someone a sell out? Yet if it were not for this education, we would not have known Zitkala Sa's story. So in a sense, as much as her mother opposed the "temptation" of the red apples, if she had not taken the temptation, then her story would be lost in history. In a sense, sometimes temptation can sometimes be a good thing.