Tinted Looking Glass by Christopher

Tinted Looking Glass by Christopher - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

We often lose sight of what we have, whether it is the ability to play a sport or even just wake up everyday and just be part of the world, we all lose sight of just how special it all is, and how many will never have the chance to enjoy it. If there is any one book I think a high school student should read before graduating, I believe it would have to be Daniel Keyes's "A Flower for Algernon," a riveting fiction about the significance of life and the gift that it is.

The story is about Charlie, a mentally disabled man, who is given an experimental treatment in order to artificially increase his intelligence significantly, it succeeds. Charlie not only becomes more aware of the world around him but begins to remember his past and all that he has gone through. He was had a hard life, the constant victim of humanity at its worst, but he holds onto the strongest of human qualities, hope. With it, he succeeds in overcoming all obstacles and finds love, for a time. This story is much more than people are mean to those that are less fortunate than others, it is about life! About never taking anything for granted and enjoying every moment we can, because we can. We have lost sight as not only a country but as a world of the truth, that is, life is hard but it does not have to be if we all can set aside our differences and realize that what we have is a gift, not a right.

High school students especially now, see the world through a looking glass, a tinted one. We see what we want, when we want, how we want. We ignore the unpleasantness of the world but do very little to fix it. We forget how fortunate we are to have food, homes, people that love us and care for us, not to mention all this material goods. We forget that many people don't have what we do, and for some reason, we often don't care.