Sign Inventory, Week Nine

Jennifer Hecht, From The Next Ancient World:

History

Even Eve, the only soul in all of time
to never have to wait for love,
must have leaned some sleepless nights
alone against the garden wall
and wailed, cold, stupefied, and wild
and wished to trade-in all of Eden
to have but been a child.

In fact, I gather that is why she leapt and fell from grace,
that she might have a story of herself to tell
in some other place.

Sign Inventory: 

1) The poem starts by prefacing Eve as a pretty lucky gal... commenting on the fact that Eve had the advantage of never having to worry about or wait on love, she was given "love" from the time she was created.

2)  However, immediately following, one gets the sense that even from the beginning there was the feeling of dissatisfaction, of something being refrained, the feeling of being cheated, ousted...

3) interestingly, the narrator seemingly comments on a fact that may get (all too often) overlook: the first documentations of Eve (and Adam) portray only a, arguably, "youthful" adult. Thus, a new lens opens up... new question(s) raised. For one, how might Eve (just focusing on Eve, here, because she is the only mentioned in the text) feel about not getting the chance to live life as a child, as a teen? Also, how might her feeling cheated and ousted out of this experience create/draw forth a perverse attitude and/or behavior? Additionally, what might Eve do differently, how might she live (i.e., think, behave, respond, etc), if given the chance to do so from childhood? And what might that have meant for the future? Would things be different? 

4) Subsequently, the narrator argues: "I gather that is why she leapt and fell from grace, / that she might have a story of herself to tell / in some other place".  Just within these three (small) lines, the narrator generates a whirlwind of inquisition-- boldly asserting Eve not only consciously chose to fall from grace, but 'leapt' in doing so. What's more, the narrator suggests that Eve's reasoning wasn't because she was driven by sensual appetite or because she was hungry for knowledge, but because she desperately longed for agency, for self-autonomy... to chose her lifestyle and habitat, her dwelling, her residency, her partner-- essentially to start from the very beginning like everyone else. 

5) Therefore, taking this perspective on Eve's "fall from grace", what might the narrator-the author-be getting at? What is the root of this? I wonder what story 'in some other place' would Eve tell? How would it change or alter things, alter History?