UC Chicago Essay(Option 1)

Essay Option 1.

"A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies." –Oscar Wilde.
Othello and Iago. Dorothy and the Wicked Witch. Autobots and Decepticons. History and art are full of heroes and their enemies. Tell us about the relationship between you and your arch-nemesis (either real or imagined).
Inspired by Martin Krzywy, admitted student Class of 2016.


 

People fight against their enemies to defend themselves either physically or mentally. They fight over a power to control their fates. Writing this essay, I am warding off my arch-nemesis, landing silently on my shoulder and whenever I get to start something important. This invisible enemy is “Fear”, fear not to be successful.

It was last semester, in the middle of May. I was standing in front of four peers, and a teacher was sitting in the back of the office. Nothing was peculiar, even that I blundered my presentation. I was to hear a contrite comment that I had heard after every presentation: “I see your effort, but I could not hear you. You looked too embarrassed. Why don’t you have confidence with your work?” I had not answered the last question verbally, but had only thought to myself, “Confidence? I was always confident with my work, but the only problem is that no one catches that emotion.” Finally the teacher opened his mouth, however, with unexpected inquiry: “Why, do you think, do you give a presentation to us?” Why had I spoken in front of others? After all, I had always blamed my tone and the insensibility of the teachers and returned to individual works, which had generally had an acceptable quality, sometimes even been excellent. Why should I preconclude a public speech is an embarrassing moment that shall pass? Why not try to break this enduring pain?

While I was in this chain of thought, the class was finished. Fear was now banishing with the bell.

I wanted to be perfect. But whenever I try my best, I would hear Fear slicking through the window, tiptoeing toward me, and landing on my shoulder. Every motion of Fear would amplify and confuse me. It was all because of Fear. I really wanted to be perfect. At least I hoped for the best in the real presentation on the next day.

Not to be distracted from the presentation, I could expect two scenarios: I would concentrate on the presentation, ignoring Fear, or practice presentation until I could recite it automatically. A strong-willed human or a cold machine? What would I choose?

I decided to be a machine, unsatisfyingly. Hey, life is not a drama. No one can change one’s persona in a day. I wanted something real and certain. The days and nights I spent for the research and the presentation were real. They deserved rewards.

That night I repeated the presentation in front of the mirror in the bathroom, over and over. First, I read the script I wrote over and over. Then, I could recite the script without looking at it. Finally, I looked in the mirror, and checked my tone and posture. There, in the mirror, Fear was staring at me, hopping and running around. After several times, my tongue and my neck were moving by themselves. I was still greatly annoyed; nonetheless, it was impossible to stop my voice. In the mirror, there wasn’t me, but only Fear.

“You cannot defeat me from now on; because, there is no one to defeat.”

The lonely enemy trudged away. My effort was finally rewarded in the next morning. Yet, as soon as I came back to my room, I could clearly see the enemy hanging on my shoulder.

 

Essay with 996 characters!(Abandoning pets)

People may not abandon their pets. What is justice? Why can’t one kill or deceive others? Justice is to respect other people’s right. Yet, pets are not people. Pets are movable goods, belonged to legal owners. Since pets are physical properties, nothing can be wrong about abandoning one’s pet.

Many people feel guilty about deserting pets, but this sentiment is myopic. Imagine a family which can no longer raise a dog, for it moves to an apartment abandoning pets. It would be nice if the family gives the dog to someone else, but it may be impossible; most only want puppies. Then, leaving the dog on a street is the most effective and convenient way to find a new owner. If it is sent to an animal shelter or hospital right away, it must be killed if it is not adopted. But if it is left on a street, it can be either found by a kind, new owner or brought to an animal shelter after a few days. It might be killed by accident, yet it can be exposed to many people and live as long as possible.

Ben X review

Imagine a boy in front of flashing computer screen, clicking busily the mouse. Is he wasting his time alone or is he enjoying his free time, like typical teenagers? If a Korean is asked of this question, he or she must show negative impression of the boy. In fact, a computer game can be a useful tool to release someone’s stress outside a real world. However, we, Koreans are very eager to say that a computer game is lame and unproductive, in any cases. This prejudice might be the brocade that prevented me from understanding “Ben X” at the first time.

In Korea, most students experience excitement and joy of playing an online game. More and more games permeate to people lives through personal electronic devices. However, despite this general trend, people are acquainted with more gloomy and dark sides of online games. We often see the article that associate a criminal and addiction to violent games.

