<p>Q: Can what we value be determined only by what we sacrifice?
(I took more than 25 minutes, and still I feel it is haphazard).</p>
<p>My answer:
The worth we place on something can be quantified by the extent of sacrifices we willingly take in order to pursue the objective of our desire. And thus, those sacrifices define overall our lives values, whether honorable or shallow in the end.
A man may even willingly sacrifice his integrity, honor, and virtues in pursuit of his goals as in the case of Jay Gatsby, the protagonist from the literature work, The Great Gatsby. In his zeal to win back his lady love, he willingly took part in various criminal activities to amass great wealth, with the hope that the great wealth he gained through illegal means will finally make him worthy to possess Daisy Buchanan's love. He told many lies about his background, creating the illusion that he was born into a rich family, instead of telling of the truth that he came from a farmer's family.
On the other hand, a man might sacrifice his own pleasures and life for the greater good of others when he decides to make such a worthy cause the ultimate purpose of his life. Mahatma Gandhi sacrificed more than forty years of his personal freedom in his struggle to win independence for India and its citizens from the British. For many years, he stoically stood his ground and was willing to be imprisoned for his beliefs. He was a man who also greatly championed the freedom of press, and when the British soldiers burnt down his newspaper office for writing the truth about their regime, he started to write for the newspapers from within the prison walls, showing the depth of his dedication to the integrity of journalism. He never gave up his beliefs and values, and was willing to sacrifice everything else to uphold his noble principles.
The sacrifices we make thus determine what we place in the highest regards in our lives. It could be materialism, it could be love, or it could be noble and defining principles of humanity.</p>