envy essay conclusion

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The Ugly Emotion: Envy

Categories: Envy

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Published: Oct 22, 2018

Words: 617 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Sources of envy, influence of envy, how to control envy, works cited.

Parrott, W. G. (1991). The emotional experiences of envy and jealousy. In R. J. Sternberg & J. Kolligan Jr. (Eds.), Competence considered (pp. 149-165). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Smith, R. H., Parrott, W. G., Diener, E. F., Hoyle, R. H., & Kim, S. H. (1999). Dispositional envy. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(8), 1007-1020.
Salovey, P., & Rodin, J. (1984). Some antecedents and consequences of social-comparison jealousy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47(4), 780-792.
van de Ven, N., Zeelenberg, M., & Pieters, R. (2009). The envy premium in product evaluation. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(2), 382-395.
Tesser, A. (1991). Emotion in social comparison and reflection processes. In J. Suls & T. A. Wills (Eds.), Social comparison: Contemporary theory and research (pp. 115-141). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Salovey, P., & Rodin, J. (1986). The psychology of envy and its relationship to depression, anger, and self-esteem. In R. J. Hetherington, E. M. Aronson, & L. G. Tennenbaum (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 19, pp. 333-378). New York: Academic Press.
Cohen-Charash, Y., & Mueller, J. S. (2007). Does perceived unfairness exacerbate or mitigate interpersonal counterproductive work behaviors related to envy?. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(3), 666-680.
Lange, J., Crusius, J., & Hagemeyer, B. (2016). The evil queen's dilemma: Linking narcissistic admiration and rivalry with schadenfreude and aggression. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(9), 1216-1230.
Smith, R. H. (2008). Envy and its transmutations. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland-Jones, & L. F. Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 637-651). New York: Guilford.
Matsunaga, M. (2010). How do people envy others?: Revisiting the role of inferiority, hostility, and depression in the social comparison- envy link. Personality and Individual Differences, 49(5), 454-459.

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Essay Samples on Envy

A lesson that can be learned by experiencing strong emotions.

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Envy is a Dangerous Feeling That Destroys a Person

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The Influence of Social Comparison on Envy in People With High Self-Esteem

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Best topics on Envy

1. A Lesson That Can Be Learned by Experiencing Strong Emotions

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3. Envy is a Dangerous Feeling That Destroys a Person

4. Envy One of the Seven Deadly Sins

5. Envy And Jealously Between Woman In Roman Fever

6. The Influence of Social Comparison on Envy in People With High Self-Esteem

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Of Envy by Francis Bacon -Summary & Analysis

Of envy by francis bacon.

The essay is quite valuable psychologically. It is a practical essay that contains a wealth of information regarding the reasons for jealousy and the ways in which one can protect oneself from other people’s envy. Bacon examined in detail the most universal human emotions. Bacon sheds light on human emotions such as envy and jealousy. He asserts that a guy in love or who is jealous of another can have considerable influence. The term ‘envy’ is employed in this article in the sense of ‘jealousy. If the term ‘envy’ refers to the’spirit of imitation,’ it is not a negative emotion; nonetheless, jealousy is a negative emotion that has detrimental implications on both individuals who feel it and those who are its objects. While the envious man may wish to equal the accomplishments of the man he envies, the jealous man wishes to harm the man he envies.

Bacon begins the essay by stating one of his beliefs, namely that feelings of love and envy manifest in the eyes of the person experiencing them, and that when these feelings manifest in the eyes of the person experiencing them, they have a profound effect on the person experiencing them, especially if the objects of these feelings are present in front of the person experiencing these feelings. However, this notion is fairly obscure and may be unfamiliar to the majority of people. Bacon then describes the types of people who are jealous of others, the types of people who become the objects of jealousy, and the distinction between public and private jealousy. Envy is portrayed as an unworthy passion. When a guy of great talent or virtue achieves promotion and development in life, no one feels envy.

Envy or jealousy is a basic human flaw that everyone suffers. Certain individuals become infatuated with this sensation. Perhaps the most essential part of this emotion is revealed at the conclusion of Bacon’s article. He informs us that, of all the emotions, envy is the most persistent and persistent, causing a man to pine or languish. Envy is a horrible emotion for him.

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Essays on Envy

Envy is an emotion that can be destructive to your mental health and your relationships. It can also cause you to feel anxious and overwhelmed, which can lead to a variety of health issues. People who have high levels of envy are more likely to experience stress, anxiety and depression. They...

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Essays on Envy

Faq about envy.

So much is at stake in writing a conclusion. This is, after all, your last chance to persuade your readers to your point of view, to impress yourself upon them as a writer and thinker. And the impression you create in your conclusion will shape the impression that stays with your readers after they've finished the essay.

The end of an essay should therefore convey a sense of completeness and closure as well as a sense of the lingering possibilities of the topic, its larger meaning, its implications: the final paragraph should close the discussion without closing it off.

To establish a sense of closure, you might do one or more of the following:

Conclude by linking the last paragraph to the first, perhaps by reiterating a word or phrase you used at the beginning.
Conclude with a sentence composed mainly of one-syllable words. Simple language can help create an effect of understated drama.
Conclude with a sentence that's compound or parallel in structure; such sentences can establish a sense of balance or order that may feel just right at the end of a complex discussion.

To close the discussion without closing it off, you might do one or more of the following:

Conclude with a quotation from or reference to a primary or secondary source, one that amplifies your main point or puts it in a different perspective. A quotation from, say, the novel or poem you're writing about can add texture and specificity to your discussion; a critic or scholar can help confirm or complicate your final point. For example, you might conclude an essay on the idea of home in James Joyce's short story collection, Dubliners , with information about Joyce's own complex feelings towards Dublin, his home. Or you might end with a biographer's statement about Joyce's attitude toward Dublin, which could illuminate his characters' responses to the city. Just be cautious, especially about using secondary material: make sure that you get the last word.
Conclude by setting your discussion into a different, perhaps larger, context. For example, you might end an essay on nineteenth-century muckraking journalism by linking it to a current news magazine program like 60 Minutes .
Conclude by redefining one of the key terms of your argument. For example, an essay on Marx's treatment of the conflict between wage labor and capital might begin with Marx's claim that the "capitalist economy is . . . a gigantic enterprise of dehumanization "; the essay might end by suggesting that Marxist analysis is itself dehumanizing because it construes everything in economic -- rather than moral or ethical-- terms.
Conclude by considering the implications of your argument (or analysis or discussion). What does your argument imply, or involve, or suggest? For example, an essay on the novel Ambiguous Adventure , by the Senegalese writer Cheikh Hamidou Kane, might open with the idea that the protagonist's development suggests Kane's belief in the need to integrate Western materialism and Sufi spirituality in modern Senegal. The conclusion might make the new but related point that the novel on the whole suggests that such an integration is (or isn't) possible.

Finally, some advice on how not to end an essay:

Don't simply summarize your essay. A brief summary of your argument may be useful, especially if your essay is long--more than ten pages or so. But shorter essays tend not to require a restatement of your main ideas.
Avoid phrases like "in conclusion," "to conclude," "in summary," and "to sum up." These phrases can be useful--even welcome--in oral presentations. But readers can see, by the tell-tale compression of the pages, when an essay is about to end. You'll irritate your audience if you belabor the obvious.
Resist the urge to apologize. If you've immersed yourself in your subject, you now know a good deal more about it than you can possibly include in a five- or ten- or 20-page essay. As a result, by the time you've finished writing, you may be having some doubts about what you've produced. (And if you haven't immersed yourself in your subject, you may be feeling even more doubtful about your essay as you approach the conclusion.) Repress those doubts. Don't undercut your authority by saying things like, "this is just one approach to the subject; there may be other, better approaches. . ."

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Envy in Othello

Description of envy.

Envy can be defined as a feeling of discontented or bitter longing provoked by someone’s possessions, position and qualities. It is a very strong emotion, which mainly occurs when someone lacks another one’s superior character, achievement and the person either wishes to have it or the owner lacks it. It is one of the greatest reasons for unhappiness. People with envy are most likely to inflict adversaries those they envy. Although envy is regarded as something negative, it is also believed that envy was the driving force behind the movement towards equality, hence, it must be experienced in order to achieve a more fair societal system (Bertrand, 2000).

Envy in Shakespeare’s Othello

The detrimental power of envy is perfectly shown in Shakespeare’s Othello. Iago had fought for many years under the command of Othello as he tried to make himself relevant before the leader, a factor that modulated his envy (Smith and Kim, 2007). However, he was in no way the right person for Othello to be given the opportunity as his personal lieutenant compared to Cassio. Iago has been aspiring for a very long time to be given the post though without the knowledge of Othello. So, Othello gives the work to Cassio. As soon as Iago realized that he was not getting the job, he became a disturbed man and became infuriated. Envy quickly took over him and he immediately embarked on a vengeance mission with an aim to destroy both Othello and Cassio.

Envious Iago had many diverse reasons for the envy towards Othello. The theme of dishonesty is evident all through the whole play particularly through Iago’s interactions with those around him. The personality of Iago is characterized by the traits such as deception and his cunnings which lead him to deceive others mainly due to his jealousy and envy towards Othello.

Iago is also considered to be someone who cheats and influences others in order to achieve what he longs to get. He got influences by Bianca and then deviced schemes to destroy all his rivals. Iago was mainly driven by his unconscious hate for Othello, his occupational anxiety and the fact that he had a secret love he has for Desdemona, whom he has realized to be in love with Othello. It is the jealousy Iago had for Othello that made him act abnormally. He called him a black person to display his racial segregation against Othello. Iago was not only envious of Cassio taking up a job he desired but also suspected that he and Othello were sleeping with his wife Emilia. That could be shown in act 1, scene 3, line 12, where it is rumored that his wife is unfaithful.

Even though it was just a rumor, Iago decided to take it as truth so that he could satisfy his mission. The unfaithfulness between Iago and his wife could exist, because, the two do not have a common bond between them. This lack of common connection between them further complicated the matter by making Iago become more envying of everyone else in the play.He managed to manipulate his wife Emilia, Desdemona’s lady-in-waiting, into picking secretly from Desdemona, a paper handkerchief that Othello had given her under vow. He then informed Othello that he had seen the handkerchief in Cassio’s possession. That he did to instil jealousy and envy in Othello.With that, he managed to convince Othello through trickery that his loving wife was unfaithful. The angered Othello ordered him to kill Cassio and promised him to be rewarded by being given Cassio’s work for that exposure: the position he had desired for a long time. The schemes and evil intentions of Iago seemed to be successful when Othello finally killed his wife, Desdemona. On realizing that Desdemona was not guilty, he pitied himself for the misbehavior. His inability to rationalize things made him kill himself too since the reality was too heavy for him to bear.

It should be noted that not all envious circumstances end up with negative consequences. It can only depend on the intensity with which one allows it to take charge on him or her. Envy is protean emotion which usually arises due to unfavorable social comparisons (Ben Ze’ev, 2000). Envy is also a negative emotion as it can make a person more hostile towards another and severe conflicts that are undesirable (Zizzo, 2000). In this play, the tragedy of Othello, Shakespeare decided to portray the extreme and unwarranted side of envy. The playwright intended to prove that when much effort and energy are directed at what is envied, then it may end up with negativities. Indeed, Iago put more effort in envy for many years so that Othello could realize and improve his position. The more energy he invested in his envious emotion, the more significant it became and more intense. That energy easily amplified the emotions leading to poor reasoning (Wyre, 1994). At long last, he realized that his efforts were in no way going to bear any fruit. As a result, his envy was magnified immensely beyond his sensible capabilities thereby making him behave in an unorthodox way.

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Jealousy and envy are visibly expressed in the play, in many scenarios. Envy is one of the major motivating factor behind the central mechanisms of the play. It is depicted in varied forms from each personality. It is envy that contributed to the all of Othello. For example, in act 3, scene 3, Iago thought that he has experienced jealousy with his wife, Emilia. The behavior of Iago made Emilia believe that it was a character of all men. However, envy made Othello so seized by the idea that his loving wife could be infidel to him with his lieutenant Cassio. He acted in total disregard to any of his associates since he was utterly obsessed. He ended up killing his wife Desdemona. After the monstrous act, he came back to his senses and realized that his wife was innocent. He regretted and grieved over his acts. He became more rational and condemned the events. Since he could not bear the weight of his behavior, he ended up executing himself.

In conclusion, envy and jealousy influence the life negatively as has been shown in the play. It can also lead to psychological conflict that, in turn, brings about problems such as worry and anger. The anger in the end can be fatal. The destructive nature of envy has been clearly shown by the play. The play came to an end in a very dramatic manner. That was because Iago was expected to be the victor of it all, but ended up being a victim. Cassio, whom he expected to die, was wounded but in the end became the new governor of Cyprus. So moreover, after the exposure of the evils of Iago by his wife Emilia, he was sent to jail to serve his evil schemes.

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How to conclude an essay | Interactive example

How to Conclude an Essay | Interactive Example

Published on January 24, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 23, 2023.

