Traditionally, representations of the event usually have Adam and Eve as the focal point, with their despair at their expulsion conveyed through their figures.

While their posture and expression indicate their disgrace in conventional terms (they cover their faces, and Eve as the more guilty party leads the way), Cole seeks to convey their despair primarily through the landscape.

Consistent with a more or less dualistic vision of good and evil espoused by many strains of Christianity, the composition is divided exactly in half.

On the viewer's right is Paradise, from which Adam and Eve are forcibly thrust by a bright ray of light, which likely symbolizes God.

It is dark and ominous, as hinted in the decaying trees, volcano in the background, and the wolf devouring a deer in the bottom left corner, as a vulture flies by, hoping to scavenge some of the carcass.

Cole was a founding member of the National Academy and exhibited his works there in the hopes of selling them or garnering commissions.

His wife, Martha Catherine Codman Karolik, donated the painting to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.