an essay involving rent

[rentfn]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 9:36am

Hey i had to write an essay about the movie Groundhog Day and i Used Rent to compair it. I know this is strange but i was wondering if anyone wanted to check it out and give me some thoughts. it starts off talking about Buddhism but rent is in the last two paragraphs :) thanks for your time...


No Day but Today
In the article, Mr. Spence Uses Nietzsche’s ideas and thoughts of Christianity to relate it to the movie “Groundhog Day”. I was raised learning about Christianity but the thought of what happens when we die worries me, but most people question it anyway. I also see a link in this movie to another religion, and to the most amazing musical ever to hit Broadway.
Some ideas in Buddhism could be used to relate to “Groundhog Day”, so poor Christianity does not need all the attention. One of the main ideas of Buddhism is that there is suffering in the world. The worst thing for a Buddhist is resurrection. Buddhism is about extinguishing the self and finding Nirvana, which I will get to soon. So I see “Groundhog Day” as a major work in Buddhism. Nietzsche and Buddhism both say you would be forced to relive your whole life, or another life. But “Groundhog Day” only has an hour and a half to prove its point so they focus on one day that could show Phil a different way.
The second point in Buddhism is that all suffering in life is cause by a reason. That reason is desire. Phil’s whole life is driven by desire. He wants a better job on a network station and be seen by more people. He never wants to return to Punxsutawney because for him Punxsutawney is hell. He has no idea of his place in the world because he only looks at where he wants to be and not where he is.
The third idea of Buddhism is that when there is no more suffering there is Nirvana. Nirvana is reached when the soul is extinguished. You can only reach this by ridding yourself of earthly desires. Only when Phil finds his place in the world is he truly happy. He has given up on thinking about tomorrow and has found the happiness that is today. He is then no longer forced to repeat the same day, which can be a symbol of resurrection, and moves on to a new day and life with what he has learned.
In 1996 Broadway was given a gift from the gods. A new musical was set to open on Broadway by the name of “Rent”, written by a genius by the name Jonathan Larson. Mr. Larson’s story centers on a group of friends living in NYC and dealing with AIDS. They struggle to find meaning in their lives, when it seems certain there is none. They figure out to stop living in the past and focus on the now, because they do not know how long their future is.
No Day but Today is the main message of Rent. Stop worrying about the past, it has already happened and nothing can be done about it. Stop thinking about what will happen in the future, or saying better days are in front of us. Focus on the now because that is what is definite, that is what is real. Phil learns throughout his struggle that there is No Day but Today, and that is the most important thing. Learning to live with what is around you, no matter how many times you experience it, always find somethin
Updated On: 11/9/04 at 09:36 AM

[sean martin]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 11:18am

It feels a little tacked on. You spend a good deal of time talking about the tenets of Buddhism as seen in Groundhog Day (an intruiging thought, actually), then Rent comes out of the blue. It needs a tighter tether to the body of the essay if you're going to pull this off.

[rentfn]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 11:50am

yeah i should have mentioned about that. see i always involve rent in all my papers. so i have been just tacking it on to all of them. it drives the teacher mad, but it's my revoultion!!!

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 1:18pm

There's also a lot of bias in the essay. I mean, "In 1996 Broadway was given a gift from the gods [...] written by a genius by the name Jonathan Larson"??? Woah! I'm sure this is just a high school paper, but it would definitely help your case if you took your own personal tastes out of your essay.

[rentfn]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 4:53pm

Well i only say that because it's a running joke between my philosophy proffesor and myself. and can you tell me that Rent is not a gift from the gods?

[sean martin]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 5:55pm

Sure. It;'s easy.

RENT is a good piece of theatre.

But a gift from the gods? Sorry, it's not.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 6:57pm

Besides, you want to be persuasive in your essay - as if you actually gave your argument some critical thought. The tone of the essay right now is a little too fan-obsessive.

[Musetta1957]

Posted: 11/10/04 at 3:42am

"see i always involve rent in all my papers."

You're lame.