The conclusion is the final paragraph of your essay . A strong conclusion aims to:

Tie together the essay’s main points
Show why your argument matters
Leave the reader with a strong impression

Your conclusion should give a sense of closure and completion to your argument, but also show what new questions or possibilities it has opened up.

This conclusion is taken from our annotated essay example , which discusses the history of the Braille system. Hover over each part to see why it’s effective.

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

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Step 1: return to your thesis, step 2: review your main points, step 3: show why it matters, what shouldn’t go in the conclusion, more examples of essay conclusions, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about writing an essay conclusion.

To begin your conclusion, signal that the essay is coming to an end by returning to your overall argument.

Don’t just repeat your thesis statement —instead, try to rephrase your argument in a way that shows how it has been developed since the introduction.

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Next, remind the reader of the main points that you used to support your argument.

Avoid simply summarizing each paragraph or repeating each point in order; try to bring your points together in a way that makes the connections between them clear. The conclusion is your final chance to show how all the paragraphs of your essay add up to a coherent whole.

To wrap up your conclusion, zoom out to a broader view of the topic and consider the implications of your argument. For example:

Does it contribute a new understanding of your topic?
Does it raise new questions for future study?
Does it lead to practical suggestions or predictions?
Can it be applied to different contexts?
Can it be connected to a broader debate or theme?

Whatever your essay is about, the conclusion should aim to emphasize the significance of your argument, whether that’s within your academic subject or in the wider world.

Try to end with a strong, decisive sentence, leaving the reader with a lingering sense of interest in your topic.

The easiest way to improve your conclusion is to eliminate these common mistakes.

Don’t include new evidence

Any evidence or analysis that is essential to supporting your thesis statement should appear in the main body of the essay.

The conclusion might include minor pieces of new information—for example, a sentence or two discussing broader implications, or a quotation that nicely summarizes your central point. But it shouldn’t introduce any major new sources or ideas that need further explanation to understand.

Don’t use “concluding phrases”

Avoid using obvious stock phrases to tell the reader what you’re doing:

“In conclusion…”
“To sum up…”

These phrases aren’t forbidden, but they can make your writing sound weak. By returning to your main argument, it will quickly become clear that you are concluding the essay—you shouldn’t have to spell it out.

Don’t undermine your argument

Avoid using apologetic phrases that sound uncertain or confused:

“This is just one approach among many.”
“There are good arguments on both sides of this issue.”
“There is no clear answer to this problem.”

Even if your essay has explored different points of view, your own position should be clear. There may be many possible approaches to the topic, but you want to leave the reader convinced that yours is the best one!

Argumentative
Literary analysis

This conclusion is taken from an argumentative essay about the internet’s impact on education. It acknowledges the opposing arguments while taking a clear, decisive position.

The internet has had a major positive impact on the world of education; occasional pitfalls aside, its value is evident in numerous applications. The future of teaching lies in the possibilities the internet opens up for communication, research, and interactivity. As the popularity of distance learning shows, students value the flexibility and accessibility offered by digital education, and educators should fully embrace these advantages. The internet’s dangers, real and imaginary, have been documented exhaustively by skeptics, but the internet is here to stay; it is time to focus seriously on its potential for good.

This conclusion is taken from a short expository essay that explains the invention of the printing press and its effects on European society. It focuses on giving a clear, concise overview of what was covered in the essay.

The invention of the printing press was important not only in terms of its immediate cultural and economic effects, but also in terms of its major impact on politics and religion across Europe. In the century following the invention of the printing press, the relatively stationary intellectual atmosphere of the Middle Ages gave way to the social upheavals of the Reformation and the Renaissance. A single technological innovation had contributed to the total reshaping of the continent.

This conclusion is taken from a literary analysis essay about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein . It summarizes what the essay’s analysis achieved and emphasizes its originality.

By tracing the depiction of Frankenstein through the novel’s three volumes, I have demonstrated how the narrative structure shifts our perception of the character. While the Frankenstein of the first volume is depicted as having innocent intentions, the second and third volumes—first in the creature’s accusatory voice, and then in his own voice—increasingly undermine him, causing him to appear alternately ridiculous and vindictive. Far from the one-dimensional villain he is often taken to be, the character of Frankenstein is compelling because of the dynamic narrative frame in which he is placed. In this frame, Frankenstein’s narrative self-presentation responds to the images of him we see from others’ perspectives. This conclusion sheds new light on the novel, foregrounding Shelley’s unique layering of narrative perspectives and its importance for the depiction of character.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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Your essay’s conclusion should contain:

A rephrased version of your overall thesis
A brief review of the key points you made in the main body
An indication of why your argument matters

The conclusion may also reflect on the broader implications of your argument, showing how your ideas could applied to other contexts or debates.

For a stronger conclusion paragraph, avoid including:

Important evidence or analysis that wasn’t mentioned in the main body
Generic concluding phrases (e.g. “In conclusion…”)
Weak statements that undermine your argument (e.g. “There are good points on both sides of this issue.”)

Your conclusion should leave the reader with a strong, decisive impression of your work.

The conclusion paragraph of an essay is usually shorter than the introduction . As a rule, it shouldn’t take up more than 10–15% of the text.

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If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, July 23). How to Conclude an Essay | Interactive Example. Scribbr. Retrieved April 3, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/conclusion/

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How to Write a Conclusion for an Essay

By the time you get to the final paragraph of your paper, you have already done so much work on your essay, so all you want to do is to wrap it up as quickly as possible. You’ve already made a stunning introduction, proven your argument, and structured the whole piece as supposed – who cares about making a good conclusion paragraph?

The only thing you need to remember is that the conclusion of an essay is not just the last paragraph of an academic paper where you restate your thesis and key arguments. A concluding paragraph is also your opportunity to have a final impact on your audience.

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How to write a conclusion paragraph that leaves a lasting impression – In this guide, the team at EssayPro is going to walk you through the process of writing a perfect conclusion step by step. Additionally, we will share valuable tips and tricks to help students of all ages impress their readers at the last moment.

Instead of Intro: What Is a Conclusion?

Before we can move on, let’s take a moment here to define the conclusion itself. According to the standard conclusion definition, it is pretty much the last part of something, its result, or end. However, this term is rather broad and superficial.

When it comes to writing academic papers, a concluding statement refers to an opinion, judgment, suggestion, or position arrived at by logical reasoning (through the arguments provided in the body of the text). Therefore, if you are wondering “what is a good closing sentence like?” – keep on reading.

What Does a Good Conclusion Mean?

Writing a good conclusion for a paper isn’t easy. However, we are going to walk you through this process step by step. Although there are generally no strict rules on how to formulate one, there are some basic principles that everyone should keep in mind. In this section, we will share some core ideas for writing a good conclusion, and, later in the article, we will also provide you with more practical advice and examples.

How to Write a Conclusion for an Essay _ 4 MAJOR OBJECTIVES THAT CONCLUSION MUST ACCOMPLISH

Here are the core goals a good conclusion should complete:

“Wrap up” the entire paper;
Demonstrate to readers that the author accomplished what he/she set out to do;
Show how you the author has proved their thesis statement;
Give a sense of completeness and closure on the topic;
Leave something extra for your reader to think about;
Leave a powerful final impact on a reader.

Another key thing to remember is that you should not introduce any new ideas or arguments to your paper's conclusion. It should only sum up what you have already written, revisit your thesis statement, and end with a powerful final impression.

When considering how to write a conclusion that works, here are the key points to keep in mind:

A concluding sentence should only revisit the thesis statement, not restate it;
It should summarize the main ideas from the body of the paper;
It should demonstrate the significance and relevance of your work;
An essay’s conclusion should include a call for action and leave space for further study or development of the topic (if necessary).

How Long Should a Conclusion Be?

Although there are no strict universal rules regarding the length of an essay’s final clause, both teachers and experienced writers recommend keeping it clear, concise, and straight to the point. There is an unspoken rule that the introduction and conclusion of an academic paper should both be about 10% of the overall paper’s volume. For example, if you were assigned a 1500 word essay, both the introductory and final clauses should be approximately 150 words long (300 together).

Why You Need to Know How to End an Essay:

A conclusion is what drives a paper to its logical end. It also drives the main points of your piece one last time. It is your last opportunity to impact and impress your audience. And, most importantly, it is your chance to demonstrate to readers why your work matters. Simply put, the final paragraph of your essay should answer the last important question a reader will have – “So what?”

If you do a concluding paragraph right, it can give your readers a sense of logical completeness. On the other hand, if you do not make it powerful enough, it can leave them hanging, and diminish the effect of the entire piece.

Strategies to Crafting a Proper Conclusion

Although there are no strict rules for what style to use to write your conclusion, there are several strategies that have been proven to be effective. In the list below, you can find some of the most effective strategies with some good conclusion paragraph examples to help you grasp the idea.

One effective way to emphasize the significance of your essay and give the audience some thought to ponder about is by taking a look into the future. The “When and If” technique is quite powerful when it comes to supporting your points in the essay’s conclusion.

Prediction essay conclusion example: “Taking care of a pet is quite hard, which is the reason why most parents refuse their children’s requests to get a pet. However, the refusal should be the last choice of parents. If we want to inculcate a deep sense of responsibility and organization in our kids, and, at the same time, sprout compassion in them, we must let our children take care of pets.”

Another effective strategy is to link your conclusion to your introductory paragraph. This will create a full-circle narration for your readers, create a better understanding of your topic, and emphasize your key point.

Echo conclusion paragraph example: Introduction: “I believe that all children should grow up with a pet. I still remember the exact day my parents brought my first puppy to our house. This was one of the happiest moments in my life and, at the same time, one of the most life-changing ones. Growing up with a pet taught me a lot, and most importantly, it taught me to be responsible.” Conclusion:. “I remember when I picked up my first puppy and how happy I was at that time. Growing up with a pet, I learned what it means to take care of someone, make sure that he always has water and food, teach him, and constantly keep an eye on my little companion. Having a child grow up with a pet teaches them responsibility and helps them acquire a variety of other life skills like leadership, love, compassion, and empathy. This is why I believe that every kid should grow up with a pet!”

Finally, one more trick that will help you create a flawless conclusion is to amplify your main idea or to present it in another perspective of a larger context. This technique will help your readers to look at the problem discussed from a different angle.

Step-up argumentative essay conclusion example: “Despite the obvious advantages of owning a pet in childhood, I feel that we cannot generalize whether all children should have a pet. Whereas some kids may benefit from such experiences, namely, by becoming more compassionate, organized, and responsible, it really depends on the situation, motivation, and enthusiasm of a particular child for owning a pet.”

What is a clincher in an essay? – The final part of an essay’s conclusion is often referred to as a clincher sentence. According to the clincher definition, it is a final sentence that reinforces the main idea or leaves the audience with an intriguing thought to ponder upon. In a nutshell, the clincher is very similar to the hook you would use in an introductory paragraph. Its core mission is to seize the audience’s attention until the end of the paper. At the same time, this statement is what creates a sense of completeness and helps the author leave a lasting impression on the reader.

Now, since you now know what a clincher is, you are probably wondering how to use one in your own paper. First of all, keep in mind that a good clincher should be intriguing, memorable, smooth, and straightforward.

Generally, there are several different tricks you can use for your clincher statement; it can be:

A short, but memorable and attention-grabbing conclusion;
A relevant and memorable quote (only if it brings actual value);
A call to action;
A rhetorical question;
An illustrative story or provocative example;
A warning against a possibility or suggestion about the consequences of a discussed problem;
A joke (however, be careful with this as it may not always be deemed appropriate).

Regardless of the technique you choose, make sure that your clincher is memorable and aligns with your introduction and thesis.

Clincher examples: - While New York may not be the only place with the breathtaking views, it is definitely among my personal to 3… and that’s what definitely makes it worth visiting. - “Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars”, Divine Comedy - Don’t you think all these advantages sound like almost life-saving benefits of owning a pet? “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”, The Great Gatsby

Conclusion Writing Don'ts

Now, when you know what tricks and techniques you should use to create a perfect conclusion, let’s look at some of the things you should not do with our online paper writing service :

Starting with some cliché concluding sentence starters. Many students find common phrases like “In conclusion,” “Therefore,” “In summary,” or similar statements to be pretty good conclusion starters. However, though such conclusion sentence starters may work in certain cases – for example, in speeches – they are overused, so it is recommended not to use them in writing to introduce your conclusion.
Putting the first mention of your thesis statement in the conclusion – it has to be presented in your introduction first.
Providing new arguments, subtopics, or ideas in the conclusion paragraph.
Including a slightly changed or unchanged thesis statement.
Providing arguments and evidence that belong in the body of the work.
Writing too long, hard to read, or confusing sentences.

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Conclusion Paragraph Outline

The total number of sentences in your final paragraph may vary depending on the number of points you discussed in your essay, as well as on the overall word count of your paper. However, the overall conclusion paragraph outline will remain the same and consists of the following elements:

A conclusion starter:

The first part of your paragraph should drive readers back to your thesis statement. Thus, if you were wondering how to start a conclusion, the best way to do it is by rephrasing your thesis statement.

