Friday, January 24, 2020

Essay on Myth of the Fortunate Fall in John Milton’s Paradise Lost

Myth of the Fortunate Fall in Paradise Lost  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   From this descent / Celestial Virtues rising, will appear / More glorious . . . than from no fall. (ii. 14-16)1These are Satan's words to the fallen angels in Paradise Lost. Satan claims that their fall from Heaven will seem like a "fortunate fall," in that their new rise to power will actually be "more glorious" than if they had stayed in Heaven all the while. Can we, as fallen humans, possibly make Satan's words our own, even if it is not our own work but God's that causes our "rising"; or, if we do claim a "fortunate fall," have we been beguiled by Satan to rejoice in our fallen state? While it is common among beguiled critics to claim that Paradise Lost presents the Fall as fortunate, in fact the Fall is much less fortunate than these critics presume.    Millicent Bell is among the beguiled, but he starts off with a vital point that is too easily forgotten. What does the narrative make explicit about the Fall? "The bare story makes no mystery of it. It was infinite disaster."2 From the beginning of the epic we learn that the Fall "Brought death into the world, and all our woe" (i. 3). It "brought into this world a world of woe,/Sin and her shadow Death, and misery/Death's harbinger" (ix. 11-13). We learn that Eve, after leaving Adam to go her own way in Eden (just before the Fall) "never from that hour in Paradise/Found'st either sweet repast, or sound repose" (ix. 406-07). Eve's Fall is a great calamity for the world (ix. 782-84); so is Adam's, completing the original sin (ix. 1003). The couple's early reactions to their sin include disgust, shame, lust, and scorn for the earth (ix. 1010 ff.). The woe of Satan, too, is "perpetual" (ii. 861) and "eternal" (iv... ...s that Paradise is where she and Adam are together, so that an Eden without Adam would be no Paradise at all (xii. 615-17). 15. Bell (878-79) asserts that Milton could not have understood Raphael's words about education and spiritual uplift without tying them to the harshness of error and suffering; though I disagree, Bell's general point stands: as a fallen human the life of righteous suffering is the only good one that Milton could have had true sympathy for. On the other hand, in the context of the epic, Frank Kermode and Barbara Lewalski recognize that in Paradise Lost we yet know nothing of this inner paradise with which to compare it to Eden (we have only Michael's word): "The paradise of Milton's poem is the lost, the only true paradise, we confuse ourselves . . . if we believe otherwise" (Kermode, "Adam Unparadised," Elledge 603-04; cf. Lewalski 270).

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Aztecs VS Mongols Essay

The Mongols and the Aztecs evolved on completely opposite sides of the world, so they had a substantial amount of differences. The contrasted culturally and socially. For example, religion was one of the numerous differences between the two. Also, the foundation of their societies was different as well; one being based on agriculture and the other being nomadic. However, they were not different in every aspect. The Mongols and Aztecs were similar politically because both had substantial and powerful militaries. Culturally, the Aztecs and Mongols were different, particularly with their religions. The Aztec Empire worshipped their Sun God; they believed that the sun was a gift from the Gods and that as it goes down every night, they’re required to make sacrifices in order to make it rise up again the next morning. Their king had to be a descendant of the Sun God in order to rule and he lived in a large religious temple. On the other hand, the Mongols were tolerant of most religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Shamanism, Islam). There were few places of worship because of the fact that they were nomadic, but they did praise their Allah. The empire first began as Pagans but eventually Islam became the favored religion of the empire because the Mongols went into the middle east.They did not sacrifice people, but they did animals. This religious difference exists because the two empires are on reverse regions of the globe, the Mongols in central Asia/Middle East and the Aztecs in present day Mexico; Therefore we know that the different areas of the world followed different customs and religions. The Aztecs and Mongols also contrasted socially, specifially because of the foundation of their civilizations. The Aztecs based their civilization on agriculture. They lived in what is Mexico today which had fertile soil and was surrounded by water, thus making it easier to maintain crops and create a system to manage the water. Then there were the Mongols who didn’t really stay in one spot, but were pastoral nomads who traveled all the way from  Eastern Europe to Central Asia with their livestock as a way of obtaining food. Not only did the Aztecs live in such a fertile area of the world, but their main city, Tenochtitlan, was surrounded by Lake Texcoco which provided them with easy access to trade routes. The Mongols could not be agricultural-based peoples like the Aztecs because of the extremely dry desert-like land they inhabited which was not suitable for crops. Therefore they had to resort to the nomadic lifestyle in order to survive. The Mongols and Aztecs were fairly similar politically. Both civilizations had prodigious militaries and conquered everyone around them. The Mongol Empire was a military empire, with Genghis Khan as their leader. They used advanced weapons from China (such as the bow and arrow and flaming catapults), and were excellent horse warriors. The boys were trained to be soldiers at the age of 14 and were forced to join the army. The Aztecs also had a society strongly based around their powerful military. In their empire, every boy who was physically capable would be trained to fight even with little notice. The aggressive warlike way of life in these societies made them very sturdy empires; both were able to conquer areas around them that no one else was able to, because of their intellegence of warfare and use of weapons. Overall, the Aztecs and Mongols were both large and advanced empires. Although they developed at different times and in different places, they had similar military lifestyles. But there were also plenty of things that differentiated the two empires; the first being their religious beliefs and the second being the social foundations of their society (agricultural or nomadic).

