One big family, hugging close to the ball of Earth for its life and being
From ZuluNotes - Free Leaving Cert Notes
| One big family, hugging close to the ball of Earth for its life and being | |
|---|---|
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| Subject: | English |
| Paper | 1 |
| Section | The Essay |
| Question | 3 |
| Level | O/H |
| By | User:Cocoa |
Contents |
some points of note
In the exam, underlining can be used to convey italics, do not try to write in italics.
The personal response style essay involves a reflective, meditative and overall thoughtful tone and use of language. To me, that means a rant. If you're considering the personal essay, have a look at some blogs (high standard, witty ones preferably) to give you ideas and a better understanding of the style.
Also, this essay is 810 words long, which is quite short by LC standards, it's generally advisable to aim for more than this, around the 1000 word mark, that's between three and four pages of an answer book for most people. Do not count words in the exam. If you must check, count for a few of the essays you've done already and get a rough idea of how many words you write per line and multiply by 30 to get your number of words per page. Try and get the length in if you can, quality is important, but it is highly unlikely you will lose marks for writing an extra sentence here and there and/or expanding on your points a little more than you may think is necessary.
Question
To view the text that accompanied this question check paper I of 2002.
Write a personal essay in response to: "...one big family hugging close to the ball of Earth for its life and being..."
Answer
- I was listening to the radio the other day and I heard mankind described as "one big family hugging close to the ball of Earth for its life and being". Although this is not, of course, a new perspective in today's culture, upon hearing it put so succinctly, I was intrigued. Being the natural cynic that I am, I immediately sensed the idea's basic wrongness but I couldn't quite put my finger on its flaw(s). Now, armed with pen and paper, I venture forth to mercilessly slay this foolish notion and qualify my qualms (as is the nature on every right-(or wrong-) thinking cynic).
- As is commonly the case with boring logicians, I begin at the beginning. What is the problem with "one big family" exactly? It implies unity, universality, understanding and sameness; ah, that might be it... This is, I feel, a very common misconception. Not every human being is the same, we are all astonishingly different and to think that all human beings seek to understand and relate to one another is hopelessly misguided. All human beings seek to manipulate and use one another would be more accurate although, obviously, a mixture of both would be more true. What amazes me most is people who claim both great difference and sameness, at the same time:"We must embrace diversity and equality). Hang on, let's turn off the politically correct censor for a second: "You can't walk/can't see/can't hear but we're going to give you the same wages as everyone else." Oh, so we aren't all the same, but we should act like we are? No, wait, hang on while I paint the elephant fluorescent green so you can see it...
- We are not all the same, we don't all think the same and we definitely don't look the same. The sooner the PC brigade and anyone else given to idealistic worshiping of equality realise this, the better. I am however thankful that I was not burdened with the still more Utopian phrase "one big happy family" which is the basis of many world organisations.
- The next section up for execution is: "hugging close". Most people will agree, hugging close implies dependence, both conscious and unconscious. A newborn child will hug close to its mother for warmth and security at an unconscious level. It is certainly true to say that the human race depends upon the Earth, in that we could not exist without it but we display very few of the other implications of "hugging close" such as affection and mutual preservation or gain. So then, it may be said that we hug close to the Earth in much the same way that a parasite hugs close to a host; well, mostly. You could say that the family does not teach good manners but some pick them up anyway, just to be contrary.
- Now, what is flawed about the "ball of Earth" then? Well, nothing really, Earth is indeed a ball or spherical in shape. What baffles me is why someone bothered to point this out in this context. I mean, does it make more attractive (purely for hugging purposes of course) that it should be a sphere? I don't know, poetic licenses weren't handed out this easily ten years ago...
- Finally; "life and being". This last bit disappointed me; I was really looking forward to something good from "the ball of Earth" but instead I get "life and being" really is that, mostly it can be quite sad and annoying and it usually ends quite soon after it's started. The problem with "life and being" really is that we've got nothing to compare them to. The entirety of human description is based on comparison: nothing is big in its own right, its big relative to a human. But since we have nothing to compare "life and being" to, we have no idea whether they are good or bad. I suggest we settle for "indifferent" stop trying to describe them and forget about it. Thus, it is foolish to use "life and being" in the sentence because without being positive or negative they do not really mean anything; it would be preferable to replace them with another neutral word such as "nothing".
- Right, so having chopped the idea into little pieces and setting them alight individually, it's time to tackle the entire thing in full: "one big family hugging close to the ball of Earth for its life and being". So, in other words: "People united and embracing Earth for their life and being". Well, I guess the first step would be to remove the ultra-violet tinted glasses...
- And now, my own personal translation:"one big family or several smaller ones, hugging close and parasitically to Earth which is spherical by the way, for its nothing". The moral of this story is clear; never say anything to a cynic, ever.
Marking
- Purpose-30
- Coherence-28
- Language-29
- Mechanics-10
