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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

as already explained, the problem is not so much the guy who wrote the essay (though the essay is really really kitschy) but the out of proportion appreciate of it that comes solely from confirming one's own prejudices and a sense of superiority.[/quote]

I read your post several times and have no clue what you're trying to say, partly because I don't see anything in the essay that matches what you seem to be alleging.

The young man wrote an essay about an experience that has been told thousands if not millions of times over and over again by immigrants to the United States. Immigrate to the US, work hard, start off life as working class workers doing dirty work, gain exposure to the finer things in life, use it to fuel a motivation in you to work harder and use education to move up the economic ladder. It's the classic American myth and I'm glad that it's still real today.

The other aspect of the essay is someone from a more limited background due to cultural and economic factors being exposed to a bigger world through a more prosperous person's house and made aware of the greater possibilities in life. Once again, this is a classic experience millions have had throughout the centuries. And it's also real. I have stories in my own (non-immigrant) family that touches on this theme too. My father grew up in a small town middle class family. Their idea of a good college was the local state university. My father had a part time job mowing the lawn of the president of the town's factory, who went to Williams. It was through this factory president that my father became aware of a much bigger world than small town America and that there were other colleges out there and not just the main flagship state university either, which most people in the town assumed was a great school because it had a winning football team. When my father realized there was a different kind of life to be had, a richer and more rewarding life (for someone like him) he was forever changed.

I think what I find most interesting about the first essay is not so much the young man and his exposure to the world of the professor, but that the world is divided into people who are aware of greater possibilities and seek them out, and those who are not, and many of the latter simply never seek them even if they see it daily. It's quite interesting. [/quote]

LOL[/quote]

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