This is for the current SAT, can someone please give me a grade? I wrote this in 28 minutes.
Prompt May 2007: Does the truth change depending on how people look at things? May 2007
A New Outlook of a New World
Albert Einstein once said, “A genius thinks outside of the box.” This implies that there are endless possibilities and outlooks to one situation, even though people often go about life having a very fixed outlook on life. In reality, the truth changes depending on how people look at things. This is illustrated by Michelangelo, the Civil Rights Movement, and Schindler’s List.
A compelling example demonstrating how the truth changes depending on one’s viewpoint is illustrated by the great Michelangelo from the Renaissance period. Michelangelo, a modest man from Florence, was an assiduous, revered sculptor who had many rivals such as Bramante, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Rafael. The frescoing of the Sistine Chapel ceiling was assigned to him to fresco, even though he was an inexperienced painter, let alone frescoist. The public had a very fixed mindset, truth, about him: he was not going to be able to complete this arduous task and would make a fool of himself; he was not good enough. However, Michelangelo looked at this from a new perspective: it was a challenge that with enough practice, dedication and time, he would be able to complete. Faced with the public’s criticism, Michelangelo started sketching out drafts of the Seven Days of Creation and meticulously selected an elite group of artists. Eventually, after four years of consistent struggle and bending back on a scaffold, he finished the great chapel ceiling and surprised everyone who thought he would not be able to do it. The truth changed depending on how he took on this monumental challenge because he was motivated by the challenge. He disregarded what people thought he could not accomplish and charged forward with innovation and ambition, creating one of the greatest works the world has yet seen. Michelangelo shows how looking at things from a new way changes the truth.
Another prime illustration of how the truth can be changed depending on one’s perspective is demonstrated by the Civil Rights Movement. In 1959, Rosa Parks, a political advocate was fed up with the racial segregation that was thought to be a permanent struggle for the African Americans on America, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. She was not physically tired, but mentally tired with the inequalities that have seemingly permanently set in on African American lives. However, Parks believed that change was feasible. Her initiative to rebel started the Civil Rights Movement, influencing Martin Luther King to lead peaceful protests, including the delivery of his infamous “I Have a Dream” speech, and to change the minds of millions across the nation. The truth was changed: in 1964, the supreme court ruled the resolution that everyone must be treated equally and segregation was illegal. Parks and King had a different perspective on this historical challenge: they believed that there was hope, that freedom was truly attainable and people were not forever stuck in a state of inequalities. The Civil Rights Movement demonstrates how new perspectives can change the truth and make history.
A final paragon on the influence of one’s outlook on the truth is illustrated by Schindler’s List. During the Holocaust, the devastating truth to the Jews were how cruel all Germans were. Though this was undeniably true, Oskar Schindler, a businessman during the Holocaust, developed a new perspective on the treatment of Jews, changing the seemingly unchangeable. He realized how inhumane the Germans were, how they persecuted millions of innocent people and initiated a genocide. Schindler later helped thousands of Jews out of this predicament by convincing the Nazi party that they were crucial to the market economy of Germany. Oskar’s great, heroic acts changed the truth that all Germans were cruel. The Jews were infinitely grateful to him because he saved their lives. Oskar was a human being who believed that it was not right to exploit other human beings and persecute them. He has demonstrated how a new perspective and outlook can change the hard truth.
Demonstrated by Michelangelo, the Civil Rights Movement, and Schindler’s List, the truth can indeed be changed by how one looks at things. It is critical that one learns from these examples and realizes that perspective influences one’s actions, thus changing the seemingly unchangeable truth. Just like Sigmund Freud once proclaimed, “Perspective is what shapes one’s destiny.”