Fallen Food and Temptation

According the Bible story, the first two people on Earth were Adam and Eve. They lived in paradise in Eden, but things got tricky one day when a suspicious serpent told Eve she should totally eat some fruit on a treat God told her to stay away from. Tempted, Eve was like, This sounds like a totally great idea, so she ate that fruit and told Adam to do it, too. Turns out they were eating from the Tree of Knowledge, and when the Big Guy found out, he got royally ticked and cast Adam and Even out of Eden.

Sound familiar?

Yeah, that's because something pretty similar happens in Fallen. Here, Cam is constantly tempting Luce with trinkets and fancy food, and he's usually doing so in some leafy place. Cam: delicious and dangerous. Luce: staggeringly stupid and totally lacking in self-awareness. What could go wrong?

Questions About Food and Temptation

1. In different scenes, Cam offers Luce various kinds of food, including an apple, some figs, and some cheese. What is it about fruit in particular that elicits ideas of forbidden behavior? Would it have been the same if Cam offered her a cheeseburger, or a Groupon?
2. Why does Cam ask Luce to meet her at a bar but not tell her specifically that they're going to a bar? Does the name of the bar, The Styx, indicate anything about Cam's character? Does it hint at the danger of the situation Luce is going to put herself in by going there?
3. Luce declares early on that she is a vegetarian—not because she's rebelling from her parents or trying to do good in the world. She just doesn't like meat. What does this say about Luce's character? And what does it say about Sword & Cross that most of their meals are, as Luce puts it, meat-centric?
4. Not only does Cam have access to exotic foods, but he also has access to alcohol, both on campus and off. What does this say about his character and his lifestyle, and does it emphasize a certain message about how we're supposed to feel about Cam? How reliable is he as a character?

Chew on This

Luce's parents surprise her with a picnic of her favorite things on Parents' Day. This gesture suggest that Luce's parents love her, even though they've sent her away to Sword & Cross.

Although Luce drinks at Cam's party, Penn never does. Sometimes Penn acts more as a parent to Luce than as a friend.