Pans Labyrinth: The Child-Eating Monster

The Adam and Eve story is unavoidable. Even in art that does not mainly concern the loss of innocence, I keep coming across references to the "forbidden fruit". Just today for instance, I was watching "Pan's Labyrinth" for the first time in my Spanish class. The movie's main character, a young girl named Ofelia, comes face to face with the decision of eating a delicious grape during her quest to complete tasks leading her to the old labyrinth garden. Although instructed by a magical creature not to touch the feast that she will soon encounter in one of her trials, Ofelia is unable to resist a plate of juicy grapes once she comes across the table of food. This results in the awakening of a child-eating monster that chases Ofelia, who just barely escapes the close encounter. Similar to Adam and Eve, Ofelia exhibits the inability to resist temptation, even after being informed of the consequences.

Snow White

Similar to Adam and Eve, another well known character was once tempted with a poisonous apple. The story of Snow White parallels with the Garden of Eden story. After her wicked stepmother offers her the poisonous apple, its easy to see that the apple is a symbol for the loss of innocence.

Garden of Eden

When thinking about innocence and purity, the image of the apple associated with the story of "The Garden of Eden" comes to mind. In the Biblical story, Eve's temptation eventually leads her to betray innocence and eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The poisonous apple represents the loss of innocence.