I took the SAT in October and got an 8. I’ve been taking a prep course and my essay score went up to a 10. I really want to improve my score so I would be so appreciative if someone could tell me what this essay would be considered. Here’s the prompt :
Is it wise to be suspicious of the motives or honesty of other people, even those who appear to be trustworthy?
Despite wanting believe that everyone is trustworthy, it is wise to be suspicious of the motive’s of others. This can be seen through politics where we want to believe that the candidate has our best interests in mind or even in literature through the actions and words of different characters.
In the best-selling trilogy, “The Hunger Games”, the main character Katniss is faced with the task of inciting a rebellion and taking down her nation’s government. During her journey, she comes to find an ally in the leader of a previously demolished state, District 13. Even though the leader of District 13, President Coin, seemed to be trustworthy, Katniss still held some suspicion about her. All of Katniss friend’s trusted President Coin because she gave them shelter in their time of need and provided a safe haven for all the poor families there. She also helped a great deal with the rebellion be providing supplies and troops to go out into battle as well as provided the necessary training for the missions to be successful. Katniss throughout the entire series has a shred of doubt on whether Coin’s motives are for the better of the people or if she has some type of secret agenda. Towards the end of the last novel, Katniss finds out that her suspicions were correct and that President Coin was so keen on helping the rebellion so she could become dictator once the government had fallen.
In the book, Divergent, the main character Tris was very suspicious of the leader of Chicago, Jeanine. In the story, Chicago is divided into 5 different divisions. Each one has a unique trait that makes them different from the rest. Tris finds out that she is special because she does not fit in one category like the others. She is labeled divergent. Tris learns that it is dangerous and she must hide herself. She enters law enforcement in the Chicago and tries to keep herself under the radar. During that duration, the leader, Jeanine, has decided to conduct a search of all Divergents so that she could kill them. The whole society believed that Jeanine was not looking to kill Divergents but rather use them to the benefit of society. However, because Tris is suspicious she pretends to go on a raid to one of the other divisions. There she sees that Jeanine has brainwashed her colleagues into killing anyone in that faction because they were rumored to be hiding the most Divergents.
Finally, this topic can be seen in history. In the early 1900’s, Adolf Hitler rose to power. This is a perfect example of how someone who seems honest could have bad intent. In his early days as a politician, Hitler claimed to want to restore Germany to its former glory. However, as time went on it could be seen that his sole motive was to take revenge on others. This lead to World War II and caused the German people even more hardships. If more people had been suspicious of Hitler’s true motives, many tragic events such as the Holocaust could have been avoided.
In conclusion, having suspicion on a person’s motives is a wise choice. Examples of this can be seen in books like “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent” as well as events in history such as Adolf Hitlers rule over Germany. Many people seem trustworthy at first, but we can never truly know what their motives are.