Lessons Learned Essay Example

Lessons Learned Essay Example Lessons Learned Essay Lessons Learned Essay Essay Topic: A Lesson Before Dying Jhesson Ynoa Eng11 – 1857 May 10, 2010 In the essays that we have read this semester, the authors were effective in helping their readers to learn something from the authors various subject matters, which could be used in the readers’ own lives. I have chosen four essays that I have read this term from which I have learned from. The four essays I decided on are: â€Å"Shooting an Elephant† by George Orwell, â€Å"Sex, Lies, and Conversation† by Deborah Tannen, â€Å"What Really Scares Us† by David Ropeik, and â€Å"Delusions of Grandeur† by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In George Orwell’s â€Å"Shooting an Elephant† Orwell writes of his experience in British ruled India in the early Twentieth Century. At the time, he was a young, inexperienced soldier stationed there to help protect the Queen’s interests. While he was there, he had to do something that had made some ethical conflicts within him. Orwell had to kill an elephant that had run rampant in lust throughout a village. In its rampage the elephant destroyed a truck, a hut, and killed a villager. The villagers were obviously upset about the situation and he was called upon to restore the order before anything or anyone was hurt. Throughout the ordeal, he decided that it was best to kill the elephant. His reasons for doing so, however, were not as clear-cut. He said his ultimate decision was to not look bad in front of the villagers that gave him a degree of shame. Orwell’s decision is to keep a measure of order and respect within the community. The British presence there has to be kept where respect and discipline are always maintained. If not, the anarchy that would eventually ensue would make laws and codes harder to enforce. â€Å"The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly. With such vast odds against the troops there, if he showed the slightest weakness, the villagers would pounce upon him; everything would descend into chaos. At that precise moment, he realized that the British rule there was utterly void and useless, â€Å"And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first graspe d the hollowness, the futility of the white man’s dominion in the east. † What choice did he have then? No more than when the damage done by the elephant was done. In order to preserve the common good, he had to do something he did not want to. Lessons learned from this essay are the effects of imperialism or as Orwell called it, the â€Å"evils of Imperialism†. It is obvious that Orwell didn’t shoot the elephant because he wanted to but because of the influence from the British oppressors. One can use this essay as an example not only to notice the effects of bad influence amongst an entire population but learn of imperialism and its negative effects. Even though one has been conquered they don’t have to become as them which can lead to even more unjust doing. In Deborah Tannen’s â€Å"Sex, Lies, and Conversation†, Tannen explains how differently men and women perceive conversation in their relationship. She states that the lack of conversation is generating conflicting issues from both men and women who are in a relationship. This is due to the fact that men and women have very different expectations of communication. Tannen describes how differences in communication start during childhood socialization. Tannen states that for women, as for little girls, intimacy is the fabric of relationships, and talk is the thread from which it is woven. For young girls and women, conversation what creates and maintains friendship. By sharing secrets, thoughts, and feelings girls and women build intimacy in their relationships. As for boys, Tannen explains that bonds between boys can be as intense as girls’, but they are based less on talking, more on doing things together. Since they don’t assume that talk is what creates a relationship, men don’t know what kind of talk women want. Young boys are more inclusive with each other, creating larger groups of friends. Within these large groups, boys compete with each other to avoid the subordinate position. Intimate conversation is a form of weakness for boys and men which can play a role in women’s complaints that men don’t listen to them. Some men really don’t like to listen, because being the listener makes them feel one down, like a child listening to an adult. One impression of not listening results from differences in the mechanics of conversation. Deborah Tannen studies videotapes made by psychologist Paul Dorval of children and adults talking to their same sex best friends. Within all ages, the girls and women face each other in conversation with direct eye contact. Unlike the boys and men, who would not face one another and periodically glanced around the room. By facing away and little eye, it gives women the impression that the men are not listening. Another habit described in the essay is the switching of topics. Women in conversation about problems will ask probing questions, and express agreement and understanding. Men in the other hand are not as inquisitive. They will dismiss each other’s problems with simple statements and switch to a topic about themselves. Women perceive these responses as insensitive and unsupportive. Tannen also describes how a woman’s conversational habits are just as frustrating to men. In close comfortable surroundings, women overlap each other, finish each other’s sentences, and anticipate what the other is going to say. Men feel this behavior is an interruption, intrusion, and lack of attention. Women also love to talk to one another, expressing agreement and support but men see their conversational role as pointing out the other side of the argument. Women don’t mind another point of view as long as it is in the form of a suggestion or inquiry rather than as a direct challenge. All these differences in this essay begin to clarify why men and women have such different expectations of communication. Tannen suggests, once men and women understand these differences, improvement in communication will come naturally. In the future one can use the information in this essay to recognize his or her differences when it comes to conversation and learn to alter their behavior to improve communication with their partner, rather than right