Writing Feedback / Understanding Who we are! ; SAT Essay [6]

Do we need to be faced with hard choices in order to understand the truth about who we are?

Write an essay that expresses your point of view. Include supporting examples and analysis taken from your studies, reading, life experience, or personal observations.

Answer:

It's never easy to discover ourselves. Our true nature will never be reflected correctly by simple situation. Only by difficult decisions can we really find out who we really are. In both literature and history, our hardest choices and quandaries illuminate our characteristics and qualities, for better or worse.

In Suzanne Collins' novel - The hunger games, Katniss Everdeen from district 12 must make a gigantic, life-threatening decision to save her 11-year-old sister's life. The hunger games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12 - 18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death. And at this time, unfortunately, her little sister is chosen. Instantly, in between thoughts and fears, between life and death, Katniss screams her sister's name in despair and volunteers to be a tribute for her. Even though she knows her action may bring her to an inhuman death, she still has no nuance of vacillation in her heart. In her sacrifice, Katniss realizes her warm heart towards her family and her great valor. She may die but she can't let her naïve, pitiful sister does.

Historical examples also point to the reflection of one's personality through hard decision making. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, had to endure extraordinary pressure during the long Civil War. Despite every seemingly insurmountable obstacle: generals who weren't ready to fight, assassination threats, bickering among his Cabinet members, huge loss of life on the battlefields, he didn't give in or lose heart. Instead, he became more and more persevered and braver. He didn't let himself affected by pressure and end the war early. He kept fighting until the Confederacy was defeated. His decision to persevere to the war despite any threats proves that Lincoln was not looking out for himself and his own power, but for the happiness and future of the American people.

These uneasy choices of Katniss Everdeen and President Lincoln show that it is the toughest decisions which reveal characters. Granted that there are many other hard choices that may bring out quite different behavior, as literary and historical examples demonstrate, hard decisions show the true nature of a person.