<p>The prompt was Are people’s lives the result of the choices they make?
Here’s my essay:</p>
<p>One’s life s greatly influenced by the choices he or she makes. These choices have a “butterfly effect”, in which a seemingly small choice may cause a greatly averse or beneficial effect on the person’s life, which may leave behind a perennial imprint on the world, outlasting even the person himself. This can be depicted through Mahatama Gandhi’s quest for Indian freedom, Sigmund Freud’s theory of Cognitive Dissonance, and by Adolf Hitler’s genocide, the holocaust.</p>
<p>In the early 1930’s, Mahatama Gandhi set out to liberate the Indian people through the means of peaceful protest, or Satyagraha as it is known in India. His philosophy dictated that liberation is only a goal worth pursuing, if one does not hurt anyone in that process. This choice of peace has left a major imprint on the world, and many people have associated Gandhi with peace. his choice of peace led him to conduct the Salt March in 1938, which was the turning point of the Indian Revolution. he, along with 8000 of his followers, walked to the Indian Ocean in order to accumulate salt from the ocean. He then gave the salt to purveyors, who then forwarded the salt to the Indian people, without charging the gargantuan sales tax. The money saved on the tex was tantamount to 800,000 USD. Gandhi’s decisions to act upon peaceful protests instead of violence has left a huge impact on India, and he has left a legacy behind.</p>
<p>Sigmund Freud, in 1903, conducted a psychological experiment concentrated in cognitivisim, in order to solve the ever-elusive topic of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the psychological phenomenon that forces humans to either change their decision or their mindset behind their decisions. he articulated that if a person goes against his beliefs, he will change his beliefs in order to match his decision, thus enforcing the fact that a man’s decisions shapes his life. Mahatama Gandhi had been a very belligerent teenager, who had been in many fights in his turbulent teen years, but after he made his decisions to pursue peace, his violent behavior was supplanted with a more placid demeanor. Like Gandhi, Adolf hitler also went through Cognitive dissonance which shaped his life.</p>
<p>Adolf Hitler, during World War 3, brutally took the lives of 6 million people of Jewish ancestry. Contrary yo popular belief, Adolf Hitler was a very benign child, who was tolerant of many people, went through a great change at age 37. After his grandma, who was of Jewish ancestry, died of a heart attack, he believed it was because of Jewish faith that God struck down on her. Confronted with a dilema between being against Judaism and being tolerant Hitler took it to the extreme and caused the mass genocide of all people of Jewish faith. Due to Cognitive Dissonance, Hitler had to chose between being benign and belligerent, thus he chose the latter, and left a permanent nefarious imprint on the world.</p>
<p>Choices often change the life of a person in either a negative or positive way, depending on the context.</p>
<p>Can you grade it out of 6 and then out of 12? thanks</p>
<p>And if any of you were wondering, yes i made a lot of it up. My SAT teacher said the SAT does not grade you on accuracy, but on the way you write.</p>