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George Saunders's The New Mecca

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The truth is what you see with your own eyes. In George Saunders’ “The New Mecca”, he narrates his travelling experience in Dubai, and Saunders changes his attitude towards Dubai completely from considering it may be “an idyllic mountain kingdom ruled by gentle goatherds” to acknowledging it as “may well be the greatest city on earth”. In this essay, I will argue that “In all things, we are the victims of The Misconception From Afar. There is the idea of a city, and the city itself, too great to be held in the mind. And it is in this gap (between the conceptual and the real) that aggression begins” is central to Saunders’ essay, because this quote points out the common situation that people often misjudge things and form stereotypes even before they actually learn about them, and this is the message that Saunders’ article conveys. This essay will develop how the quote is central to Saunders’ essay from two aspects, human can easily make wrong judgements on something they are unfamiliar with and misconceptions are the sources of aggression and conflicts. The human nature makes us tend to form our own objective opinions of things easily without relative information to prove our understandings. Before Saunders went to Dubai, he didn’t even know where it was and he along with many people thought it was a dangerous place, as he writes, “Is it dangerous? Will I be beheaded? Will I need a translator? Will my translator be beheaded? Just before we’re …show more content…

There is the idea of a city, and the city itself, too great to be held in the mind. And it is in this gap (between the conceptual and the real) that aggression begins” is central to Saunders’ essay, due to the fact that this quote illustrates Saunders’ message that people tend to have misconceptions generated from their own limited experience and misconceptions can easily lead to conflicts and aggression if handled

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