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

CSU Stanislaus (GPA, SAT Scores and ACT Scores

In 2015,  CSU Stanislaus  rejected over a quarter of all  applicants. Nevertheless, the admissions bar isnt that high, and students with decent grades and test scores are likely to get accepted. CSU Stanislaus GPA, SAT and ACT Graph California State University Stanislaus GPA, SAT Scores and ACT Scores for Admission. Data courtesy of Cappex. Discussion of CSU Stanislauss Admissions Standards: In the scattergram above, the green and blue dots represent students who got in. As you can see, most students who were accepted had grades in the B range or higher, SAT scores (RWM) of 900 or higher, and ACT scores of 17 or higher. However, note that there are a few red and yellow dots (rejected and waitlisted students) scattered throughout the graph. Some students with grades and test scores that seem to be on target for CSU Stanislaus did not receive an acceptance letter. Students who have a high school GPA of 3.0 or better do not need to submit standardized test scores. Be sure to see the CSU application for information on how the university calculates GPA. Unlike the University of California System, the California State University System admission process is not holistic. Except for EOP students, applicants do not need to submit letters of recommendation or an application essay, and extracurricular involvement is not part of the standard application. Thus, the reason why an applicant with adequate scores and grades would be rejected tends to come down to a couple factors such as insufficient college preparatory classes or an incomplete application. Learn More To learn more about CSU Stanislaus, high school GPAs, SAT scores and ACT scores, these articles can help: CSU Stanislaus Admissions ProfileWhats a Good SAT Score?Whats a Good ACT Score?Whats Considered a Good Academic Record?What is a Weighted GPA? If You Like CSU Stanislaus, You May Also Like These Schools: Scripps College:  Profile  |  GPA-SAT-ACT GraphCalifornia Baptist University:  Profile  University of California - Santa Barbara:  Profile  |  GPA-SAT-ACT GraphChapman University:  Profile  |  GPA-SAT-ACT GraphUniversity of California - Riverside:  Profile  |  GPA-SAT-ACT GraphMount St. Marys College:  Profile   GPA, SAT and ACT Graphs for Admission to Other Cal State Campuses Bakersfield  |  Channel Islands  |  Chico  |  Dominquez Hills  |  East Bay  |  Fresno State  |  Fullerton  |  Humboldt  |  Long Beach  |  Los Angeles  |  Maritime  |  Monterey Bay  |  Northridge  |  Pomona (Cal Poly)  |  Sacramento  |  San Bernardino  |  San Diego  |  San Francisco  |  San Jose State  |  San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly)  |  San Marcos  |  Sonoma State  |  Stanislaus