<p>If it helps, here’s my essay from the October 2009 SAT as well. I went brain dead for a couple minutes at the start, but then I cranked out some culture I learned in Latin class… It’s not really accurate at all, but it did the job. My writing took up both pages, and I also received a score of 12. </p>
<p>**Prompt: Is using humor the best way to approach difficult situations and problems? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. **</p>
<p>Society has had many difficult problems it has to deal with, but there are often solutions to these problems that are not so serious. Martial was a great Latin poet in the time of Rome’s heyday. Although Rome was a thriving empire, it still possessed numerous social and political issues, and Martial helped to right these wrongs with his humorous, but serious, epigrams.</p>
<p>In Roman times, doctors were treated poorly because they had no formal education in their field. They would often resort to primitive practices, such as bleeding patients in hope of curing them of their disease. Martial reflected on this practice when he said, “You sir, used to be a doctor, but now you are a murderer,” revealing the severity of Roman medicinal practices in his time. Martial likens the work of Roman doctors to that of murderers because their patients were more often killed than saved, and the humor evident in his poetry helped the Romans realize how inexperienced their doctors truly were by leading to a variety of health reform laws.</p>
<p>Martial was an excellent Roman poet, but other poets in his time were not as well-versed. Nero was an emperor of Rome who fancied poetry as a hobby, but to the dismay of his subjects, he was a horrid poet. He would make the populace sit through his recitations, and no one would be able to criticize him for his lack of talent, lest they be condemned to death for speaking out against the emperor. Martial, however, took a rather jovial approach to the issue of Nero’s awful poetry. In one epigram he stated, “Why do you wear wool on your neck? The wool is probably better for our ears.” Martial did not specifically mention Nero in this epigram, but he made his reference clear because Nero wore woolen scarves while he recited his works. As a result, the Roman people knew they were not alone in their contempt for Nero, and this epigram is hailed by some as a direct cause for Nero’s assassination by the Roman people.</p>
<p>Martial tackled many Roman issues simply by writing humorous lines of poetry to show his views on the topic. The Roman people appreciated his work, as it put their dilemmas in a humorous light and made life easier to deal with. Tiberius, Nero’s successor, was an avid reader of Martial’s laugh-provoking epigrams, and he promoted Martial to the position of consul, the post second-highest to emperor, to show the gratification of the Roman people to his work.</p>
<p>Many Romans were afraid to openly criticize social and political issues, and question the way things were done. It is in this regard that Martial is able to distinguish himself, as he not only helped to correct society’s plethora of problems, but he did so with humor in such a successful fashion.</p>