Ben is one who builds his haven in an imaginary world. We cannot judge whether his way of solving his problem is good or bad, yet it seems realistic. Although the adults around him try to understand him, the adults fail to encourage him to speak up. They overlook his difference, saying that Ben is academically okay, and even excellent. Later on as Ben gets trapped in more and more problems, they preclude that the exotic boy is extremely self-centered and not willing to communicate with others. In fact, Ben needs others’ help to escape from abysmal isolation. “He is way too slower than everyone else.”

 

In contrary, when Ben enters in the online, he becomes capable of controlling his appearance and pace. He can log in and out whenever he wants to. He is a muscular hero with level 80. Most importantly, there is a girl who waits for him and listens to him.

According to IMDb, Ben X is often pronounced “Bennicks”, which means “I am nothing” in Dutch. Ben pacifies himself when he logs in as Ben X, but he had to mend the discrepancy between his identity in the real world and in the cyber world in order to find his true identity. Moreover, as the movie goes on the watertight boundary between the two distant worlds starts to break away: the girl in the game tries to meet Ben in offline, and the bullies upload the video of Ben being taken off his pants. Ben compromises the two identities harmoniously, if not idealistically. He merges the image of his only supporter to the real world. With a help of his girlfriend, though she is only a false image, he is empowered to keep on living and share his feelings with others.

Realizing that Scarlite was not a real person, a movie “Beautiful Mind” came to my mind. “Beautiful mind” also deals with hallucinations, but in contrast with Ben X, the protagonist strives to escape from the hallucination. At last, he chooses to live along with the false image not to depend on medication. Though his psychological disease is incurable, he eventually finds his way not to be perturbed by the handicap. I think “Ben X” gives us similar solution for autism. Not every problem can be solved perfectly. In such cases, we have to find a way to live along with it.

 

Flash Fictions

1. English assignment
I opened up my notebook and typed "f" automatically.
2012. 11. 21.
What am I supposed to write about?

Essay Due Date 2012. 11. 20

2. Absent from morning excercise
Fresh Monday morning! I felt wonderful and everything was fine. Except for the alarm clock.

3. Snow
The more, the better.

4. 2012. 12. 21.
No asteroid appeared. Everyone cheered. Then the electricity was cut off.

5. Computer Violation
I'm the king of the universe. Knock, knock... Oh, hi, Daeki Kim.

6.
0:00
I have six hours left for the physics assignment, essay, and wordsmart quiz. Fine. Two hours each.
2:00
Maybe I'll drop the quiz. I opened the notebook, and realized that I didn't charge it. Maybe I'll skip the morning excercise.
6:00
Only two problems were solved.

7. KMLA
Bring in a hope, run out of it, and make another hope and bring it to the next stage.

8.
You only realize that you were sleeping when you wake up.

9. Mycrocosm in my mug
"Making something out of nothing."
Say hello to my cute, little friends.

10.
Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of shit-smelling foulness. The next day, Dany crawled through the same pipe; he found himself behind the Rita Hayworth.

Ben X Review

Ben X: A Realistic Approach to Autism

Autism is not at all a new topic to us. I’ve watched several didactic movies about how we get along with a friend with autism in school. In those movies, attentive adults admonish bullying students saying that “autism is not wrong but special.” Watching those movies, children learn that people with autism or with any other disorder are the same human beings. However, Ben X conveys more than an obvious message. Contrary to the adults in the general movies about autism, Ben’s parents and teachers are rather indifferent to Ben, assuming that he is not different from ordinary boys. Even when Ben is bullied in front of the class, no adult finds out what exactly has happened to him. Autistic people are actually different from non-autistic people; if not, they would not have been diagnosed as autism. Of course, an autistic child should be instructed to become independent, as other children are, but it does not mean that he can be independent with the same amount of care and attention others receive. A naive hope that her son is fine and normal must be hindering Ben’s mother from facing this reality. I wish she had tried harder to communicate more with her son when he was younger. He seems to have escaped from abysmal isolation in reality and established his haven in the cyber world long time ago. Albert Einstein once said, “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” It must be ignorance not bullying that isolates Ben from his family and school.

