<p>Hey, I was just practicing my SAT essay component, and was wondering if anyone could offer any feedback on what I have. If you want to do some peer review or collateral or something, post your essay up here and we can see it. I’m particularly worried about my examples, and whether they fit nicely.</p>
<p>Assignment:</p>
<p>There are two kinds of pretending. There is the bad kind, when a person falsely promises to be your friend. But there is also a good kind, where the pretense eventually turns into the real thing. For example, when you are not feeling particularly friendly, the best thing you can do, very often, is to act in a friendly manner. In a few minutes you may be feeling friendlier.</p>
<p>Adapted from a book by C.S. Lewis</p>
<p>Can deception-pretending that something is true when it is not - sometimes have good results?</p>
<p>Essay:</p>
<pre><code> The notion of pretense transforming into genuine action is a false one. Although the concepts of “positive conceit” or “white lying” may seem to have immediate benefits, they ultimately usher a hostile environment. Various literary classics attest to the fact that deception has a negative connotation.
Take the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell. The novel centers on the life of animals on a farm, run without any human aid. The governmental aspects of the farm are controlled by a power hungry council of Stalinist pigs. The farm is in a very anarchist state, with little progress towards modernization and resource production. In order to seem successful, the “voice” of the government, Squealer, deceives humans by lying about the state of the farm. Although the humans come to believe Squealer’s reports, the conditions on the farm do not improve in actuality. This novel suggests that lies to the outside world do not transmute to genuinity.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller exhibits the similar situation. The novel focuses on the revenge of an orphan named Abby, towards her ex-lover, Proctor. Abby plunges the town into chaos when she declares that she has seen others “compacting with the Devil”. Abby’s acts of deception towards others in the tow, including Proctor, result in the execution of many people. These people were executed because they weren’t able to confess to “nonexistent” witchcraft. Although Abby’s lies pervaded throughout the community, no one in the community actually practiced witchcraft. This play promotes the belief that deception regarding another’s actions doesn’t result in the action actually being committed.
The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald must also be given consideration. The book is about a young soldier named Gatsby, who is unable to marry Daisy due to war commitment and difference in social class. In order to gain wealth to raise his social status, Gatsby becomes a mobster. He drowns himself of his guilt by convincing himself that he earned money through hard work, and that it was for a good cause. Although Gatsby deceived himself, his lies did not affect Daisy, who refused to marry him due to his being a mobster. The novel shows that lying to oneself does not translate to actuality.
The phrase “positive deception” itself is a lie. Though conceit may bring about short term benefits in the form of reassurances, the end result remains detrimental towards society. A pretense can never turn into the real thing.
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