Summary of the body paragraphs:

Right after revisiting your thesis, you should include several sentences that wrap up the key highlights and points from your body paragraphs. This part of your conclusion can consist of 2-3 sentences—depending on the number of arguments you’ve made. If necessary, you can also explain to the readers how your main points fit together.

A concluding sentence:

Finally, you should end your paragraph with a last, powerful sentence that leaves a lasting impression, gives a sense of logical completeness, and connects readers back to the introduction of the paper.

These three key elements make up a perfect essay conclusion. Now, to give you an even better idea of how to create a perfect conclusion, let us give you a sample conclusion paragraph outline with examples from an argumentative essay on the topic of “Every Child Should Own a Pet:

Sentence 1: Starter
~ Thesis: "Though taking care of a pet may be a bit challenging for small children. Parents should not restrict their kids from having a pet as it helps them grow into more responsible and compassionate people."
~ Restated thesis for a conclusion: "I can say that taking care of a pet is good for every child."
Sentences 2-4: Summary
~ "Studies have shown that pet owners generally have fewer health problems."
~ "Owning a pet teaches a child to be more responsible."
~ "Spending time with a pet reduces stress, feelings of loneliness, and anxiety."
Sentence 5: A concluding sentence
~ "Pets can really change a child life for the better, so don't hesitate to endorse your kid's desire to own a pet."

This is a clear example of how you can shape your conclusion paragraph.

How to Conclude Various Types of Essays

Depending on the type of academic essay you are working on, your concluding paragraph's style, tone, and length may vary. In this part of our guide, we will tell you how to end different types of essays and other works.

How to End an Argumentative Essay

Persuasive or argumentative essays always have the single goal of convincing readers of something (an idea, stance, or viewpoint) by appealing to arguments, facts, logic, and even emotions. The conclusion for such an essay has to be persuasive as well. A good trick you can use is to illustrate a real-life scenario that proves your stance or encourages readers to take action. More about persuasive essay outline you can read in our article.

Here are a few more tips for making a perfect conclusion for an argumentative essay:

Carefully read the whole essay before you begin;
Re-emphasize your ideas;
Discuss possible implications;
Don’t be afraid to appeal to the reader’s emotions.

How to End a Compare and Contrast Essay

The purpose of a compare and contrast essay is to emphasize the differences or similarities between two or more objects, people, phenomena, etc. Therefore, a logical conclusion should highlight how the reviewed objects are different or similar. Basically, in such a paper, your conclusion should recall all of the key common and distinctive features discussed in the body of your essay and also give readers some food for thought after they finish reading it.

How to Conclude a Descriptive Essay

The key idea of a descriptive essay is to showcase your creativity and writing skills by painting a vivid picture with the help of words. This is one of the most creative types of essays as it requires you to show a story, not tell it. This kind of essay implies using a lot of vivid details. Respectively, the conclusion of such a paper should also use descriptive imagery and, at the same time, sum up the main ideas. A good strategy for ending a descriptive essay would be to begin with a short explanation of why you wrote the essay. Then, you should reflect on how your topic affects you. In the middle of the conclusion, you should cover the most critical moments of the story to smoothly lead the reader into a logical closing statement. The “clincher”, in this case, should be a thought-provoking final sentence that leaves a good and lasting impression on the audience. Do not lead the reader into the essay and then leave them with dwindling memories of it.

How to Conclude an Essay About Yourself

If you find yourself writing an essay about yourself, you need to tell a personal story. As a rule, such essays talk about the author’s experiences, which is why a conclusion should create a feeling of narrative closure. A good strategy is to end your story with a logical finale and the lessons you have learned, while, at the same time, linking it to the introductory paragraph and recalling key moments from the story.

How to End an Informative Essay

Unlike other types of papers, informative or expository essays load readers with a lot of information and facts. In this case, “Synthesize, don’t summarize” is the best technique you can use to end your paper. Simply put, instead of recalling all of the major facts, you should approach your conclusion from the “So what?” position by highlighting the significance of the information provided.

How to Conclude a Narrative Essay

In a nutshell, a narrative essay is based on simple storytelling. The purpose of this paper is to share a particular story in detail. Therefore, the conclusion for such a paper should wrap up the story and avoid finishing on an abrupt cliffhanger. It is vital to include the key takeaways and the lessons learned from the story.

How to Write a Conclusion for a Lab Report

Unlike an essay, a lab report is based on an experiment. This type of paper describes the flow of a particular experiment conducted by a student and its conclusion should reflect on the outcomes of this experiment.

In thinking of how to write a conclusion for a lab, here are the key things you should do to get it right:

Restate the goals of your experiment
Describe the methods you used
Include the results of the experiment and analyze the final data
End your conclusion with a clear statement on whether or not the experiment was successful (Did you reach the expected results?)

How to Write a Conclusion for a Research Paper

Writing a paper is probably the hardest task of all, even for experienced dissertation writer . Unlike an essay or even a lab report, a research paper is a much longer piece of work that requires a deeper investigation of the problem. Therefore, a conclusion for such a paper should be even more sophisticated and powerful. If you're feeling difficulty writing an essay, you can buy essay on our service.

However, given that a research paper is the second most popular kind of academic paper (after an essay), it is important to know how to conclude a research paper. Even if you have not yet been assigned to do this task, be sure that you will face it soon. So, here are the steps you should follow to create a great conclusion for a research paper:

Restate the Topic

Start your final paragraph with a quick reminder of what the topic of the piece is about. Keep it one sentence long.

Revisit the Thesis

Next, you should remind your readers what your thesis statement was. However, do not just copy and paste it from the introductory clause: paraphrase your thesis so that you deliver the same idea but with different words. Keep your paraphrased thesis narrow, specific, and topic-oriented.

Summarise Your Key Ideas

Just like the case of a regular essay’s conclusion, a research paper’s final paragraph should also include a short summary of all of the key points stated in the body sections. We recommend reading the entire body part a few times to define all of your main arguments and ideas.

Showcase the Significance of Your Work

In the research paper conclusion, it is vital to highlight the significance of your research problem and state how your solution could be helpful.

Make Suggestions for Future Studies

Finally, at the end of your conclusion, you should define how your findings will contribute to the development of its particular field of science. Outline the perspectives of further research and, if necessary, explain what is yet to be discovered on the topic.

Then, end your conclusion with a powerful concluding sentence – it can be a rhetorical question, call to action, or another hook that will help you have a strong impact on the audience.

Answer the Right Questions

To create a top-notch research paper conclusion, be sure to answer the following questions:

What is the goal of a research paper?
What are the possible solutions to the research question(s)?
How can your results be implemented in real life? (Is your research paper helpful to the community?)
Why is this study important and relevant?

Additionally, here are a few more handy tips to follow:

Provide clear examples from real life to help readers better understand the further implementation of the stated solutions;
Keep your conclusion fresh, original, and creative.

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So, What Is a Good Closing Sentence? See The Difference

One of the best ways to learn how to write a good conclusion is to look at several professional essay conclusion examples. In this section of our guide, we are going to look at two different final paragraphs shaped on the basis of the same template, but even so, they are very different – where one is weak and the other is strong. Below, we are going to compare them to help you understand the difference between a good and a bad conclusion.

Here is the template we used: College degrees are in decline. The price of receiving an education does not correlate with the quality of the education received. As a result, graduated students face underemployment, and the worth of college degrees appears to be in serious doubt. However, the potential social and economic benefits of educated students balance out the equation.

Strong Conclusion ‍

People either see college as an opportunity or an inconvenience; therefore, a degree can only hold as much value as its owner’s skillset. The underemployment of graduate students puts the worth of college degrees in serious doubt. Yet, with the multitude of benefits that educated students bring to society and the economy, the equation remains in balance. Perhaps the ordinary person should consider college as a wise financial investment, but only if they stay determined to study and do the hard work.

Why is this example good? There are several key points that prove its effectiveness:

There is a bold opening statement that encompasses the two contrasting types of students we can see today.
There are two sentences that recall the thesis statement and cover the key arguments from the body of the essay.
Finally, the last sentence sums up the key message of the essay and leaves readers with something to think about.

Weak Conclusion

In conclusion, with the poor preparation of students in college and the subsequent underemployment after graduation from college, the worth associated with the college degree appears to be in serious doubt. However, these issues alone may not reasonably conclude beyond a doubt that investing in a college degree is a rewarding venture. When the full benefits that come with education are carefully put into consideration and evaluated, college education for children in any country still has good advantages, and society should continue to advocate for a college education. The ordinary person should consider this a wise financial decision that holds rewards in the end. Apart from the monetary gains associated with a college education, society will greatly benefit from students when they finish college. Their minds are going to be expanded, and their reasoning and decision making will be enhanced.

What makes this example bad? Here are a few points to consider:

Unlike the first example, this paragraph is long and not specific enough. The author provides plenty of generalized phrases that are not backed up by actual arguments.
This piece is hard to read and understand and sentences have a confusing structure. Also, there are lots of repetitions and too many uses of the word “college”.
There is no summary of the key benefits.
The last two sentences that highlight the value of education contradict with the initial statement.
Finally, the last sentence doesn’t offer a strong conclusion and gives no thought to ponder upon.
In the body of your essay, you have hopefully already provided your reader(s) with plenty of information. Therefore, it is not wise to present new arguments or ideas in your conclusion.
To end your final paragraph right, find a clear and straightforward message that will have the most powerful impact on your audience.
Don’t use more than one quote in the final clause of your paper – the information from external sources (including quotes) belongs in the body of a paper.
Be authoritative when writing a conclusion. You should sound confident and convincing to leave a good impression. Sentences like “I’m not an expert, but…” will most likely make you seem less knowledgeable and/or credible.

Good Conclusion Examples

Now that we've learned what a conclusion is and how to write one let's take a look at some essay conclusion examples to strengthen our knowledge.

The ending ironically reveals that all was for nothing. (A short explanation of the thematic effect of the book’s end) Tom says that Miss Watson freed Jim in her final will.Jim told Huck that the dead man on the Island was pap. The entire adventure seemingly evaporated into nothingness. (How this effect was manifested into the minds of thereaders).

All in all, international schools hold the key to building a full future that students can achieve. (Thesis statement simplified) They help students develop their own character by learning from their mistakes, without having to face a dreadful penalty for failure. (Thesis statement elaborated)Although some say that kids emerged “spoiled” with this mentality, the results prove the contrary. (Possible counter-arguments are noted)

In conclusion, public workers should be allowed to strike since it will give them a chance to air their grievances. (Thesis statement) Public workers should be allowed to strike when their rights, safety, and regulations are compromised. The workers will get motivated when they strike, and their demands are met.

In summary, studies reveal some similarities in the nutrient contents between the organic and non-organic food substances. (Starts with similarities) However, others have revealed many considerable differences in the amounts of antioxidants as well as other minerals present in organic and non-organic foods. Generally, organic foods have higher levels of antioxidants than non-organic foods and therefore are more important in the prevention of chronic illnesses.

As time went by, my obsession grew into something bigger than art; (‘As time went by’ signals maturation) it grew into a dream of developing myself for the world. (Showing student’s interest of developing himself for the community) It is a dream of not only seeing the world from a different perspective but also changing the perspective of people who see my work. (Showing student’s determination to create moving pieces of art)

In conclusion, it is evident that technology is an integral part of our lives and without it, we become “lost” since we have increasingly become dependent on its use. (Thesis with main point)

You might also be interested in reading nursing essay examples from our service.

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Milton's Complex Words: Essays on the Conceptual Structure of Paradise Lost

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This chapter explores the meanings of ‘envy’ in Paradise Lost . The chapter analyses the diverse uses of the term, exploring particularly the ways in which different characters understand and use the idea in different ways, some of which the poem invites us to correct. The exploration of this idea therefore forms part of the education of Milton’s reader.

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Essays on Envy

66 samples on this topic

Crafting a bunch of Envy papers is an implicit part of present-day studying, be it in high-school, college, or university. If you can do that unassisted, that's just awesome; yet, other learners might not be that fortunate, as Envy writing can be quite difficult. The directory of free sample Envy papers introduced below was compiled in order to help flunker students rise up to the challenge.

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The terms “Sin” and “Crime” share some relationship however, they are significantly different from each other. Sin is behavior that falls short of the spiritual expectations. It evolves from the rules set by religious beliefs. All crimes qualify as sins however; not all sins qualify as crimes. During the early days of society, there was no concept of law and order. Hence, sins determined moral obsoletes for observation within the societies. Crime points to actions that determine legal acceptance of a particular community (Toigo, 2005). This paper explores the origins of sin and crime from ancient to medieval times.

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This paper contains interviews of two people from different backgrounds and different organizations. The interview intends to get vital information from the interviewees. Having in mind that an interview is between two people, there will be two different interviews in two different settings. One interview will be at a restaurant and the other one will be at an industry. In the first interview, john will be the interviewee and he is a supervisor in envy restaurant while the second interview will be in Gregory motor garage where Michael will answer several questions concerning his role as a supervisor.

