Breaking the Rules and Miltons Paradise Lost - Essay Example

Breaking the Rules Have we ever stopped to think why human beings have the natural tendency to break rules, no matter how harmless and insignificant they may be? From the dawn of civilization, the practice has continued and has become a common phenomenon in our everyday life. In Paradise Lost, Milton’s focus is on the same subject when Eve is tempted to eat the forbidden fruit which causes her to fall. Temptation, rooted in every human being, tries to induce people to commit wrong-doings and in the process, to break rules. The tendency to break rules ranges from trifling matters to incidents resulting in dire consequences. The subject had never provoked my thoughts till an incident involving rule-breaking changed my whole outlook towards my parents. I used to resent the fact that my parents did not have a broad outlook in matters relating to my activities. Observing the fact that I was spending a lot of my precious time out with my friends, my father viewed the matter with concern and gave me the cliché, ‘A man is judged by the company he keeps’. He further went on to advise me that I should be more careful in choosing friends. What irritated me was the fact that my mother also agreed with him. I was filled with resentment toward my family and felt they were orthodox in their views and they just did not fit into my world. I blamed the so-called generation-gap for their attitude towards me. I knew they loved me and cared about me. Then why were they trying to restrict my freedom? Why were they encroaching on my mind? Those were questions that remained unanswered then, but I did not have to wait long. A month later, an incident in which I was involved changed my whole outlook towards life. Something happened to give me the strong conviction that parents are always right, and if they draw some boundary lines to regulate our life, they have a valid reason for doing so. The incident, even as I recall it now, makes me admit the fact that parents are the best gift in a person’s life, at least that is how it has been with me, and I hope everyone else is as lucky. On that particular day, some new friends had asked me to meet them in the evening as we had decided to go to a concert together. As usual, my father was a bit concerned about who my friends were and where they lived. He took the address of the place where I was going. He also reminded me to keep my cell-phone switched on. Hiding my irritation, I bowed down to all his wishes. When he finished giving his instructions, it was my mother’s turn. She said that it always worried her to see me going out at night and she could never feel at ease until I returned home. I knew it was quite natural for my parents to be concerned about my welfare but somehow I felt they were overdoing it. This was nothing new because every time I went out at night, I was brush-fired with these typical questions and was handed out the same instructions. Anyhow, brushing off the thought of my parents’ intrusion into my privacy, I started thinking about what to wear for the concert. I was always confused when it came to deciding what to wear on some special occasion. Before I could decide when to set out, my mother was already there to remind me it was time. I truly appreciated her interest in my activities, but what she said next made me scowl. ‘Be sure to be back by ten,’ she declared. ‘But it’s a concert, and you can’t expect me to meet a deadline!’ I protested. ‘What your mother says is final, so make up your mind about the time or else I may have to stop you from going,’ my father passed his verdict as he stepped into the room. I could feel the blood rushing into my temples, but I felt the best thing at that moment was to agree to what they said. Hiding my bitterness, I took out my car and set out to meet my friends who were waiting two blocks away. As all the friends were already there, without wasting any time, we set out for that place. It took us an hour to reach there. The place was teeming with people, all youngsters waiting to capture the fun and frolic, the joy of the moment. The evening cast its magic upon us, and we got so wrapped up in the enchantment of the atmosphere that I completely forgot my father’s warning. My cell-phone had been ringing on but I could not hear it in the din. Suddenly I came to my senses and looked at the watch. My heart missed a beat. It was past one and I had still not left the place. I urgently told my friends to get ready to leave. Hurriedly we got into the car and set off in the direction of our home. We had not gone far when the car broke down. We tried in all possible ways to get it started but all in vain. The place where we stopped wore a deserted look. Helplessly, we stood there wondering how to reach home when we saw a car coming toward us. It stopped and out came my father! Never before in my life had I been so glad to see my father as I was then. To me, he was no less than a saint coming to our rescue. By the time we reached home, after dropping my friends, it was past two. Once inside the safety of my home, I remembered the incident and shuddered to think that I could have remained stranded if my father had not come to the rescue. ‘See what comes from disobeying your parents. I hope you have learned your lesson,’ my mother said. Her angry words, instead of hurting me, seemed to take a load off my chest, but what disturbed me was my father’s reaction. He did not utter a single word and walked away silently. I knew I had let him down. My eyes were filling up and in an effort to avoid being seen, I rushed into my room, flung myself on the bed and cried. I was still sobbing when I felt the gentle touch of a hand on my forehead. I opened my eyes only to see my father standing before me. ‘It’s never too late to mend, my child. I’m glad you learned your lesson before anything went wrong,’ he said. His words had a soothing affect on me. ‘I’m sorry to let you down,’ saying this