Eating of the fruit is symbolic. When they ate of the fruit what would happen.

You will die. No knowledge of death before that,
you will no good from evil. animals don't,
and till the soil, animals don't etc

This shows on one level the evolution of consciousness. We left the garden, nature. Some would say that others were involved on this planet in our development but it had to someplace, and this is a representation of the that someplace. In my humble opinion. rken