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Essays About Jealousy: Top 11 Examples and Writing Prompts

Jealousy is an undesirable yet persistent feeling throughout our lives; if you want to write essays about jealousy, read the essay examples and writing prompts featured in our guide.

It is only human to envy what others have from time to time: their money, house, and relationships. However, there is only so far you can go until jealousy becomes toxic and detrimental to your well-being. We must control our jealousy, stop thinking of others’ fortune, and focus on ourselves.

Despite its negative effects, jealousy is an intrinsic feeling in humanity, inspiring writers, artists, and directors throughout the centuries. This feeling is at the core of some of the most fantastic literature of all time: William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Othello , William Golding’s Lord of the Flies , and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby .

You can start by reading these examples to write insightful essays about jealousy.

1. Jealousy Is a Wasted Emotion by Joshua Fields Millburn

2. listen to what your jealousy is telling you by vivian nunez, 3. jealousy, envy are reflections of insecurity by john stathas, 4. lenten reflection -how envy hurts us by james sano.

5. Why I Refuse to Be Jealous of My Partners’ Exes by Nancy Einhart

Writing Prompts on Essays about Jealousy

1. what is jealousy , 2. what causes jealousy, 3. how jealousy can affect your mental health, 4. how can you control your jealousy, 5. jealousy in literature and popular culture, 6. your experience with jealousy.

“The easiest way to turn jealousy off is to stop questioning other people’s intentions. We often get jealous because we think a person meant one thing by their actions, when they meant something totally different. And the truth is that you’ll never know someone’s real intent, so it’s a waste of time to question it.

In his essay, Millburn writes about how to avoid jealousy and its adverse effects. It enforces standards in which we all try to be a certain way, free from individuality, and is terrible for people’s emotional health. But unlike most other emotions, we can “turn it off.” Millburn says we should stop being so critical of others’ intentions and give them the benefit of the doubt.

“But I’ve slowly made peace with the fact that my jealousy will always be a part of me. I’ve started finding solace in this envy. Lately, for example, I’ve been feeling jealous of those who have childhood homes they can go back to. I wish my boyfriend and I and our dog could go see my mom and have her fold us into her home while we figured out the next steps of our lives.”

Nunez takes a different approach to jealousy in this essay; rather than trying to purge it, she writes that we should let it guide us as with all other emotions. We are only human, after all. According to her, jealousy is a reflection of our most vulnerable side, and we should not try to purge it if we want to be healthy. Nunez gives examples from her childhood in which ignoring her jealousy affected her badly.

“If envy is your problem, examine what is that all about. What is missing in your life that causes you to envy something of another? What in you needs to be added or shored up? A healthy person does not allow envy to sully one’s soul.”

In a way echoing the statements of Nunez, Stathas discusses how jealousy reveals one’s fear, insecurity, and anxiety. However, he believes jealousy and envy can ruin your life if left unchecked. One possible solution is talking to the person inciting such jealousy and asking for reassurance; however, this is not for everyone, and it can be enough to focus on oneself merely.

“It is interesting that other sins promise at least some sort of short-term returns to us, but envy offers none. Envy can corrode our hearts, weaken our minds, and destroy our peace. It only brings sadness and anger, and we lose our orientation towards Christ, who died of self for love of others. Envy is the opposite of love, as true love is an unconditional willing of the good for another. ‘Love your neighbor, as yourself.’”

Sano writes his essay from a religious perspective, discussing jealousy in the context of the Bible and sin. Jealousy or envy is a toxic trait that makes us unhappy about others’ achievements and is considered a grave sin. Sano gives some examples of parables about envy and writes that if we learn to love others as we love ourselves, we can get rid of the envy in our hearts.

5. Why I Refuse to Be Jealous of My Partners’ Exes by Nancy Einhart

“When I see people consumed by jealousy about their partners’ pasts, I feel bad for them. Jealously doesn’t make your relationship more stable or build trust in your relationship; in fact, it can erode trust in a poisonous way. So resolve to fight your jealous instinct, because your life will be fuller without it, and you might even make a friend along the way.”

In her essay, Einhart details possible reasons for her to be jealous and why she actively rejects jealousy in her life. Rather than being jealous of her partner’s relationships with his exes, she is grateful that these people made her partner into who he is today. She also recalls her divorced parents’ friendship with each others’ exes or new partners, as well as her friendship with her ex-boyfriend’s wife. Jealousy is a waste of time and energy that could better be directed toward strengthening a relationship.

An excellent essay to write can talk about your thoughts on jealousy. First, define jealousy, then reflect on your experiences with this feeling and what it means to you- when have you been jealous before? How did it make you feel? You can also briefly touch on its causes and effects, but do not go too in-depth. Do not base your essay on the experiences of others; it should reflect your own experiences.

Essays about Jealousy: What causes jealousy?

From happy relationships to a new car to outstanding academic achievements- there are many possible causes of jealousy. Your essay can examine why people may be jealous and how they relate to one another. If you wish, give examples of instances in which others were jealous for reasons mentioned in your essay.

Most of the time, jealousy is destructive to one’s mental health. Research on the adverse effects of jealousy: in what ways can jealousy hinder you? Write about how jealousy can affect your well-being and give concrete examples. Be sure to cite credible sources, as this topic has been the subject of much research.

Since jealousy affects your mental health negatively, it is essential to be able to resist or at least control it. Your essay can advise readers on regulating jealousy or keeping it from consuming you. Read the essay examples above for different perspectives on jealousy and how to respond to it.

As stated previously, jealousy is a theme in many famous works of literature. Choose a novel, play, movie, or television program in which jealousy plays an important role. Explain how jealousy is present and how it impacts the plot and characters. Cite quotes from your chosen work for a more solid evidence base in your essay.

It is only human to feel jealous from time to time. Write about an experience where you were jealous of something or someone- do you regret it? Reflect on this experience, retell the story, and explain how you felt: what or who were you jealous of? Would you do anything differently now? Answer these questions for an engaging and inspiring essay.

Check out our guide packed full of transition words for essays . If you’re still stuck, check out our available resource for essay writing topics .

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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17 Essay Conclusion Examples (Copy and Paste)

essay conclusion examples and definition, explained below

Essay conclusions are not just extra filler. They are important because they tie together your arguments, then give you the chance to forcefully drive your point home.

I created the 5 Cs conclusion method to help you write essay conclusions:

I’ve previously produced the video below on how to write a conclusion that goes over the above image.

The video follows the 5 C’s method ( you can read about it in this post ), which doesn’t perfectly match each of the below copy-and-paste conclusion examples, but the principles are similar, and can help you to write your own strong conclusion:

💡 New! Try this AI Prompt to Generate a Sample 5Cs Conclusion This is my essay: [INSERT ESSAY WITHOUT THE CONCLUSION]. I want you to write a conclusion for this essay. In the first sentence of the conclusion, return to a statement I made in the introduction. In the second sentence, reiterate the thesis statement I have used. In the third sentence, clarify how my final position is relevant to the Essay Question, which is [ESSAY QUESTION]. In the fourth sentence, explain who should be interested in my findings. In the fifth sentence, end by noting in one final, engaging sentence why this topic is of such importance.

Remember: The prompt can help you generate samples but you can’t submit AI text for assessment. Make sure you write your conclusion in your own words.

Essay Conclusion Examples

Below is a range of copy-and-paste essay conclusions with gaps for you to fill-in your topic and key arguments. Browse through for one you like (there are 17 for argumentative, expository, compare and contrast, and critical essays). Once you’ve found one you like, copy it and add-in the key points to make it your own.

1. Argumentative Essay Conclusions

The arguments presented in this essay demonstrate the significant importance of _____________. While there are some strong counterarguments, such as ____________, it remains clear that the benefits/merits of _____________ far outweigh the potential downsides. The evidence presented throughout the essay strongly support _____________. In the coming years, _____________ will be increasingly important. Therefore, continual advocacy for the position presented in this essay will be necessary, especially due to its significant implications for _____________.

Version 1 Filled-In

The arguments presented in this essay demonstrate the significant importance of fighting climate change. While there are some strong counterarguments, such as the claim that it is too late to stop catastrophic change, it remains clear that the merits of taking drastic action far outweigh the potential downsides. The evidence presented throughout the essay strongly support the claim that we can at least mitigate the worst effects. In the coming years, intergovernmental worldwide agreements will be increasingly important. Therefore, continual advocacy for the position presented in this essay will be necessary, especially due to its significant implications for humankind.

As this essay has shown, it is clear that the debate surrounding _____________ is multifaceted and highly complex. While there are strong arguments opposing the position that _____________, there remains overwhelming evidence to support the claim that _____________. A careful analysis of the empirical evidence suggests that _____________ not only leads to ____________, but it may also be a necessity for _____________. Moving forward, _____________ should be a priority for all stakeholders involved, as it promises a better future for _____________. The focus should now shift towards how best to integrate _____________ more effectively into society.

Version 2 Filled-In

As this essay has shown, it is clear that the debate surrounding climate change is multifaceted and highly complex. While there are strong arguments opposing the position that we should fight climate change, there remains overwhelming evidence to support the claim that action can mitigate the worst effects. A careful analysis of the empirical evidence suggests that strong action not only leads to better economic outcomes in the long term, but it may also be a necessity for preventing climate-related deaths. Moving forward, carbon emission mitigation should be a priority for all stakeholders involved, as it promises a better future for all. The focus should now shift towards how best to integrate smart climate policies more effectively into society.

Based upon the preponderance of evidence, it is evident that _____________ holds the potential to significantly alter/improve _____________. The counterarguments, while noteworthy, fail to diminish the compelling case for _____________. Following an examination of both sides of the argument, it has become clear that _____________ presents the most effective solution/approach to _____________. Consequently, it is imperative that society acknowledge the value of _____________ for developing a better _____________. Failing to address this topic could lead to negative outcomes, including _____________.

Version 3 Filled-In

Based upon the preponderance of evidence, it is evident that addressing climate change holds the potential to significantly improve the future of society. The counterarguments, while noteworthy, fail to diminish the compelling case for immediate climate action. Following an examination of both sides of the argument, it has become clear that widespread and urgent social action presents the most effective solution to this pressing problem. Consequently, it is imperative that society acknowledge the value of taking immediate action for developing a better environment for future generations. Failing to address this topic could lead to negative outcomes, including more extreme climate events and greater economic externalities.

2. Expository Essay Conclusions

Overall, it is evident that _____________ plays a crucial role in _____________. The analysis presented in this essay demonstrates the clear impact of _____________ on _____________. By understanding the key facts about _____________, practitioners/society are better equipped to navigate _____________. Moving forward, further exploration of _____________ will yield additional insights and information about _____________. As such, _____________ should remain a focal point for further discussions and studies on _____________.

Overall, it is evident that social media plays a crucial role in harming teenagers’ mental health. The analysis presented in this essay demonstrates the clear impact of social media on young people. By understanding the key facts about the ways social media cause young people to experience body dysmorphia, teachers and parents are better equipped to help young people navigate online spaces. Moving forward, further exploration of the ways social media cause harm will yield additional insights and information about how it can be more sufficiently regulated. As such, the effects of social media on youth should remain a focal point for further discussions and studies on youth mental health.

To conclude, this essay has explored the multi-faceted aspects of _____________. Through a careful examination of _____________, this essay has illuminated its significant influence on _____________. This understanding allows society to appreciate the idea that _____________. As research continues to emerge, the importance of _____________ will only continue to grow. Therefore, an understanding of _____________ is not merely desirable, but imperative for _____________.

To conclude, this essay has explored the multi-faceted aspects of globalization. Through a careful examination of globalization, this essay has illuminated its significant influence on the economy, cultures, and society. This understanding allows society to appreciate the idea that globalization has both positive and negative effects. As research continues to emerge, the importance of studying globalization will only continue to grow. Therefore, an understanding of globalization’s effects is not merely desirable, but imperative for judging whether it is good or bad.

Reflecting on the discussion, it is clear that _____________ serves a pivotal role in _____________. By delving into the intricacies of _____________, we have gained valuable insights into its impact and significance. This knowledge will undoubtedly serve as a guiding principle in _____________. Moving forward, it is paramount to remain open to further explorations and studies on _____________. In this way, our understanding and appreciation of _____________ can only deepen and expand.

Reflecting on the discussion, it is clear that mass media serves a pivotal role in shaping public opinion. By delving into the intricacies of mass media, we have gained valuable insights into its impact and significance. This knowledge will undoubtedly serve as a guiding principle in shaping the media landscape. Moving forward, it is paramount to remain open to further explorations and studies on how mass media impacts society. In this way, our understanding and appreciation of mass media’s impacts can only deepen and expand.

In conclusion, this essay has shed light on the importance of _____________ in the context of _____________. The evidence and analysis provided underscore the profound effect _____________ has on _____________. The knowledge gained from exploring _____________ will undoubtedly contribute to more informed and effective decisions in _____________. As we continue to progress, the significance of understanding _____________ will remain paramount. Hence, we should strive to deepen our knowledge of _____________ to better navigate and influence _____________.

