milton's paradise lost
One often reads a book or watches a movie and finds a specific meaning behind the whole story, a moral. After watching American Beauty it is easy to see a resemblance in the characters to that of Paradise Lost. In this way you could say that by reading Paradise Lost the characters in American Beauty could have related and changed the way they handled their situations. In particular, Lester Burnham could have saved his life if he had only read Paradise Lost. Today society is constructed around the notion that happiness is found through material success: a rewarding big-money job, a nice house in a quiet neighborhood, a fancy car, and a great spouse. American Beauty's Lester Burnham, on the surface, seems to have it all. In reality he is rapidly beginning to realize that his lifestyle has left him without a soul. Burnham is an advertising writer who finds his job unbearable, his wife frigid, his teenage daughter a stranger, his life in general intolerable. While masturbating in the shower one morning, Lester declares this event to be as good as it gets all day. So he takes a fall. Lester Burnham complicates his life further when he becomes infatuated with his daughter's best friend. After seeing this young girl at a b
The main purpose of Paradise Lost is to portrait the fall of man as a deplorable, yet faith-reaffirming event. The fall of man begins with the fall of Satan. Satan rebels against God, falls, then decides to seek revenge by destroying mankind. The consequence of his fall is very horrid and terrifying. The fall brings him darkness, sorrow, and a Hell that will be within him forever. The fall of Adam and Eve brings with it death, sin, pain, suffering, etc. into the world. The fall of mankind seems to be the death of everything perfect. It introduces death and pain to the world, but it also unveils the chance for redemption. In a sense, Lester falls in American Beauty. At first he lives a life which would be considered acceptable to society: a normal job, a normal family. But as he becomes tired of his normal life, Lester becomes an outcast to society. Through knowing the consequences of the falls in Paradise Lost, Lester could have saved himself from his mid life crisis by realizing that such a fall could end up disastrous. One of the major themes in Paradise Lost focuses on the question: Where is Paradise? Paradise is not a physical thing that one can touch or see. It is found within ones self. The paradise that Adam and Eve find is their togetherness, "Imparadised in one another's arms" (P
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 885
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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