gre writing issue sample writing 122
- The best way to understand the character of a society is to examine the character of the men and women that the society chooses as its heroes or its role models.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.________________________________________
One may say that we can figure out the essential characteristics of a society from the men and women that the society respects as its heroes. In some sense, it is true that a few of highest social reputation can serve as a reliable indicator for the hidden values of the general public. However, a number of socially promoted modern heroes, instead of effectively revealing the actual state of a society, may mystify it, or mislead us to understand the true social problems.
Of course, it is hard to deny that the hidden impulses and desires shared by many people can be reflected in those who are widely respected and even idolized by them. With regard to finding out dominant values of life, changes in the list of the admired are those related to the actual priorities of life among people. Many Koreans during the 1980’s placed a number of political thinkers or historical heroes who had commonly defended certain national pride and identity on the highest rungs of a respect ladder whereas Koreans today seem to favor certain moguls in business and successful entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Though indirectly, this change in the standing of public respect suggests that role models or heroes in a given period can mirror the primary values of the public; and, in this particular case, the primary focus in people’s life goals has shifted from socio-political passions to individual’s economic success.
Nevertheless, it does not necessarily mean that heroes and heroines a society admires can perfectly disclose the actual state of living among the general public. ------------------
Can those who are admired as heroes or heroines in a society truly epitomize the actual character of the society? The speaker says so. And, I tend to agree the claim in that each hero reflects, whether directly or indirectly, certain kinds of explicit or implicit passion, impulse, or idea of a society. However, this view is overlooking the existence of various types of “artificially constructed” modern heroes who, instead of representing actual state of a society and its people, confuse or mislead the true picture of them.
Of course, it is undeniable that a few excellent figures in a society can nicely serve as an avatar of a society. By being a personification of particular passion or desire among general public, they usually reveal the otherwise hidden impulses or values of a society. Through Bill Gates or other successful business moguls in many countries, we can know that most societies recently place greater emphasis on the material aspect of life than ever before. Despite the difference between the reality of South Africa and the ideals he stands for, we can understand that South Africans, in some ways, want to achieve the change in its political and social environments Nelson Mandela has claimed. Even most stars of mass media and sports tell us that there is a hidden wish in respective societies.
Then, do all the heroes or heroines truly represent the state of a society as a whole? Definitely no. With respect to the stars in business world, they are not the average citizens in each society. Rather, they are simply the anomalous few who cannot describe everyday life of many. Does Samsung’s Lee family represent the actual life of Koreans? No. Through several business tycoons of Asian countries or Russia, what can we sense about those countries? It would be safe to say that their life styles or their ways of thinking are totally irrelevant to the general people of their mother countries.
Similarly, most political heroes do not directly represent the present or future states of a society.
There could be some situations where heroes and heroines are not directly matched with the cultural desires or characteristics of a society. In contemporary societies where global media such as MTV and satellite channels dominate the mental world of the young, the characters and traits of media stars the young idolize can not necessarily mean the national desires. While Britney Spears is loved by a huge body of the young Korean, we cannot say that her characters and beliefs can represent the general belief systems of the young Korean and Korea itself. This says that
Moreover, if we narrow down the concept of the character of a society as the ‘present’ character, the heroes and heroines one society cherishes are not representing it. That is, in most societies, the heroes are not the average person of those societies, but the exceptional person those societies want to emulate in the future.