In conclusion, this essay has shed light on the importance of bedside manner in the context of nursing. The evidence and analysis provided underscore the profound effect compassionate bedside manner has on patient outcome. The knowledge gained from exploring nurses’ bedside manner will undoubtedly contribute to more informed and effective decisions in nursing practice. As we continue to progress, the significance of understanding nurses’ bedside manner will remain paramount. Hence, we should strive to deepen our knowledge of this topic to better navigate and influence patient outcomes.

See More: How to Write an Expository Essay

3. Compare and Contrast Essay Conclusion

While both _____________ and _____________ have similarities such as _____________, they also have some very important differences in areas like _____________. Through this comparative analysis, a broader understanding of _____________ and _____________ has been attained. The choice between the two will largely depend on _____________. For example, as highlighted in the essay, ____________. Despite their differences, both _____________ and _____________ have value in different situations.

While both macrosociology and microsociology have similarities such as their foci on how society is structured, they also have some very important differences in areas like their differing approaches to research methodologies. Through this comparative analysis, a broader understanding of macrosociology and microsociology has been attained. The choice between the two will largely depend on the researcher’s perspective on how society works. For example, as highlighted in the essay, microsociology is much more concerned with individuals’ experiences while macrosociology is more concerned with social structures. Despite their differences, both macrosociology and microsociology have value in different situations.

It is clear that _____________ and _____________, while seeming to be different, have shared characteristics in _____________. On the other hand, their contrasts in _____________ shed light on their unique features. The analysis provides a more nuanced comprehension of these subjects. In choosing between the two, consideration should be given to _____________. Despite their disparities, it’s crucial to acknowledge the importance of both when it comes to _____________.

It is clear that behaviorism and consructivism, while seeming to be different, have shared characteristics in their foci on knowledge acquisition over time. On the other hand, their contrasts in ideas about the role of experience in learning shed light on their unique features. The analysis provides a more nuanced comprehension of these subjects. In choosing between the two, consideration should be given to which approach works best in which situation. Despite their disparities, it’s crucial to acknowledge the importance of both when it comes to student education.

Reflecting on the points discussed, it’s evident that _____________ and _____________ share similarities such as _____________, while also demonstrating unique differences, particularly in _____________. The preference for one over the other would typically depend on factors such as _____________. Yet, regardless of their distinctions, both _____________ and _____________ play integral roles in their respective areas, significantly contributing to _____________.

Reflecting on the points discussed, it’s evident that red and orange share similarities such as the fact they are both ‘hot colors’, while also demonstrating unique differences, particularly in their social meaning (red meaning danger and orange warmth). The preference for one over the other would typically depend on factors such as personal taste. Yet, regardless of their distinctions, both red and orange play integral roles in their respective areas, significantly contributing to color theory.

Ultimately, the comparison and contrast of _____________ and _____________ have revealed intriguing similarities and notable differences. Differences such as _____________ give deeper insights into their unique and shared qualities. When it comes to choosing between them, _____________ will likely be a deciding factor. Despite these differences, it is important to remember that both _____________ and _____________ hold significant value within the context of _____________, and each contributes to _____________ in its own unique way.

Ultimately, the comparison and contrast of driving and flying have revealed intriguing similarities and notable differences. Differences such as their differing speed to destination give deeper insights into their unique and shared qualities. When it comes to choosing between them, urgency to arrive at the destination will likely be a deciding factor. Despite these differences, it is important to remember that both driving and flying hold significant value within the context of air transit, and each contributes to facilitating movement in its own unique way.

See Here for More Compare and Contrast Essay Examples

4. Critical Essay Conclusion

In conclusion, the analysis of _____________ has unveiled critical aspects related to _____________. While there are strengths in _____________, its limitations are equally telling. This critique provides a more informed perspective on _____________, revealing that there is much more beneath the surface. Moving forward, the understanding of _____________ should evolve, considering both its merits and flaws.

In conclusion, the analysis of flow theory has unveiled critical aspects related to motivation and focus. While there are strengths in achieving a flow state, its limitations are equally telling. This critique provides a more informed perspective on how humans achieve motivation, revealing that there is much more beneath the surface. Moving forward, the understanding of flow theory of motivation should evolve, considering both its merits and flaws.

To conclude, this critical examination of _____________ sheds light on its multi-dimensional nature. While _____________ presents notable advantages, it is not without its drawbacks. This in-depth critique offers a comprehensive understanding of _____________. Therefore, future engagements with _____________ should involve a balanced consideration of its strengths and weaknesses.

To conclude, this critical examination of postmodern art sheds light on its multi-dimensional nature. While postmodernism presents notable advantages, it is not without its drawbacks. This in-depth critique offers a comprehensive understanding of how it has contributed to the arts over the past 50 years. Therefore, future engagements with postmodern art should involve a balanced consideration of its strengths and weaknesses.

Upon reflection, the critique of _____________ uncovers profound insights into its underlying intricacies. Despite its positive aspects such as ________, it’s impossible to overlook its shortcomings. This analysis provides a nuanced understanding of _____________, highlighting the necessity for a balanced approach in future interactions. Indeed, both the strengths and weaknesses of _____________ should be taken into account when considering ____________.

Upon reflection, the critique of marxism uncovers profound insights into its underlying intricacies. Despite its positive aspects such as its ability to critique exploitation of labor, it’s impossible to overlook its shortcomings. This analysis provides a nuanced understanding of marxism’s harmful effects when used as an economic theory, highlighting the necessity for a balanced approach in future interactions. Indeed, both the strengths and weaknesses of marxism should be taken into account when considering the use of its ideas in real life.

Ultimately, this critique of _____________ offers a detailed look into its advantages and disadvantages. The strengths of _____________ such as __________ are significant, yet its limitations such as _________ are not insignificant. This balanced analysis not only offers a deeper understanding of _____________ but also underscores the importance of critical evaluation. Hence, it’s crucial that future discussions around _____________ continue to embrace this balanced approach.

Ultimately, this critique of artificial intelligence offers a detailed look into its advantages and disadvantages. The strengths of artificial intelligence, such as its ability to improve productivity are significant, yet its limitations such as the possibility of mass job losses are not insignificant. This balanced analysis not only offers a deeper understanding of artificial intelligence but also underscores the importance of critical evaluation. Hence, it’s crucial that future discussions around the regulation of artificial intelligence continue to embrace this balanced approach.

This article promised 17 essay conclusions, and this one you are reading now is the twenty-first. This last conclusion demonstrates that the very best essay conclusions are written uniquely, from scratch, in order to perfectly cater the conclusion to the topic. A good conclusion will tie together all the key points you made in your essay and forcefully drive home the importance or relevance of your argument, thesis statement, or simply your topic so the reader is left with one strong final point to ponder.

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 5 Top Tips for Succeeding at University
Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 50 Durable Goods Examples
Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 100 Consumer Goods Examples
Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 30 Globalization Pros and Cons

Ultimate Guide to Writing Your College Essay

Tips for writing an effective college essay.

College admissions essays are an important part of your college application and gives you the chance to show colleges and universities your character and experiences. This guide will give you tips to write an effective college essay.

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Student Stories

Student Story: Admissions essay about a formative experience

Get the perspective of a current college student on how he approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about personal identity

Get the perspective of a current college student on how she approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about community impact

Student story: admissions essay about a past mistake, how to write a college application essay, tips for writing an effective application essay, sample college essay 1 with feedback, sample college essay 2 with feedback.

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There I Almost Am

On envy and twinship.

The author with her sister in childhood.

For the author and her twin, pictured here on vacation in York Harbor, Maine in 1989, meeting new people has always involved a sort of flag planting, an expectation to be seen as more "real" than the other. Courtesy Jean Garnett. Photo illustration by Bianca Ibarlucea.

Recently, I walked into a small grocery store near my house and the owner, a shy but sociable man, looked up at me and said, “Are you you , or the other one?”

“i always wanted a twin,” some singletons say, and I believe them. To be a twin is glorious. We get lots of attention. Sometimes it’s an insulting kind—a man on a boat once said, “Don’t even bother telling me which is which; I won’t remember”—but attention is attention, and it feels good. Plus, we have each other, which is no small thing to have.

not long ago , stepping out of the rain into a crowded vestibule, there she was, my own face among strangers. Relief. We pressed our dripping cheeks together and instantly became, if not one body, then a kind of puppet that takes two operators, me fishing chapstick out of her bag, her biting into the energy bar I had in my pocket.

Up the stairs, surrounded by intimidating young people, we held our ground as though by forcefield, whispering and laughing, not needing anyone else. I thought, I have brought my second to this duel. You may know the feeling of taking proud shelter in a sibling, someone who knows how to assemble and disassemble you, someone with whom you share blood, history, memory. Imagine sharing not only all of that but also hair, skin, iris, nipple, the same winces of pain caused by the same herniation in the same cervical disks, the same laugh sounds and laugh lines, the very same early marks of age; the same face—your face , the signature that proves the youness of you—so that you can look at another person and think, There I am. There I almost am.

This was a work event: My sister and I are in the same business; in fact we have the exact same editorial position at different publishing companies and are in direct competition with each other, sometimes even bidding against each other in auctions. I started out in publishing a few years before she did, and at first I enjoyed playing mentor, offering advice on agents and office politics and author care; sometimes she would even ask me to read something to verify her opinion. I can be a very generous sister—maternal, even—as long as I am winning. Now, just as I feel my own career stalling, overtaken by domestic sprawl and motherhood, my sister’s seems to be taking off, her ambition suddenly asserting itself as though filling the vacuum left by mine. I have stopped going to work events—I never liked them, and with a small child I have an excellent excuse not to attend them—while she makes a point of showing up to everything. When I skip a big literary benefit or agent mixer, I am almost certain to hear from a colleague the next day, “I waved to you across the room last night, but you didn’t see me,” or, “Wait, yesterday you had a different haircut.”

What do you do with two people who share a face? The old way was to lean into the curiosity of doppelgangerdom, have some fun with it.

It causes me a strange mix of pride and panic to hear about my sister from people in my own sphere. For us, meeting people has always involved a sort of flag planting. The system goes like this: If you meet me first, I have planted my flag in you; even if we are not friends and never will be, I expect a certain loyalty from you—meaning, I guess, that I expect you to see me as being more real than my sister. If she meets you first, ok, she has planted her flag, and I am resigned to being “the other one.” These days, I find myself feeling more and more like the other one—not the right one, not the looked-for one, not “the one .” This feeling is nothing new (though to some extent it is in keeping with the sense of ceding ground that, I am discovering, comes with parenthood). It is, and always has been, a part of the natural twin cycle. She is having her turn.

My sister has had a good year. At the event, people kept coming up to her. “You’ve had a good year!” they’d say, and I would smile and nod and say, “She really has.” After one congratulator walked away my sister leaned close to me and whispered, “What am I supposed to say to them? ‘Thanks, errrr, you haven’t!’” I laughed. The room went quiet as a reader took the stage and we stood together, shoulder to shoulder, arms slung around waists, self-conjoining. As usual, her nearness flooded me with, first, a profound sense of peace and well-being and, second, anxiety about my comparative worth. I was, for example, aware of being the shorter twin. No one can say when this one-inch difference pried its way between us; we didn’t start to notice it until we were almost thirty. Maybe she did more yoga, elongating herself. Maybe certain chapters stunted my growth. Maybe I’ve been shrinking.

A few minutes into the reading, suddenly, without warning, her body shifted away from mine, leaving me physically lonely and cold, as though she had been sheltering me from a breeze or had removed my clothes by un-touching me. She pulled ahead, stepping softly through the quiet room of listeners, over to a cluster of people sitting on the floor near the stage. I watched her lean down toward them, exchange warm smiles and whispers of greeting, and then, turning her back to me, fold her long legs and sink down until all but the part in her brand-new haircut disappeared.

not long after that, standing in line for the bathroom at a poetry reading, I strike up a conversation with an acquaintance of my sister’s, a young man named Daniel. He expresses surprise that she and I are both book editors, and I tell him that it’s actually pretty common for identical twins to have the same job, something I learned from a National Geographic documentary. “I guess that makes sense,” says Daniel, and then he tells me about a pair of identical twins he knows who are both poets. “Which one is better?” I ask him, as a joke. Without missing a beat he nods and says, “That comes up a lot.” And then he gives me an unequivocal answer.

“twins are the same because they are twins,” the psychologist (and twin) Barbara Klein writes in Alone in the Mirror: Twins in Therapy , her 2012 book on the struggles of twins in a singleton world. In many ways my compound identity with my sister is home. I would like to stay home, in Klein’s cozy tautology, but she immediately about-faces and spoils it: “At the same time, twins have the right to be different and to create their own sense of themselves.” As an adolescent I was eager to exercise this right. Now I worry that, no matter what happens, I am unfinished, synecdoche, half the apple.

