High Expectations: A Case Study Of Rudyard Kipling's 'If'

They say that I have no impact. That my words have no weight in a planet of over seven billion people shouting to have their voices heard. In a world plagued with famine, war, and global warming, it is normal to feel as though we do not have any influence in the crises of our planet. However, I believe that change begins with just one person. Receiving the Calvin Coolidge scholarship would allow me the opportunity to transform my dreams into existence.

In Bell Hooks’ essay, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, Hooks addresses and clarifies the misinterpretations that people have of the assumptions made of the poor, how poor individuals are viewed in human culture and how the poor are represented on television. She helps the audience understand how these assumptions are wrong.

Every day, millions of people judge others based on the stereotypes that apply to them, and some do not even know it. Most times these misjudgments are harmless, however, they can definitely be destructive. False judgments based on the stereotypes one follows can make a total stranger seem like a menace to society. This issue is so popular, that it used every day to falsely misjudge others in harmful ways. The most important lesson gained from reading Night, Of Mice and Men, and watching Angel of Bergen-Belsen is that one cannot use stereotypes to judge others because the person could be the total opposite of the judgments and misjudging they can inflict harm to that person if used in the wrong way.

In today’s society, individuals and groups are labeled with either positive or negative stereotypes. People encounter stereotypes everyday and everywhere. It is the picture people paint in their minds when approaching a group or individual when in fact it may be different in reality. Stereotypes affect a person’s way of living and thinking either in a negative or positive way. Stereotypes are based on truth but in an exaggerated way, while misconceptions are formed from having stereotypes. Misconceptions are beliefs that are incorrect based on untruths. Stereotypes are a widely believed image of a particular group or person. One of the many reasons why people create or have stereotypes is because of what is being portrayed on movies and shows.

In her essay, “On Compassion”, Barbara Lazear Ascher analyzes the idea of compassion and the -------- of the homeless by the those more fortunate. She presents two instances in which homeless people are gifted with money or food items and ponders the motivation behind these acts. ----------------------. Targeting a broad audience, specifically people belonging to a higher socioeconomic standing, Ascher emphasizes the need for awareness of the adversity of the homeless, establishes that one must learn “compassion” for the homeless and less fortunate, and poses the question of whether the motivation for the “compassion” is relevant.

Frederick Buechner once said, “Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin.” Similarly, an author by the name of Barbara Lazear Ascher wrote an essay called “On Compassion,” in which she states that people learn about compassion when they experience hardships and begin to put oneself in another’s place. Along with the idea of compassion being learned, Ascher also tries to make us wonder what our motive is that leads us to being compassionate.

The world is full of many evils, including hate, war, discrimination, poverty etc, and though it is nowhere near as bad as it once was years ago it is still an issue for society today. The idea that an entire group of individuals who share similar characteristics are all the same is known as a stereotype (Kassin, Fein, Markus, Burke, 2013). There are several different stereotypes ranging from gender to race, age, social class, ethnicity, etc. Unfortunately far too often members of different social groups experience discrimination by people who are prejudice towards them because of their social group. The majority if not all people will experience some type of discrimination due to stereotyping throughout their lifetime. This also means

In Barbara Lazear Ascher's essay “On Compassion”, she describes various situations she's observed in New York City to imply that “compassion is not a character trait like a sunny disposition. It must be learned… adversity that becomes so familiar that we begin to identify and empathize it.” While observing these two scenes, Ascher expresses her admiration towards the curiosity behind compassion by availing pathos, use of questioning and variant figurative language to illustrate the encounters. Combine these two sentences.

Being mature is usually correlated with older age, but that’s not necessarily correct. Everyone has been told to “grow up” at some point, have been expected to be sophisticated no matter their age. Maturity does not depend on age because parents raise children in varying ways and have experienced unique learning opportunities, and strive for incomparable goals in life

Another stereotype that has established itself in society’s mindset is that all homeless people are criminals. In the online Huffington Post article, “10 Facts About Homelessness,” written by Bill Quigley, the author asserts that “Jerome Murdough, a homeless former Marine, was arrested for trespass in New York because he was found sleeping in a public housing stairwell.” In all reality, if any homeless individual commits a crime, they are not dangerous crimes rather they are status crimes. Status crimes include trespassing, loitering, or sleeping on public property. Nonetheless, if a criminal had committed serious crimes such as murder or involvement in drug, they would be behind bars, not lurking on the streets. In her online article called

Homeless people don’t have the choice that normal people have. They must live a life of poverty and try to rise from the ruins, but it seems so impossible. The story, “What Do Fish Have To Do With Anything?,” by Avi and the problem solution essay “Homeless,” by Anna Quindlen, show how stereotypes affect homeless people. People develop stereotypes by assumptions on homeless people acting differently, causing society to treat homeless people as a group not individuals. Both texts show stereotypes, but in different ways. The story “What Do Fish Have To Do With Anything?,” shows how common stereotypes affect homeless people. The essay “Homeless,” demonstrates how to get rid of the stereotypes of the homeless.

John Howard Griffin dives, head first into the subjects of prejudice, diversity, and racism; in his novel Black Like Me. During his transformation from a white man to a black man, he see’s the injustices thrown upon African Americans. Not because of the way they act, but because of the way they look. The novel Black Like Me brings about a realization of the hypocrisy of White Americans and opens the eyes to the readers, whether they want to accept it as truth or not.

In today 's society we encounter and face numerous problems that can be solved. In everyday life we as human beings walk around giving other individuals stereotypes without realizing that we are doing so. One of Society 's biggest problems that we are facing right now is stereotyping people.

If I could say one thing to the youth, it would be this: Never Give Up. Keep trying and pushing and struggling, even if you don’t know what your goal is or why you would want to achieve it. Make a point to succeed when a person says you are not capable of doing so because when you succeed you are proving not only to them that you can but to yourself. Respect the person who is doubting you because that will let them know that you are not effected by what they are saying. People will recognize you as someone who won’t give up, and they will get out of your way. Being a teenager isn’t anything, its everything. It isn’t a big deal, it’s a HUGE deal; and while you’re being a teenager, you ought to live it up because this is the one chance, the one time, you’ll be young, and free and careless; because you are only young once. So screw it up because in the end, no one gets out alive

THESIS: As a product of society’s “equal” meritocracy, we must find a scale for our actions by comparing our successes and failures to others, creating status anxiety, resulting in our idea of success being relative to our peer’s success.