Lessons Learned on Becoming a Better Person

The authors of the essays we read this semester, all had the same idea of becoming a better person. All of them wanted us to stand up for ourselves and take control of our lives. Four essays stood out to me this semester that I believe really bring this idea to life. “What Really Scares Us” tell us how to take control of our life with numbers and facts. “Aria” tell us how to become a more competent person with making sacrifices. “Shooting an Elephant” tells us to stand for ourselves by telling a story of a man being forced by others. Finally, “Learning to Read and Write” contains all these elements as a slave learns to read.

David Ropeik had a bold approach to tell his readers to take control of their lives and stop being afraid. In “What Really Scares Us”, Ropeik uses statistical evidence and blames emotions to cut away everyday fears the average person carries with them. More people are afraid to fly in a plane then they are to drive a car because of control. The odds of the plane crashing are lower than the odds of the car crashing. Ropeik explains that because a person is in control, that person feels safer, and that’s a huge emotional factor that determines our fears. Choosing to drive increases your risks, just to have a feeling of being safer. Ropeik really wants every person to set their fears aside and use facts and reason in their everyday life.

Ropeik doesn’t want us to be afraid of things we are out of control of or just don’t understand. “The better you can do at keeping your perception of risks closer in line with what the risks actually are, the happier and safer you’ll be.” (Ropeik 535). He wants us to control what we fear and in turn we can live a much easier life with lower inconveniences, because we think we...

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...otions control me in my decision making. Orwell used his story to influence me not to let me get pushed by others and to take stand for myself. Rodriguez putting aside his heritage so he can become a competent person really inspired me for what I can do. Douglass had all these lessons in his essay on his journey for literacy.

Works Cited

1. Douglass, Frederick. “Learning to Read and Write.” Ed. Keith Gilyard. New York, Pearson Longman, 2007: Pages 351-356.

2. Orwell, George. “Shooting an Elephant.” Rhetorical Choices, ed. Keith Gilyard. New York, Pearson Longman, 2007: Pages 66-72.

3. Rodriguez, Richard. “Aria.” Rhetorical Choices, ed. Keith Gilyard. New York, Pearson Longman, 2007: Pages 441-447.

4. Ropeik, David. “What Really Scares Us.” Rhetorical Choices, ed. Keith Gilyard. New York, Pearson Longman, 2007: Pages 533-535.