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Prompt: Do people learn who they are only after they are forced into action?
Essay:
“You can only see yourself through what you do–not what you say you do,” Charles Wantanabe once said in an interview. And many people agree; a person is not usually who he says he is. It is undeniably true, then, that we get to learn who we are after we DO things–sometimes through force. This idea is shown clearly throughout history and the arts.
Martin Luther was a German monk during the time of the Catholic Church oppression. The Church was extremely powerful at the time; it did anything to maintain this prowess, from the sales of indulgences to the execution of “witches”. This disgusted Martin Luther, and he was forced into action. After nailing the famous Ninety-Five Thesis to the church gates, Luther broke away from the Catholic Church and created a new denomination of Christianity–the Lutheran Church. Hence, this example clearly illustrates how Luther, who thought of himself as a common monk, came to realize what he actually was–a leader of a world-changing religious movement.
Dating forward a millennium, another Martin Luther showcased this concept. Martin Luther King Jr. was a very regular African American pastor before he became what he is known for today. However, after seeing all the racial injustices in the country where “all men are created equal”, King was forced into action. Again, this concept–that people learn who they are only after they are forced into action–asserts itself. Martin Luther King Jr. did not know that he would be a leader of the most controversial movement in the United States history.
Yet another example comes from the award-winning film, Drive. The protagonist in the movie, only referred to as “the Driver”, is this quiet, calm, and sad man who falls in love with a woman in his apartment complex. What the woman doesn’t know is that the Driver was deeply affiliated in the criminal world. When, later in the film, the boss of an underground organization sends an assassin to kill the woman and her family, the Driver turns extremely violent and kills the assassin in a very gruesome manner. Until he was put in a situation where he was forced to kill, the Driver did not know who he really was.
Through a careful analysis of Martin Luther, MLK Jr., and the film Drive, it can be clearly seen that people indeed learn who they are when they are forced into action.
Please grade this essay :))) October 3rd SAT is in a week!