Earthlings Review 2nd draft(with hyperlinks)

‘Earthlings,’ One Step Toward the Planetary Humanity

 

As a member of a famous animal rights movement group in Korea, I myself have been interested in animal rights and animal protection for many years. Whenever I read the articles or postings about the cruelties to animals, I see a great number of people are interested in the issue just like me. Yet, we are hardly at consensus about what are animal rights and how we should protect them. Some of us are as extreme as to avoid meats and any products that are made from animals; some others are purely motivated to participate in animal protection by affection to animals, mostly pets. The director of Earthlings, Shaun Monson, is close to the former group. He alleges that animals, not only humans, have rights to live an unperturbed life, criticizing commercial exploits of animals. This extreme stance of the director contributes to polarized reactions to Earthlings; many vegans and animal activists agree with his position, while others are uncomfortable and critical about it. Whether or not the director’s point can be admitted to the public, the movie aptly conveys its message to viewers and brings out wanted reactions from them.

Some people argue that the issues of the movie are so widely ranged that it fails to suggest any detailed and feasible solution for any matter. However, if we look closer, we can see the common center of the myriads of brief information; the origin of the problem is originated not in a particular field of industry or by a particular group of people, but in a universal attitude of people toward other species. It does matter that we are eating meat of chickens and pigs raised in filthy and overcrowded factories and our clothes contain deadly preserves. It is possible to temporarily alleviate the life conditions of animals in certain industries, enforcing new laws and policies; however, unless people think it is wrong to treat animals as the resources for products, another problem will continue to emerge from any other place. For instance, despite the restraints in many regions of India, people have designed a “death march” which is to transport cows for days to a region where killing cow is legal, till they die from starvation and torture. In fact, to the Hindus, the leather industry in India is a hideous blasphemy. Yet, the industry has grown to be the biggest in the world due to the endless and increasing consumptions of leathers in Western countries. As far as the consumption and need for the leather exists, manufacturers will do anything to fulfill the needs. The last scene of the clothing exemplifies the director’s main point with ironic metaphor; a woman asks “how much does this run” and the clerk responds, “This is… $49,500.” Can human beings measure the cost of death of other living creature in dollars? Yet, most people view animals as natural resources that can be freely exploited by us, the most intelligent creatures. After seeing the wide ranging problems, we are forced to conclude that attempt to commercialize animals is the fundamental reason of the problem.

Some people also assert that the film is emotionally effective but fails to change people’s behavior. First of all, I want to point out that pathos is not at all an inferior method to persuade people to logos. In fact, animal protection is all about emotions, especially compassion. In an interview, Shaun Monson says when we view any group with empathy, it mirrors our humanity. Since long before the ancient civilization evolved, people divided people into two groups; the neighbors linked with compassion and sympathy and outsiders viewed with apathy and hostility. People start to care about others when they feel empathy. Without empathy the world would be full of wars, disputes, and violence. The director goes one step farther to extend this humane sentiment to the all living creatures sharing common emotions and senses. Tolstoy said, "as long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.” This quote implies that as far as apathy toward certain groups exists, it reflects our humanity. In a sense, overcoming speciesism is relevant to maintaining harmony in human society. If the director had relied on logic and reason to persuade we should not treat animals as mere objects or lesser creatures, it would have been impossible to move so many people’s minds and reinforce the link among the earthlings.

It is true that even with deep resonance, few people actually change their life style after watching this film. Many people say in response videos, that they felt great guilt while watching the film, yet are still ignorant about speciesism after the movie ended. People tend to justify their meat oriented eating habits, animal experiments and animal products, clinging to the belief that the conditions cannot be too bad as the film shows. The narrator says in the conclusion, that ignorance is the speciesist’s first line of defense. However, it is too early to conclude the film is a failure. The director believes that ignorance can be breached by anyone with time and determination to find out the truth. We must go through ridicule and violent opposition to reach general acceptance. Since, exploits of animals are so deeply rooted a custom in human history, it requires pains and struggles to disclaim this life style. However, as more and more people watch how their products and foods are made, they would inevitably search for a way to solve the problem.

Actually, I once tried to be a vegetarian months ago, after I watched a video of thousands of hogs buried alive when the foot andmouth disease prevailed. During the first week after watching, I avoided eating any food containing meats or eggs due to trauma. Yet, the trauma faded away after a week and now I eat meats and dairy foods, though less frequently and in less amount. Change usually comes when the small stimulants amass to the tipping point. This 90 minute movie is hardly a life shifting experience for many people. Nonetheless, this film fulfills its role to make people take a first step toward thinking about the animal rights, and investigate and discuss about what the “truth” is.