What do you do with two people who share a face? The old way was to lean into the curiosity of doppelgangerdom, have some fun with it. Parents might dress their twins in matching outfits, maybe even christen them alliteratively. By the 1980s, this model had become suspect (a symptom of Cold War distrust of sameness, maybe?); now each twin was required to be an individual. In America, “How are you different?” and “How are you special?” are the same question. We must all be equal, but also different and special, and so with twins, who are the same but different, a dizzying, ever-vigilant accounting is necessary. Red overalls and a blue shirt for one; blue overalls and a red shirt for the other. The exact same number of presents on birthdays and Christmas, but not the same presents. A box of colored pencils for one and a beading kit for the other, wrapped identically as a kind of coding for us (apparent duplicates reveal distinct interiors!).

Adults don’t compare and contrast my sister and me aloud like some kids and family members used to, but they do stare. Sometimes a new acquaintance (usually a man) will stand there looking back and forth between us, and then say, “Yes, I see the difference.” And because I’m vain and frightened I always want to ask, “What is it? What is the difference?”

to the twin, motherhood holds out the promise of a final, elevating inequality. For this one person, my child, I am singular, irreplaceable. I have no equal.

I have never felt like more of a singleton than during the first few months after my child was born. She wailed when my sister took her, missing my smell. Now that she is older, it’s my sister’s neck she clings to while I try to pull her away, and I can hear the false cheer in my voice as I coax her.

Even as I go through the motions of building my own life, in many ways my sister still holds the key to its meaning. For example, I believe I am happily married. My husband and I have been together for many years, and if some of the passion and desire we once felt for each other has been muffled by routine, familiarity, and the stress of parenthood, that is no tragedy; it happens to lots of marriages. But if my sister, whose current relationship is similar to mine in being well-worn, were tomorrow to go out and fall madly in love with some new man, embarking on a thrilling, terrifying romantic adventure, the character of my marriage would be transformed. Outwardly, nothing in my life would have changed, but the story of my happiness would be undone. ONE TWIN IS ALWAYS BETTER LOOKING THAN THE OTHER. One is always “doing better.” Happier. Healthier. Thinner. Time acts upon us. Food and drink. Cigarettes. Anxiety. Childbirth. I used to privately note that my tits were perkier; now that I have nursed this is no longer true. I think her teeth might be slightly whiter. My nose is pointier. Her lips are fuller. I could go on.

Envy. Francis Bacon called it “the vilest affection, and the most depraved.” To Socrates it was “the ulcer of the soul.” It is, the critic Sianne Ngai tells us, an ugly feeling, meaning that it is non-cathartic, arising from a “situation of obstructed agency.” You can do nothing to stop it, nothing to control it, nothing to bring it to any conclusion. It will have its interminable way with you. Unlike the grander passions—rage, despair—it endures while offering “no satisfactions of virtue…nor any therapeutic or purifying release.”

Not surprisingly, both Nietzsche and Ayn Rand dismissed it as the province of petulant losers: “the vengefulness of the impotent” (Nietzsche), “the hallmark of a second rater” (Rand). According to Melanie Klein, it is “operative from the beginning of life” and “affects the earliest relation of all.” It occurs, says the Austrian sociologist Helmut Schoeck, “as soon as two individuals become capable of mutual comparison.” I REMEMBER HOW , in our early twenties when my sister was at her thinnest, I was always angling for a view of her, using barback mirrors and public bathrooms and shop windows to catch secret glimpses. I remember how perverted I felt whenever our eyes met in the reflection and she caught me in the act of envy. I am never more disgusted with myself than when I am engaged in this covert looking and assessing, treating her body as a human mirror. But I still do it. I spy on her. She’ll be walking or crying or dancing or getting dressed or trying to tell me something important, and I’ll become aware that my eyes are scanning her as though she were a bar code. You want your identical twin to be beautiful, to confirm that you are beautiful, but you also want her to be ugly, to confirm that she is uglier than you.

Aristotle put it like this: “We envy those who are near us in time, place, age, or reputation…those whose possession of or success in a thing is a reproach to us: these are our neighbors and equals; for it is clear that it is our own fault we have missed the good thing in question.” Missed is the knife-twisting word here, so much of envy having to do with the feeling of a near miss, an almost .

WHEN DOES ENVY BEGIN? In her essay “Envy and Gratitude,” Melanie Klein traces it to the body of the mother. I find her writing difficult to understand, and so, recently, when I found myself sitting next to a psychoanalyst at a dinner party, I asked if he could break it down for me. He said, “Think of the breast from the infant’s point of view: I am suffering, I am wanting, I am alone. And then, as if by magic, a nurturing object appears and quenches every thirst, removes every anxiety, wraps me in a cocoon of safety and love.”

The great dream of my life is to succeed in collaboration with my sister, harmonize with her, shine with her, but the reality is that we almost never manage this.

While he was talking the server came up behind us and poured red wine into the heavy bowl of his glass (perched on its slender, feminine stem, very breast-like), and I was thinking how I wanted some and how easily I could ask for it and take a warm, acid sip and break four years of sobriety that came about not because I hit any rock bottom but simply because I am bottomlessly thirsty.

“So,” continued the analyst, “Mother has the thing that will end all discomfort. But she doesn’t always give it up, at least not fast enough, which must mean she’s keeping some for herself. That produces envy.”

“Wanting what someone else has,” I said.

“Wanting to destroy what you want that someone else has.”

“Fling poop at the breast,” I said.

His owlish face broke into a smile. “Exactly.”

A desire that seeks to destroy: that is one definition of envy. “The professional thief is less tormented, less motivated by envy, than is the arsonist,” writes Schoeck.

Klein talks about breastfeeding as restoring, to some extent, the “lost prenatal unity with the mother.” My sister and I were never breastfed; we were too small and weak to suck strongly enough. But with twins it is never just fetus and mother; there is always triangulation. We are not only dependent on our mother to nourish, but on each other to share rather than steal. Each of us withholds from the other—each of us constitutes, for the other—the thing that would end all discomfort by conferring wholeness.

I FIRST RECOGNIZED IT in the cartoon villains of our youth. Wicked stepmothers, illegitimate kings, lonely sorceresses. Of these, I particularly identified with Ursula, the sea witch in The Little Mermaid . With her crystal ball spying, her glowing eyes (envy looks ), and her yearning for Triton’s three-pronged golden schlong, she was dripping with envy’s signifiers. At one point, a pair of enormous, pea-green hands come steaming out of her and hover winglike for a second before caressing their way toward Ariel’s face, like a bad smell that makes you horny. Ariel throws her head back as the hands penetrate her, deep throat, no gag reflex, her eyes closed, her neck engorged.

Even as a young child I knew what those hands meant, and that if I was not careful my own would be visible.

A BOOK MY SISTER EDITED is on the New York Times list of the ten best books of the year, a career milestone I’ve never achieved. I text her: “OMGGGGG! CONGRATULATIONS!!!” I am screaming in her face. I use my baby name for her, at the very moment of her adult and individual success. I am aware that I am asking her for something. An apology? A disavowal? Reassurance? Or maybe I am warning her, emitting a shrill alarm. Mind the gap between us. One victory is permissible, but take care.

I call my mother and break the news of my sister’s triumph, making it mine this way. Isn’t it exciting? Aren’t we so proud? I don’t have to pretend to be excited and proud; I am excited and proud, just also miserable and empty. My mother is overjoyed. “Wow,” she says, “that’s—” and she pauses for a split second before concluding, “you two are really something.”

I REMEMBER US , face-to-face across the kitchen table after school eating identical snacks—two fruit roll-ups, a bowl of cheese puffs apiece—watching each other chew with excruciating slowness. The goal was to finish last, to be left with something when the other had nothing. Sometimes I would seem to finish first, and she would gloat briefly over her remaining treasure, and then, once she had swallowed every last crumb, I would bring out the morsel I had hidden in my lap and make a show of savoring it.

Years later, the goal was to push the still full plate away, another kind of not finishing. When, at eighteen, she came back from several months abroad, our first sustained physical separation, she had lost a lot of weight. I tried restricting, and managed to starve myself down about twenty pounds, but sooner or later deprivation always gave way to a gorge. I ended up in an in-patient facility where the rooms and halls and lawns were bursting with barely suppressed envy.

The bulimics coveted the willpower of the anorexics; the anorexics wished they could let loose like us. (It’s hard to think of a more destructive “cure” than bringing a bunch of eating disordered girls and women together under one roof so that they can go on a manic comparison spree, but that’s what this facility did, and our parents paid them for it.) It strikes me now that restriction, bingeing, and purging are, among other things, attempts to get the ugliness of envy, the ugliness of desire under control, by starving it, or sating it, or releasing it once and for all.

My roommate was a fifty-year-old suburban housewife so tentative in her existence that her eyeballs seemed to tremble in their sockets. At home she consumed exactly one cup of grapes per day; at the facility she had to chew and swallow her meals under surveillance like the rest of us.

One walleyed dirty blonde had been driven deranged by her basement treadmill. I never heard her complete a sentence that did not reference this treadmill: how many miles she had got up to, how many hours and calories burned, which man said he was impressed by her endurance, which bad family member had tried to keep her from her machine. She had spent a quarter of her life sprinting in place and she was going to run out the rest the same way.

I think about these women now, and how obvious it was that at every session we were all (patients and counselors) mentally comparing the bodies in the room and the stories attached to them. I wonder why we talked so much about food, weight, family, sex, but never about the one feeling that united us.

ENVY IS SILENT . It leaves us ashamed, inarticulate. As Schoeck observes, “It is remarkable how seldom the vernacular forms of different languages permit one to say directly to another person: ‘Don’t do that. It will make me envious!’”

A stunningly beautiful famous woman posts a picture of herself, always with a caption that is either jokey or empowering, as though the proud display of her beauty represents oppression overcome. Every so often one of her millions of followers will reply with an “ugh, so gorgeous” or an “I can’t even” or occasionally a friendly “OMG I hate you.” This is the closest we come to discharging the barely contained fury coursing through the comment feed. “ANGEL!” people shout. “PURE WARRIOR GODDESS!” “YASS!” “YOU’RE SO PERFECT!” It’s like we are stoning her with compliments.

MY SISTER HAS BEEN STAYING WITH ME during the outbreak, helping with childcare. Tonight in the kitchen my husband and I start fighting again about something stupid—whether it’s safe to refrigerate tomato paste in the can. When our voices get sharp my sister quietly leads my daughter upstairs and starts running the bath. I hear her sweet, clear voice singing an improvised song about scrubbing, punctuated by gleeful shrieks and demands for more. She is the kind of aunt who throws her whole soul into every goof. I am grateful; during her stay here I have come to rely on her as a co-parent. Yet there are times when the love between the two people I need most in the world threatens me. “You can’t need anything from your child,” says my mother when I call her in tears.

After my daughter falls asleep I knock softly on my sister’s door. She is sitting in bed with her laptop on her lap. “Whatcha reading?” is never an innocent question with us now; we are often racing to finish the same batch of submissions. Sitting alone at my desk, skimming pages, I wonder, What does she think of this manuscript? If she values it, then I will value it. If she dismisses it, then I am bored.

The great dream of my life is to succeed in collaboration with my sister, harmonize with her, shine with her, but the reality is that we almost never manage this. Instead I am often stupefied by her eloquence, disturbed by her peace, extinguished by her light. She seems to cancel me. When she gains weight or gets a pimple on her face or fails at something, I rejoice inwardly for a millisecond before I recover myself and quash this hideous joy with shame.

in miloš forman’s amadeus , the composer Salieri, who calls himself the “patron saint” of mediocrities, is tormented by envy of Mozart. In middle school I became fixated on Salieri, recording his monologues from the movie, which are accompanied by musical movements, and listening to them on my Walkman while at school. I felt, though I couldn’t have expressed it at the time, that Mozart’s music became more beautiful—inexpressibly, unbearably beautiful—when heard through the scrim of impotence and longing that was the Salieri filter. He suggested to me that a note of envy might be inextricable from the experience of beauty, and maybe the experience of love, too. Schopenhauer writes that envy “builds the wall between Thee and Me thicker and stronger”; sympathy, in his formulation, tears the wall down. But maybe they’re both adaptations to each other—sympathy a penance for primal aggression, envy a defense against annihilating love. at ten, my sister and I had been sent to separate schools so that we could develop our own identities. I never questioned the logic of this separation, and I don’t think my parents did either; it was simply the done thing. At my new school I set to work. The quickest and easiest way to differentiate was to become “the bad one.” I dyed my hair a dark color and took up smoking. I got my period first. Smoked a joint first. Kissed a boy first. Dropped acid first. Got to first, second, and third base first. Got home first. Got home with my sister in the room, lying perfectly still under the covers of her twin bed while I inhaled sharply.

I got home with a boy we’ll call A. He was on the basketball team, and after school I would sit and watch his lanky body move under the yellow lights of the gym. I was so in love with him that my hands shook whenever he was in the same room with me. This continued well into my twenties.

