<p>This is from Kaplan's 12: (test 12)</p>
<p>Prompt: "In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story." --Walter Cronkite. Do you agree with Cronkite that it's necessary to see both sides of an issue in order to dicover the truth? Write an essay (you know what I mean).</p>
<p>Essay:</p>
<p>Seeing just one side of an argument is called having a bias, and holding a biased opinion hardly, if ever, results in knowing the truth. It follows, then, that to discover truth, one must dispose any previously held biases and consider both sides of the issue. The consequences of not doing so are seen clearly in the literary examples of The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter.</p>
<p>In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, Salem, a Puritan community, struggles with accusations of witchcraft. Some young girls pretend to be possessed and occasionally break free, calling out the names of people they claim to have seen with the Devil. Their parents and other townspeople are so eager to hunt down witches that they hardly doubt their daughters as false. The accusations and trials quickly get out of hand, as innocent, upstanding citizens are suddenly suspected of witchery. Clearly, the townspeople are so wrapped up in their bias for the girls that they fail to see that the girls themselves are the most evil of all.</p>
<p>Similarly, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is another depiction of irrational mobocracy. Hester Prynne commits adultery and becomes pregnant, but refuses to divulge her lover's name. Her lover is, in fact, the esteemed young minister of the town, Arthur Dimmesdale. Burdened by immense guilt, Dimmesdale tries, on multiple occasions, to confess his sins to his parishoners, but they see these confessions as just another part of his sermons. Indeed, their respect for him only grows as he declares himself the greatest sinner of all. The townspeople are so blinded by their adulation for Arthur that they refuse to see the literal truth of his statements.</p>
<p>In conclusion, though one may always hold biases, one must be conscious of them and try to shed them in favor of seeking the pure truth. Had the townspeople seen the girls for who they were, innocent lives and reputation would not have been lost. Had the parishioners realized Arthur was being truthful, he may not have descended into nervous breakdowns. Seeing both sides is vital to discovering the truth; the consequences of not doing so are dire.</p>