I broke into sobs. ‘Now cheer up and go to sleep. You had a rough day,’ he said in a hushed voice. He turned off the lights, closed the door and walked away, leaving me to myself and my thoughts. I wanted to know the reason for my disobedience, and the only answer that I could come up with was that I wanted to belong to the in-crowd, and whatever I did was a result of that. My father was a man of principles and tried to guide our lives accordingly. My mother was always ready to act according to his guidelines, and just to please him, she would go way out to coax me into falling within his patterns. At times, it irritated me and I felt a sudden urge to protest. I spent a lot of time outside the house, stayed out late, attended mixed parties, in fact, everything my father had an objection to. Whatever it was that had spurred me to break rules, I had learned my lesson and would think twice before getting allured by the temptation of the forbidden fruit. Many people who fail to resist temptation yield to its pressure and find themselves breaking rules. Judging by the large number of researches being done in this field, there is no doubt that the area for breaking rules is a vast one. The activity can start from home and end anywhere. Why do young people break rules? This is a burning question for researchers who have come up with interesting findings to serve as an eye-opener. Action Research, based on field surveys samplings and interviews, is very effective in its data-collecting methods (Calhoun). It has gathered valuable findings in this field of research. The logical reason for such behavior is the curiosity to cross the boundary line between obedience to rules and defiance to rules, and to unravel the mystery of the forbidden activity. Progressive thinkers see the matter of breaking rules on a positive note. Schuster, Edgar H. has expressed his innovative and revolutionary ideas in declaring that there is a positive side to rule-breaking and there is no harm in encouraging it. According to Schuster, rule-breaking is a healthy activity that allows a person to boost up his revolutionary rationalizing power, making him more assertive in his communication. The underlying note in Schuster’s philosophy is that young people should experience rule-breaking and then decide on their own what is best for them, as it is wrong to follow rules blindly, without really examining them. Schuster said this while discussing the positive side of breaking the rules of grammar. His philosophy propagates that there was no harm in breaking rules as it allows the student to get hold of linguistic resources to express themselves more freely, thus allowing them to be heard. Seen in the light of what Schuster advocates, more freedom and more space in a person’s life, without any interference, would give him the opportunity to choose his course without someone else thrusting it upon him. Research findings have come to the conclusion that young people should be allowed to experience the forbidden activity and to learn from their mistakes. Theoretical knowledge stripped of practical knowledge can never be successful. Present day social thinkers would emphasize the need to cross the barriers and reach up to one’s expectations. Even in our day-to-day experiences, we will see that whenever we try to achieve something, obstacles come in our way making it difficult for us to progress smoothly. Those barriers are, in fact, rules to guide our activity and to govern our conduct. What prompts rule-breaking is the natural inborn tendency to defy submission to a regulated social order. To reach his goal, it then becomes necessary for a person to cross those hurdles by breaking rules. In Shakespeare’s plays, we have seen lovers breaking rules so that they can unite. Romeo and Juliet is a heart-rending example of such violation. In a journal article, Social Inclusion for Young People: Breaking down the Barriers, the author throws light on the harmful effects of social exclusion on young people today and tries to find strategic plans to discover a way out of it. The aim is to allow everyone to be a part of the social circle in order to avoid violence of any form in society. As hatred, jealousy, and violence stem from social exclusion, the problem should be nipped in the bud. In another journal, A Family Guide to Keeping Youth Mentally Healthy and Drug Free, published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the problems faced by youths have been viewed with concern and areas of rectification have been pinpointed. This has been necessary as youth force is an integral part of society, and the problems related to them deserve priority. The whole concept is to spend more time with one’s children and make them feel important by taking interest in their activities. A parent should not just be a guide but a role model too. The child should be monitored and at the same time advised to choose friends wisely. In Getting into Trouble, an article published in The Northern Echo, the same issue has been addressed with concern and measures were sought to fight it. An online journal Sage Journal Online, in its article Youth Justice takes up the matter seriously. Today rule-breaking is a matter of utmost priority and concern for different organizations researching on this subject, and they hope to get positive results in this field. References Schuster, Edgar H. (2003). Breaking the Rules: Liberating Writers through Innovative Grammar Instruction. Sage Journals Online. Youth Justice, Vol.6, No.3, 229-230 (2006). The Northern Echo. Schemes to Stop Kids Getting into Trouble. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A Family Guide to Keeping Youth Mentally Healthy and Drug Free. Colley,H., Boetzelen, P., Hoskins, B. & Parveva, T. Social Inclusion for Young People: Breaking Down the Barriers. (2007). Calhoun, Emily. Action Research: Three Approaches. Education Leadership, October: 62-65. 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