A therapist would say I was looking to re-create the closeness of the twin bond and was doomed to disappointment, and yes, I behaved with A as though we shared one body. I found separating from him even for just a matter of hours physically painful. Once I got down on my knees on the sidewalk outside of school and grabbed him around the legs to keep him from walking away, but he walked away anyway, his black Air Jordans dragging me down the street until I came undone. And yes, of course he befriended my sister and they remained friends after he told me he didn’t love me anymore.

when, at twenty-six, my sister told me that my worst fear about A had been justified—that he had pursued her, declared his feelings for her—I drew a blank and laughed. Why hadn’t she told me sooner? “I thought it would be better if you didn’t know,” she said. I was never angry with her, or I never expressed my anger. How could I? It wasn’t her fault she was so lovable, so calm and unassuming and perfectly opposite to me, who had screamed and begged and sent A email upon email filled with below-the-belt insults and declarations of everlasting devotion, who had been so needy, so totally bulimic in every way. For months I wrote to him and heard nothing. Until suddenly there was a reply and I was sick with excitement. I clicked the bold text. He had written me one line: “Stop. You have earned enough credits to graduate.”

In retrospect I think I gave up on the idea of trying to be a writer at that moment. What is the point of stringing words together if you can’t argue someone into loving you? How good can you possibly be if you fail to persuade?

of all the definitions of envy I have read, the simplest and most terrifying comes from the psychoanalyst Harry Stack Sullivan, who wrote, “Envy may be an active realization that one is not good enough.”

for years the thought of a, always intrusive, was accompanied by an image: I pictured a tall glass filled to the lip with the foulest black liquid, and I knew that I would have to drink it all. I repeated a merciless mantra to myself, hoping that it would toughen me up, though it turned out the tall glass was bottomless—the breast that never stops lactating, because you never stop sucking it. “For a fact, A does not love you. For a fact, he loves your sister.”

Here is where the metamorphosis begins. You take to your bed and daydream a different outcome for days, pausing only to sleep, and when daylight attacks, you roll over and daydream some more. You make a comfortable home in what Dickens called “the vanity of unworthiness.” Here, you cannot go any farther down. You are at the bottom of the ocean, the bottom of the family. You stay down there, streaming entire seasons of whatever on your iPad, going back and forth from bed to kitchen, chewing and swallowing until your jaw aches, salty chips from the bag, whole packages of stale rye crackers smeared with cold butter, ice cream that comes back up into the toilet in cold sweet glugs. Here at the bottom, in your state of obstructed agency, you are free to hoard all the ugliness—and by extension, all the humanity—for yourself. this can’t last. You may not be good enough, but you are still going to get up and leave the house and work and get married and have a child and love your sister and try to be there for her when she feels like the other one. I remember the night a few years ago, when I came home to find her sitting hunched on my front steps, her long hair curtained in front of her splotchy wet face. I was doing well then, seeing an excellent therapist twice a week, exercising regularly, sticking to a healthy diet, getting promoted, working on a new style of self-talk that I planned to use on my sister when she calmed down a little.

It took us forever to climb the four flights to my apartment because she kept stopping to clutch the bannister and sob, as though something were trying violently to escape her body and she had to stand still to help it. I remember being in a light, strong, masterful mood. Upstairs, as soon as I got my apartment door open she collapsed on the rug, unable to make it the extra few steps that would have landed her on the couch. I put the kettle on, then went and sat cross-legged on the floor and lifted her head into my lap and rubbed it gently, noticing the slight stiffness at the roots of her hair. (I remember sitting like this, but reversed, my head in her lap, on the steps of a church in Paris while she carefully cleaned my ears. We were teenagers and hadn’t seen each other in months and we had gone straight from the airport to a pharmacy to buy Q-tips because we knew that this would be the way back, to sit quietly and groom each other like monkeys.) After a while her breathing slowed and I thought she might be asleep, or in the trancelike state that sometimes steals over a person in the middle of a breakdown and that can, in my experience, be quite pleasant. But then she turned and looked up at me and said, her lips twisting, “I feel like you’re leaving me behind.”

Rachel Cusk

Renaissance women, fady joudah, you might also like, a common seagull, ghosts in my nursery, amy herzog and brenda shaughnessy, join a conversation 200 years in the making..

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Christian Religion Theme in “Paradise Lost” by John Milton Essay

Introduction, age of the poem, thesis statement, book summary, works cited.

John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost is one of the most read epic poems in history (Kean 34). The poem is religious and focuses on the relationship between man and God. To be specific, the poem sheds light on how man’s fate was decided at the Garden of Eden. Precisely, this poem is a Christian poem that seeks to justify the actions of God, which may be unclear to man.

The poem has thousands of lines in the poem’s verses. The poem has been written in over twelve books, not mentioning the original ten book version that was initially written. The review of Book 1 of the poem will highlight the age of the poem. Moreover, the review will provide information about the poet and a thesis statement. A substantive summary of the book will be done with a conclusion.

This poem was published in the year 1667, but was first initialized by the poet in the 17th century (Lewalski 686). This was the first edition of the poem, which consisted of ten books. Later, the poem was redone as a second edition in the year 1674 and consisted of twelve books.

An in-depth analysis of the book reveals that the poem is ancient and was done, when the need to emphasis the validity of the Christian faith was questionable. This can be justified by the poem’s insistence in illuminating the Christian faith from a traditional point of view, particularly by focusing on God, Satan, first creations and man.

John Milton is a renowned poet, who is sometimes regarded as a polemicist. The poet was born on 9th December 1608 (Milton XI) and has written several religious and political materials in his career. Born in London, the young Milton oversaw a shift of his religious views after being abandoned by his father. This was because, the young Milton who was brought up as a staunch Catholic converted to Protestantism.

However, Milton started to write poetry in the 1630s, while undergoing his studies. Much of Milton’s poetry can be traced in the various literary materials that focus on Christian religion and politics (XIV). Until his death on 8th November 1674, the English author was known of his contribution to British partisanship, which is still a contentious issue in modern Britain.

The poetic style known as the Miltonic blank verse style is named after John Milton’s poetic style, which is still relevant in both epic poetry and contemporary poetry.

The poem Paradise Lost is an epic encounter that illuminates the significance of the disobedience of man to God. The poem’s emphasis on God, Satan, angels, and other godly creatures is of importance for man to understand God’s actions. The poem validates Christianity and offers relevance to the Christian religion.

As indicated earlier, the poem is an epic encounter of the Christian faith. The poem trends along with the story of the fall of man as a creature endowed with free will, but weak in faith. This is evidenced in the poem’s first lines, which introduce the subject of the poem. The first lines of the poem indicate the disobedience of man, the cause of the disobedience, the consequence and man’s redemption.

“Of man first disobedience/ and the fruit of that forbidden tree/ whose mortal taste brought death into the world/ and all our woe/ with loss of Eden/ till one greater man restore us….” (Milton 1-5).

The mentioning of the muses in the sixth line of the first verse is an indication that the fall of man may have been pre-planned for a greater significance in the future. A focus on the mentioning of the muses would reveal that Milton is referring to the Holy Spirit.

“Sing heavenly muse/ that on the secret top of Oreb/ or Sinai, didst inspire” (Milton 6-7)

The poet also mentions the aspects that define man’s failure in the presence of God. For example, the poet asserts his presence to hell with Satan. He refers to hell as a burning inferno, where there is chaos in the middle of nowhere. It is in the first book of the poem that the poet introduces the universe structure.

In this regard, the universe is created by God and consists of the earth, the stars, and other planets. The poet implies that the earth is beautiful to the extent that Satan is amazed by such creation, once he falls from heaven.

From the poem’s first book, the reader is introduced to the poem’s characters. Some of these characters are deeply mentioned in Holy Scriptures. An example of such is the mention of angels, archangels and Satan. It seems that the fall of man started from heavenly wrangles between God and Satan. This is attested by the poet who describes Satan as bewildered, once he is thrown out of heave and notices Beelzebub.

Together and some other angels, Satan also recounts on how they should attack God after losing in their first ordeal. In this occurrence, the disobedience of man to God is premeditated, once Satan and his counterparts want to revenge against God through man.

The poet description of Satan is that of a powerful evil that still posses some of the angelic features, such as feathers and monstrous physique. At one point, the poet describes and compares Satan’s shield to a big moon and his pear to a huge mast of a big ship. The rise and reign of evil begin at this moment when Satan summons his fellow fallen angels and counterparts and organizes them into various responsibilities.

The mentioning of the pagan deities in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament is likened by the poet to the leaders of the organized satanic angels. Such deities can be likened to the idol worshipping by the Israelites as numerously mentioned in the Old Testament.

Some of the pagan deities mentioned by Milton include the Chemos worshipped as a non-Hebrew god, soon after the Israelites came from Egypt. Another deity was Moloch popular in Syria and Jordan. Another deity was the Ashtoreth worshipped by the Phoenicians. Milton mentions a lot of deities that were part of the fallen angels.

As mentioned earlier, the fall of man may have been premeditated. However, such would not come easy considering that God had already created man. By using fraud, man could be used as the means to an end. The poet tries to show how Satan and his legions still deceive man through the greed of the material wealth.

From another perspective, the poem Paradise Lost is initialized by a focus on the beginning of the world, which was intended to be a paradise. God intention was to make the earth a paradise for his creations. However, such was lost along the way after the fall of Satan from heaven. Nonetheless, the poet tries to be truthful by using the Holy Spirit to imply his allegations as truthful.

The Holy Spirit is described as the muse, which is intended to keep the information truthful. This is revealed by Milton’s mentioning of the fallen angels by their names. This is an exemplary way of ensuring that his poem does not pass as a myth like any other epic poem with a Greek or Latin origin.

While Greek and Latin mythology focuses on heroic figures like Achilles, Milton’s story of the Paradise Lost is a journey for all mankind. Milton’s epic story is about the good against the evil, which is the most horrific battle that continues to date.

The large part of book 1 of the Paradise Lost poem is a description of the satanic character. The poet tries to explain the struggles of Satan and the eventful deception of man by Satan. At this juncture, the reader may be swayed to think that Satan is the hero of the story or the protagonist of the story. Satan whispers into the year of Eve and deceives her into eating the forbidden fruit.

The success of Satan’s deception may be likened to a character of a protagonist. Most protagonists struggle and emerge successful in their ambitions. The introduction of Adam and Eve in the story does not shift this perception that Satan might be powerful than man. This is evidenced when Satan is described not to have wavered in his evil quest. In fact, he takes pride and delight in evil rather than good.

“Falling Cherub, to be weak is miserable

Doing or suffering, but of this be sure

To do ought good never will be our task

But ever to do ill our delight…” (Milton 157- 160).

Satan becomes more optimistic of his plans, and at one point he envisions himself becoming the king in hell. Satan is powerful to understand the power of the mind. He knows that the mind can be corrupted to make a heaven out of hell or vice versa.

Nonetheless, Satan powers are unmatched to that of God. God demonstrates his immense great powers by lifting up the fallen angles from the burning inferno and unites them with Satan. God must have had a greater plan than Satan.

Perhaps, God had premeditated the fall of man and wanted to demonstrate his powers to redeem man from Satan’s evil plans. This can be evidenced by God choosing his son Jesus Christ to save man by grace. However, Satan does not seem to understand this plan and continues with his pride and thinks his intellects matches that of God.

Ironically, the poet description of Satan has certain shortcomings. The initial intent of the poet was to describe a powerful satanic force. The poet does so by using similes of the burning lake, the pandemonium, the big mast, and a hill.

“Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge/ as whom the fables name of monstrous size…” (Milton 196-197).

Such use of similes indicates that the size of Satan is relative. This description makes the reader to believe that Satan may not be that powerful, big or mysterious.

The book 1 of the poem Paradise Lost portrays Satan as a loser who was incapable of killing even a single angel in their initial heavenly battle. The poem also portrays Satan as a hero of destruction and only excels in acts that bring forth war and atrocities. In this context, mankind is advised against gong into war with Satan without God’s help.

The poet leads the readers to question their admiration of martial strength and the character of heroes who exist in literature. In so doing, the reader is prompted into understanding the virtues of the Christian faith. These Christian virtues entail being obedient, humble and patient in persevering temptations.

It is important to acknowledge that Milton’s description of Satan is not to provoke admiration from the reader. Milton does not expect empathy from the reader.

However, the poet wants the reader to notice the irony that surrounds Satan success. In fact, the poet wants the reader to understand that Satan only succeeds because God wants him to, but just for a while. It seems that Satan efforts and actions are also premeditated by another superior power, which is God.

The poet through symbolism creates the city of hell known as pandemonium, which Satan wants to perfect as hell’s capital. The city, which is made of gold, represents the worldly desires harbored by man. Nonetheless, the city is later revealed to be a sinful place that is full of confusion and disorder. This is a perfect representation of illusions of both Satan and man.

Three main themes are traceable in book 1 of the poem. The first theme is the significance of obedience to God in the Christian faith. The first book of the poem describes the disobedience of man as a succession of Satan’s rebellion against God. At one point, man is warned by angel Raphael that Satan is a threat to mankind. This depicts that obedience is a moral principle that depends on free will for its execution.

