<p>(Hi all, please help me grade this. I’m about a month away from my SAT but I’m looking for tips from all the capable people who reside at CC. Please be as harsh as you want to be, and hopefully you can offer criticism and explain the rationale behind giving a certain grade)</p>
<p>Prompt: What is your opinion on the relationship between mistakes and creativity?</p>
<p>[My Essay]</p>
<p>Gandhi once noted that freedom is only worth having if it includes the freedom to make mistake. While Gandhi was almost certainly not talking about creativity, it makes sense for us to assume a positive relationship between creativity and mistakes. Mistakes hone our abilities to ascertain which ideas, innovations and products elicit positive responses and in doing so, it refines one’s creative ability. Paradoxically, the product of such mistakes is the antithesis of a mistake. Mistakes and creativity are similar in that they are both badges of those who dare to take risks and eventually, such risks will culminate in what we can term artistic success.</p>
<p>When Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ appeared in the New Yorker, by many measures the author was making a grave ‘mistake’ by authoring a narrative about a barbaric ritual conducted in rural America, which involved stoning a ‘chosen’ villager to death. While daring and certainly controversial for her time, Jackson’s story was a deliberate and crafty examination of several themes that contribute to the literary value of the story. For example, the refusal of villagers to reconsider their barbaric practices is enshrined in their staunch belief in tradition, demonstrating to the reader that in defense of tradition, a society can become thoughtless and descend into inhumanity. In Shirley Jackson’s ‘mistake’ was contained an expose that deconstructed the cores of the human nature, a tribute to her capacity as a literary artist.</p>
<p>Science is another canvas onto which mistakes have splashed color. Thomas Alva Edison is said to have made a thousand attempts in the process of inventing the light bulb. Upon the completion of his experiment, Edison however, stated that he had not failed a thousand times but had instead successfully completed an experiment with a thousand steps. Edison’s spirit reveals to us one central aspect of human nature - that the desire for success brings about that success we seek, even in the face of our ‘mistakes’.</p>
<p>A mistake is only a mistake if one refuses to act on the knowledge that the mistake is able to grant him. The human ability to adapt, our desire for learning and the thirst for success are all factors that cement the role of mistakes as catalysts rather than deterrents on the road to creative success. One might even be as daring as to say that without mistakes, the path of creativity would be one that is sub-optimal or possibly even nonexistent.</p>