Eleanor's Essay #13

Eleanor Hilton
English 9
Mr. Salsich
February 24th 2009

Brave New Worlds:
An Essay on Peace in the World of "The Tempest" and the Real World

Mankind for thousands of years has struggled with topics such as peace and integrity (SAT word). It is the one goal almost every human being has, yet so far throughout our whole existence we have never met our task. In “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare, Prospero and everyone on the island find peace and kindness, but what will it take to make that happen in the real world?

“O brave new world”, these are the words Miranda says to describe her islands’ new found peace. One reason for this happening, I believe, would be that they all gave up something to create the greater good. Prospero has given up magic. Ferdinand and Miranda have sacrificed everything to keep their love for one another. It also seems as if Caliban has changed his cruel, evil ways. When everyone disposed of their bad habits and such, it created unity, and lead them all to believe that everyone was better, thus creating a greater trust between them all. However, I believe that it wasn’t just the people of the island that helped make everyone happy, but the spirits too, especially Ariel. She was the one who described to Prospero the affects of his magic on everyone. Her words were so strong that he decides to “drown [his] book” and “break [his] staff”. We may never fully understand the power of peace and unity, but must be thankful that at least somewhere, even in books, it is possible.

Unfortunately, our world is not yet as peaceful as the one in “The Tempest”. However, if our world was going to become a ‘brave new world’ I feel we would need to all accept each other. Throughout the years different countries have wanted certain things their way. They would push for the whole world to be the same, but that just cannot happen. We all different and unique in our own way, and we need to learn to accept that. The second thing that I feel our world needs to do is to tolerate each other. It is not possible for everyone to like everyone, but if we all created a compromise (SAT word) between each other and put up with the certain traits someone else has we would be better off in the long run. (loose sentence) The final thing I feel our world should do is learn to trust each other. Right now every country that can afford nuclear weapons has them because they fear that at any moment someone could strike at them. If we all trusted each other there would be no need for everyone to act so surreptitiously (SAT word). These three virtues, I believe, are the keystone to what will hopefully be a brighter future.

The world may not be perfect yet but I feel as if everyday it is improving. If Prospero can change his ways, if Miranda and Ferdinand can quickly fall in love, and if Caliban can change from an angry beast to a kind being, I’m sure that the real world can accomplish peace. (Periodic Sentence)

Graphic Organiser:

Intro:
Mankind's struggle, the tempest's success

First Body:
SD for the greater good
CM's they all sacrificed something to create peace
SD unity
CM's -
SD ARiel and the spirits did the rest
CM's persuaded Prospero to give up magic (quotes)

Second Body:
SD acceptance
CM's some people want everything the same, but we are all different
SD tolerance
CM's stop getting pointlessly mad at others for no reason, comprimise
SD trustworthiness
CM's every country that can afford nuclear weapons has them, afraid of attack

Conclusion:
Peace