essay 13

Progress Always Comes At a Price

By: Cole Blake

5/16/12

Pine Point School

Frederick Wilcox once said, “Progress always involves risk; you can't steal second base and keep your foot on first base.”. This quote easily reminded me of my 8th grade year at pine point school. In english class, with Mr. Salsich, we read two books that related to this topic. Also my life related to this topic because of the sports I played. Progress always comes at a risk, I valuable lesson I learned during my 8th grade year at Pine Point School.

   

Of Mice and Men, a terrific story about two friends named George and Lennie, was a great example of progression coming at a price. The price that was paid in Of Mice and Men was Lennie’s death. George shot Lennie after Lennie had killed other people that lived on the farm like, Curley’s wife, or Lennie’s own dog.George knew that Lennie would have been killed anyway by Curly, another worker on the farm who is very mean. The progress that George now gained is  his ability to acquire jobs. With Lennie alive George was not able to keep any job he got because Lennie would do something and ruin them for George. Since George killed Lennie he will now be able to keep jobs much longer and make much more money. Another thing that will be better for George without Lennie being there with him is how he can now keep his money and save it for himself. Without Lennie George no longer has to use his money to pay for things that Lennie needs. For example George will no longer have to buy double the amount of food that he buys because he does not have to dispense that food with Lennie. I think that Of Mice and Men was a very good example of progress coming at a price and I am very glad we read it this year.

   
   To Kill a Mockingbird, another great example of progress coming at a price, was a renowned story about racism in the 1930’s. The price that had to be paid in To Kill a Mockingbird as well as most situations that involve racism was death. As The story continues a man named Tom Robinson is charged with rape and sent to prison. Tom decided to take his chances by trying to escape from that prison and died soon after the unjust court ruling involving racism that lead to his arrest. It is sad to think that Tom died because the court could not imagine a black man being innocent. Although Tom died his caused gained a lot of progression. For example i’m sure that some of the white men on that jury must have felt bad about what happened to Tom that day. After these people  saw what they caused Tom to do they might now be less racist to blacks. After Toms death people fighting racism could now use his death as an example of how bad racist people are. For example they could use Tom’s death as an example of what racism does to people. If the jury was not racist Tom would still be alive. There is much less racism in the United States because of people like Tom who sacrificed something.


   My life and many others are a great example of progress coming at a price. Hearing the sound of the clock strike 3:00, I am finally ready to go home, I am finally ready to relax and not worry about school, but then I realise that I will have to stay an extra hour and a half to practice lacrosse, a fun sport that involves much skill. Although I love to play lacrosse I do not like to spend my small amount of free time that I have on weekdays practicing it. I would much rather spend my free time during lacrosse games or at home. The progress that I gain from spending my free time at lacrosse practices is my level of skill at the sport. For example when I first started to play lacrosse, in sixth grade, I was terrible. I had no idea how to pass the ball to a friend of mine and even run around the field without the ball popping out of the stick. After lots of practice I have progressed in my skill of lacrosse in many ways. I now can run up and down the field, shoot, and pass to teammates with great ease. I also can participate in games and not just sit on the bench and try to learn how to play the game. Practicing lacrosse has made me a much better player but I have had to spend some of my free time to achieve such a skill.

    These three topics easily show how my eighth grade year at Pine Point School relates to progress coming at a price. In Of mice and Men Lennie had to be killed for George to progress in life. In To Kill a Mockingbird Tom Robinson had to die to teach people about racism. In my life I have to give up my free time to practice sports so I can be good at them.

    Self Assessment

1. I am continuing to work on remembering to put titles in italics. In past essays I have forgot to do so.

2. One strong point I see in this essay is that my sentences read very smoothly.

3. One weak point in this essay is my sentence length. I could have varied the lengths of my sentences.