Essay #13

FINAL DRAFT

Austin
English 8
Mr. Salsich
1/27/10

Ignorance:
An Examination of Obliviousness and Rudeness

(TS) Ignorance is one of the most selfish acts, turning people into rude, inconsiderate, disrespectful creatures. (CS) Unfortunately, ignorance can form anywhere, including my life, and it even exists in books like To Kill a Mockingbird.

(TS) The theme ignorance is the most conspicuous theme in Chapter 24 of To Kill a Mockingbird. (SD) The majority of women in Aunt Alexandra’s social gathering are oblivious of their black maids, for they talk about and treat their servants like property. (CM) These women don’t realize that black people have emotions as well as whites. (CM) They sit and converse, lacking the comprehension that humanity exists in black people, seeing them only as property that is bought, used, and one day, dispatched (Loose Sentence). (SD) In particular, Miss Merriweather is the most inconsiderate; she can’t even recognize when a human being is in serious emotional pain. (CM) Since Miss Merriweather didn’t care that Tom Robinson was sentenced to death, she will forever be ignorant of the torment the racist verdict inflicts on black people because she has always been and will always be white, judging others from her own paradigm. (CM) Arrogantly, Miss Merriweather told her maid, “‘You are simply not being a Christian today. Jesus Christ never went around grumbling and complaining’” (Lee, 310), but if Miss Merriweather walked in her maid’s shoes for a minute, she would realize how depressing it is to have a friend sentenced to death and how aggravating it is when someone ignorantly tells you to act more Christian. (CS) Blacks are people too, but the white people in To Kill a Mockingbird have no shred of interest in what they think and remain ignorant, only caring about themselves instead of helping their maids cope with life‘s emotional stress.

(TS) Unlike the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird, I attempt to eliminate all ignorance in my life. (SD) Ignorance is disrespectful, and it can hurt relationships with family and friends. (CM) When someone realizes you are ignoring them, choosing to remain uneducated about their thoughts and feelings, you give the impression you have better subjects to think about. (CM) Sometimes, I notice when people begin to ignore me while I‘m giving an explanation, and I question how good my relationship is with this person, since they think it’s acceptable to daydream during our conversation. (SD) However, I am an ignorant person myself, and I strive to decimate this habit because I am familiar with the uncomfortable feeling of disrespect, hating to be impertinent to people, especially my family. (CM) I, at the hormonal, sassy teenager stage all kids go through no matter how polite they are in younger years, have been given the unfortunate ability to completely block out when my parents are talking (Periodic Sentence). (CM) This capability has proven completely derogatory because in the end, I get in trouble for hurting my parents’ feelings, having utterly disregarded what they said to me. (CS) Obliviousness is purely consequential; it leads to doubtful relationships and hurt feelings from oblivious sons that could be prevented by avoiding ignorance.

(TS) Ignorance is not a crucial part of life nor does ignorance have any beneficial outcomes, meaning it should be completely eliminated from human society. (CS) No matter where someone may be, ignorance will be in their presence, causing problems that could ironically be prevented by being oblivious of ignorance.

Self Assessment

The part of this paper that took the most time was working on my loose and periodic sentences. After reading a couple suggestions, I was convinced these two sentences needed more work, so I spent a while fixing them, adding to them, and rearranging words to make them better. I think the biggest difference between the first draft and this is the smoothness of the sentences. Preparing for this draft, I reread my essay several times and worked on the flow so the reader would have an easy time reading my essay without being confused or disgruntled. In my essay, I particularly like my concluding sentences for my body paragraphs because I feel like I succeeded in wrapping up the paragraphs in stellar sentences. Even though I think the sentences flow pretty well, they may have some words that they don’t need in their that if removed, would tighten the sentence.