Gilligan's Island and Exile: Page 2

Throughout history, humanity has told stories
about people in a state of exile from
one kind of paradise or another.
Above, you see the most famous painting
depicting the most famous story about exile --
the Sistine Chapel's rendering
of Adam and Eve's banishment from paradise,
which takes place after they make a fatal mistake.

As a result of their actions,
they are forced into the fallen world of nature and history,
where they will suffer hardship
and learn to rely on themselves.

Well, that's what Gilligan's Island is about --
a group of people in exile.

In this case, they are in exile from
the secular paradise of consumer delights
that is America.

They too make a fatal mistake --
they go out when there will be a storm
and, as a result, they are separated from the comforts of home.

Like Adam and Eve,
their banishment is a painful one.

 
It leaves them stranded,
not in the fallen world of nature and history,
but, ironically, enough, on a tropical island paradise
in which they too will suffer discomfort
and learn to rely on themselves.

The program uses a spinning wheel --
to suggest a radical break
in which they have lost their bearings
and have no way to figure out
how to get back.