<p>Consider the books, essays, poems, or journal articles you have read over the last year or two, either for school or leisure. Please discuss the way in which one of them has changed your understanding of the world, other people, or yourself.</p>
<p>The Exile and the Kingdom is easily one of my favorite books as far as my age allows for my comprehension. It has been named as the quintessence of existentialism, essentially a ridiculed view according to most; however, The Growing Stone (La Pierre qui pousse) seems to be a retaliation against this philosophical ideology’s critics.</p>
<p>This compilation of six short stories illustrates human race’s fascination with the extremes, from the criminally insane to the brilliant. The modern world seems to be only seeking events which elicit what relatively minute emotions which we, the average people, are capable of. We are all afraid of being plain normal, because the media portrays us as nothing; our worth amounts to less than a single sociopath’s. In this time and space where the epitome of human nature is dimmed and extreme embodiments of morality or lack of it is hailed as the only path to success, us common people, are seen as the foes, even though we are the makers. Success is illustrated to be parallel to fame; scrutinization of achievement represses the former goal behind it until only null remains. The people are told to repeat their stories over and over again, tainting the personally sacred and distributing what little sincerity is left to quench the masses. Camus took human nature beneath his wings, and declared our thirst for existence’s reiteration “born of the confrontation between the human call and the unreasonable silence of the world”. Somehow, we were all reduced into a flailing mess of contrived candor immersed in self-denial. It seems that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cementing a character to lead him through a sorry excuse for a life.</p>
<p>Dude your second essay is great but please tell me if I’m wrong ( and I hope I am). In your first essay did you demean yourself to a sociopath and labled life’s efforts as fruitless? “us common people” really? this is how you feel about your self? So from my take on your life perspective as an admisions officer: this kid is depressed, prejudiced against worldly attainment and essentially has no ambittion… Hmm… One of the best essays I’ve read though… He’s either a sociopath or a literary genius. Good luck kido</p>
<p>In your first essay, you didn’t really seem to answer the most important point of the question which was to describe much about how it changed your understanding of the world, but, rather, you went off into a lengthy tangent where you basically gave a book summary. I find the essay rather weak because it doesn’t really show how your perceptions of the world has been affected. It said “consider” the books, not describe them; again, you did not genuinely discuss according to how they wanted you to of how it influenced your views of the world.</p>
<p>In your second essay, you partook in rather the same method of approaching the essay. You discussed the university’s well-off nature, but you didn’t really seem to CONNECT it to yourself in depth. </p>
<p>College admissions officers use these essays to see your character and personality. You are supposed to really connect yourself to the prompt and not just describe the general facts. From these essays, I would say you have a between low and moderate chance of getting into Duke.</p>
<p>The purpose of these “essays,” as cliche as it sounds, is to let your personality shine through. From your writing, I certainly get a good idea of who you are, which unfortunately seems to be a detached, somewhat arrogant intellectual. They read like research papers, not personal statements as they should. I didn’t really enjoy reading them.</p>