and wrong which can lead to breaking up or divorce. In David Ropeik’s â€Å"What Really Scares Us†, Ropeik argues that Humans perceive risk through emotions rather than reasoning even though we obtain a highly advanced brain which gives us the power to reason. Ropeik says that the reason humans perceive risk emotionally before reasoning is because our brains are biologically built to fear first and think second. The brain has two parts that are built mainly for reasoning and emotion. One of these parts is called the prefrontal cortex, behind your forehead, which is the area where we do a lot of our reasoning and thinking. The other part, which is the brain’s key emotion center, is the amygdala. Because of the way the brain is built, information gets to the amygdale first before getting to the prefrontal cortex. In that case a person would react emotionally fearful before ever having a chance to reason and consider the facts. The turning of raw sensory information, for instance confusing a stick for a snake, into fear is due to the built-in patterns in our brains that interpret sensory information that help us subconsciously filter incoming messages, making us more afraid of some things than others. Ropeik also uses statistical information which makes Ropeik’s argument a lot more effective. For instance when Ropeik talks about dread, one of the emotional factors that determine our fears, he states â€Å"Things that can kill us in really awful ways seem riskier. We’re more afraid of being eaten alive by a shark (odds, 1 in 281,000,000) or dying in a plane crash (1 in 9,000,000) than dying from heart disease (1 in 300). † The use of numbers in Ropeik’s essay almost makes it unimaginable to be eaten by a shark or dying in a plane crash. The difference is vast. But, don’t think that because of the odds it is alright to not fear a shark. A shark attack might seem rare but they do occur. One could never believe that they could be the victim a heart attack but due to our fears, when we’re on a plane or at the beach that fear of dying in a crash or being eaten alive succumbs us. When we hear heart attack, most might laugh it off and think that it could never happen to them. The numbers in the other hand tell a whole different story. Using the information from this essay one can learn not to be so fearful of things that are unlikely to happen. In the future one should do a lot more reasoning then letting their emotions get the best of them. Fear is nothing but a state of mind which can sometimes trap us. In â€Å"Delusions of Grandeur† by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Gates argues about the importance of education for black youths. African American students should take their education a lot more serious rather than aspire to careers as athletes. Gates states that African American youngsters believe that they have a much better chance of becoming another Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan than they do of matching the achievements of Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke or neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson, both of whom, like Johnson and Jordan, are black. He also uses statistics which very few people would believe if they weren’t reading them in the pages of Sports Illustrated. Here are the facts: There are 1,200 black professional athletes in the U. S. There are 12 times more black lawyers than black athletes, 2-1/2 times more black dentists than black athletes, and 15 times more black doctors than black athletes. Considering the statistics, becoming a professional athlete is more like a dream than reality. As Gates stated, â€Å"In reality, an African-American youngster has about as much chance of becoming a professional athlete as he or she does of winning the lottery. † The odds of winning the lottery are 18 million to 1 and that is only a single state lottery. Nevertheless, the blind pursuit of attainment in sports is having a devastating effect on the African-American people. Henry also argues that public schools fail to educate athletes which lead to the school almost failing to educate everyone. Only 26. % of black athletes at the collegiate level earn their degrees. For every successful educated black professional athlete, there are thousands of dead and wounded. Yet young blacks continue to aspire to careers as athletes. The thought of sports being the â€Å"only way out† for young blacks should be sought out. These young athletes must understand that education is the best method to achieve success. A sport is an alternative, if he or she is that good. From this e ssay people learn of the effects that sports has brought amongst young blacks. It isn’t entirely their fault but also the fault of public schools. In the future we can use this information to inform the young blacks, whether it’s our friend, a classmate or even our next door neighbor, who strive to be professional athletes, of the effects of sports that can hold them back from a good education. These essays which I have read and studied this semester proved to be worthwhile. They have learned from them things that I in the future can use to my advantage. The lessons learned from all four of these essays can help everyone in various ways. Whether it was George Orwell’s â€Å"Shooting an Elephant† and its lesson of imperialism or Deborah Tannen’s â€Å"Sex, Lies, and Conversation† and the lesson of men and women’s expectations of communication. Whether it was David Ropeik’s â€Å"What Really Scares Us† and its lesson of reasoning and emotion or Henry Louis Gates’ â€Å"Delusions of Grandeur† and its lesson of the importance of education for black youths. All these essays have something in common and it’s that they all have a lesson to be learned which will be used for the better of ourselves and for the better of others. 1. Orwell, George. â€Å"Shooting an Elephant† Rhetorical Choices, ed. Keith Gilyard. New York, Pearson Longman, 2007: Pages 66-73. 2. Tannen, Deborah. â€Å"Sex, Lies, and Conversation† Rhetorical Choices, ed. Keith Gilyard. New York, Pearson Longman, 2007: Pages 454-459. 3. Ropeik, David. â€Å"What Really Scares Us† Rhetorical Choices, ed. Keith Gilyard. New York, Pearson Longman, 2007: Pages 533-535. 4. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. â€Å"Delusions of Grandeur† Rhetorical Choices, ed. Keith Gilyard. New York, Pearson Longman, 2007: Pages 247-249