When free will is unable to counter against disobedience, mankind is doomed to continue into sin and moral degradation. The significance of disobedience to God has its own significance, since through repentance man is forgiven by God. The lack of acknowledgment of sin and repentance leads to eternal condemnation by God. To date, the significance of seeking forgiveness from God and repentance is a fundamental principle in the Christian faith.

The second theme depicted in the poem is the structure and nature of the universe. The poet gives a layout of the universe in his poem by depicting how God is positioned above all other things. In this context, heaven, hell, and earth are given various proximities in the universe. In this universal hierarchy, the poet positions various creations about God’s proximity. With each level of proximity, certain aspects of power are given to the same creations.

Above all, God is the Supreme Being of all and the creator of all other beings positioned in the universal hierarchy. God’s son Jesus Christ is amongst the top in the hierarchical commands, followed by angels and then a man and ultimately animals.

The positioning of Jesus Christ as superior to all angels prompted the rebellion of Satan and other fallen angels. In this respect, it is important to note that man can only remain obedient by respecting this hierarchy. To this very day, the Christians give allegiance to the Son Jesus Christ in respect to being obedient to God.

The final theme depicts disobedience to God as partly fortunate. After the revelation of the savior of humankind, Adam is happy and sees man’s fault as a means to a happy ending. Through the fault of man, God can show his mighty power in redeeming the sinner.

Moreover, his love is depicted to be forever unending. Such Christian values are the foundation of the Christian faith that salvation comes from the Son of God. Basically, the fall of man is a plan of God to reveal his powers and love for mankind.

Kean, Margaret. John Milton’s paradise lost: A sourcebook . New York: Routledge, 2005. Print.

Lewalski, K. Barbara. The life of John Milton: A critical biography . New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2008. Print.

Milton, John. Paradise Lost, Books 1 and 2 . California: CUP Archive, 1958. Print.

Milton, John. Paradise lost: A poem, in twelve books. The author John Milton . Oxford: Oxford University, 1746, p. 1-798. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2020, March 12). Christian Religion Theme in “Paradise Lost” by John Milton. https://ivypanda.com/essays/paradise-lost-by-john-milton/

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IvyPanda . 2020. "Christian Religion Theme in “Paradise Lost” by John Milton." March 12, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/paradise-lost-by-john-milton/.

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Christian Religion Theme in “Paradise Lost” by John Milton." March 12, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/paradise-lost-by-john-milton/.

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Should college essays touch on race? Some feel the affirmative action ruling leaves them no choice

Hillary Amofa listens to others member of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. "I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping," said the 18 year-old senior, "And I'm just like, this doesn't really say anything about me as a person." (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Hillary Amofa listens to others member of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action, it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. (AP Video: Noreen Nasir)

Hillary Amofa listens to others member of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

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Hillary Amofa, laughs as she participates in a team building game with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Hillary Amofa stands for a portrait after practice with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Max Decker, a senior at Lincoln High School, sits for a portrait in the school library where he often worked on writing his college essays, in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman)

Hillary Amofa, second from left, practices with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Max Decker, a senior at Lincoln High School, stands for a portrait outside of the school in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman)

*Hillary Amofa, reflected right, practices in a mirror with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Max Decker, a senior at Lincoln High School, sits for a portrait outside of the school in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman)

Hillary Amofa, left, practices with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Hillary Amofa sits for a portrait after her step team practice at Lincoln Park High School Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

FILE - Demonstrators protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, in this June 29, 2023 file photo, after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, saying race cannot be a factor. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

CHICAGO (AP) — When she started writing her college essay, Hillary Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. About being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana and growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. About hardship and struggle.

Then she deleted it all.

“I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18-year-old senior at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.”

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education, it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. For many students of color, instantly more was riding on the already high-stakes writing assignment. Some say they felt pressure to exploit their hardships as they competed for a spot on campus.

Amofa was just starting to think about her essay when the court issued its decision, and it left her with a wave of questions. Could she still write about her race? Could she be penalized for it? She wanted to tell colleges about her heritage but she didn’t want to be defined by it.

In English class, Amofa and her classmates read sample essays that all seemed to focus on some trauma or hardship. It left her with the impression she had to write about her life’s hardest moments to show how far she’d come. But she and some of her classmates wondered if their lives had been hard enough to catch the attention of admissions offices.

“For a lot of students, there’s a feeling of, like, having to go through something so horrible to feel worthy of going to school, which is kind of sad,” said Amofa, the daughter of a hospital technician and an Uber driver.

This year’s senior class is the first in decades to navigate college admissions without affirmative action . The Supreme Court upheld the practice in decisions going back to the 1970s, but this court’s conservative supermajority found it is unconstitutional for colleges to give students extra weight because of their race alone.

Still, the decision left room for race to play an indirect role: Chief Justice John Roberts wrote universities can still consider how an applicant’s life was shaped by their race, “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability.”

“A benefit to a student who overcame racial discrimination, for example, must be tied to that student’s courage and determination,” he wrote.

Scores of colleges responded with new essay prompts asking about students’ backgrounds. Brown University asked applicants how “an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you.” Rice University asked students how their perspectives were shaped by their “background, experiences, upbringing, and/or racial identity.”

*Hillary Amofa, reflected right, practices in a mirror with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. "I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping," said the 18 year-old senior, "And I'm just like, this doesn't really say anything about me as a person." (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Hillary Amofa, reflected right, practices in a mirror with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

WONDERING IF SCHOOLS ‘EXPECT A SOB STORY’

When Darrian Merritt started writing his essay, he knew the stakes were higher than ever because of the court’s decision. His first instinct was to write about events that led to him going to live with his grandmother as a child.

Those were painful memories, but he thought they might play well at schools like Yale, Stanford and Vanderbilt.

“I feel like the admissions committee might expect a sob story or a tragic story,” said Merritt, a senior in Cleveland. “And if you don’t provide that, then maybe they’re not going to feel like you went through enough to deserve having a spot at the university. I wrestled with that a lot.”

He wrote drafts focusing on his childhood, but it never amounted to more than a collection of memories. Eventually he abandoned the idea and aimed for an essay that would stand out for its positivity.

Merritt wrote about a summer camp where he started to feel more comfortable in his own skin. He described embracing his personality and defying his tendency to please others. The essay had humor — it centered on a water gun fight where he had victory in sight but, in a comedic twist, slipped and fell. But the essay also reflects on his feelings of not being “Black enough” and getting made fun of for listening to “white people music.”

“I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to write this for me, and we’re just going to see how it goes,’” he said. “It just felt real, and it felt like an honest story.”

The essay describes a breakthrough as he learned “to take ownership of myself and my future by sharing my true personality with the people I encounter. ... I realized that the first chapter of my own story had just been written.”

Max Decker, a senior at Lincoln High School, sits for a portrait in the school library where he often worked on writing his college essays, in Portland, Ore., March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman)

A RULING PROMPTS PIVOTS ON ESSAY TOPICS

Like many students, Max Decker of Portland, Oregon, had drafted a college essay on one topic, only to change direction after the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Decker initially wrote about his love for video games. In a childhood surrounded by constant change, navigating his parents’ divorce, the games he took from place to place on his Nintendo DS were a source of comfort.

But the essay he submitted to colleges focused on the community he found through Word is Bond, a leadership group for young Black men in Portland.

As the only biracial, Jewish kid with divorced parents in a predominantly white, Christian community, Decker wrote he constantly felt like the odd one out. On a trip with Word is Bond to Capitol Hill, he and friends who looked just like him shook hands with lawmakers. The experience, he wrote, changed how he saw himself.

“It’s because I’m different that I provide something precious to the world, not the other way around,” he wrote.

As a first-generation college student, Decker thought about the subtle ways his peers seemed to know more about navigating the admissions process . They made sure to get into advanced classes at the start of high school, and they knew how to secure glowing letters of recommendation.

Max Decker reads his college essay on his experience with a leadership group for young Black men. (AP Video/Noreen Nasir)

If writing about race would give him a slight edge and show admissions officers a fuller picture of his achievements, he wanted to take that small advantage.

His first memory about race, Decker said, was when he went to get a haircut in elementary school and the barber made rude comments about his curly hair. Until recently, the insecurity that moment created led him to keep his hair buzzed short.

Through Word is Bond, Decker said he found a space to explore his identity as a Black man. It was one of the first times he was surrounded by Black peers and saw Black role models. It filled him with a sense of pride in his identity. No more buzzcut.

The pressure to write about race involved a tradeoff with other important things in his life, Decker said. That included his passion for journalism, like the piece he wrote on efforts to revive a once-thriving Black neighborhood in Portland. In the end, he squeezed in 100 characters about his journalism under the application’s activities section.

“My final essay, it felt true to myself. But the difference between that and my other essay was the fact that it wasn’t the truth that I necessarily wanted to share,” said Decker, whose top college choice is Tulane, in New Orleans, because of the region’s diversity. “It felt like I just had to limit the truth I was sharing to what I feel like the world is expecting of me.”

FILE - Demonstrators protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, in this June 29, 2023 file photo, after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, saying race cannot be a factor. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Demonstrators protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, in this June 29, 2023 file photo, after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, saying race cannot be a factor. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

SPELLING OUT THE IMPACT OF RACE

Before the Supreme Court ruling, it seemed a given to Imani Laird that colleges would consider the ways that race had touched her life. But now, she felt like she had to spell it out.

As she started her essay, she reflected on how she had faced bias or felt overlooked as a Black student in predominantly white spaces.

There was the year in math class when the teacher kept calling her by the name of another Black student. There were the comments that she’d have an easier time getting into college because she was Black .

“I didn’t have it easier because of my race,” said Laird, a senior at Newton South High School in the Boston suburbs who was accepted at Wellesley and Howard University, and is waiting to hear from several Ivy League colleges. “I had stuff I had to overcome.”

In her final essays, she wrote about her grandfather, who served in the military but was denied access to GI Bill benefits because of his race.

She described how discrimination fueled her ambition to excel and pursue a career in public policy.

“So, I never settled for mediocrity,” she wrote. “Regardless of the subject, my goal in class was not just to participate but to excel. Beyond academics, I wanted to excel while remembering what started this motivation in the first place.”

Hillary Amofa stands for a portrait after practice with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. "I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping," said the 18 year-old senior, "And I'm just like, this doesn't really say anything about me as a person." (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Hillary Amofa stands for a portrait after practice with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

WILL SCHOOLS LOSE RACIAL DIVERSITY?

Amofa used to think affirmative action was only a factor at schools like Harvard and Yale. After the court’s ruling, she was surprised to find that race was taken into account even at some public universities she was applying to.

Now, without affirmative action, she wondered if mostly white schools will become even whiter.

It’s been on her mind as she chooses between Indiana University and the University of Dayton, both of which have relatively few Black students. When she was one of the only Black students in her grade school, she could fall back on her family and Ghanaian friends at church. At college, she worries about loneliness.

“That’s what I’m nervous about,” she said. “Going and just feeling so isolated, even though I’m constantly around people.”

Hillary Amofa reads her college essay on embracing her natural hair. (AP Video/Noreen Nasir)

The first drafts of her essay focused on growing up in a low-income family, sharing a bedroom with her brother and grandmother. But it didn’t tell colleges about who she is now, she said.

Her final essay tells how she came to embrace her natural hair . She wrote about going to a mostly white grade school where classmates made jokes about her afro. When her grandmother sent her back with braids or cornrows, they made fun of those too.

Over time, she ignored their insults and found beauty in the styles worn by women in her life. She now runs a business doing braids and other hairstyles in her neighborhood.

“I stopped seeing myself through the lens of the European traditional beauty standards and started seeing myself through the lens that I created,” Amofa wrote.

“Criticism will persist, but it loses its power when you know there’s a crown on your head!”

Ma reported from Portland, Oregon.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .

Ryan O'Connell to Release Essay Collection (Exclusive)

Ryan O'Connell is set to release a new book.

The Emmy-nominated and Writers Guild Award-winning writer, actor, and producer's debut collection of essays was acquired by St. Martin's Press, The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively announce. The book will be published in early 2026.

The book's collection will include "soul-bearing, funny, and provocative essays about overcoming one's limitations, and the ones others place on you, and leading a fully gay life." Publisher St. Martin's Press describes of the book, "In essays that range from his relationship with his mother, to alcohol, to straight people's weddings, and to online hook-up culture, O'Donnell illuminates his life and the lessons he's learned as he embraces his full self."

O'Connell said in a statement to THR , "I love writing for TV and film but when I started considering putting dead bodies in my pilots and earnestly thinking about my creative vision for Bob's Big Boy: The Movie , I knew it was time to return to my problematic first love: The Personal Essay. My latest book is a collection of stories examining how I, a gay disabled man, learned to value myself even when the world around me didn't. Thank you to my agent Kent Wolf and my editor Anna deVries at St. Martin's for believing in me and letting me write a 6,000-word essay called ‘Are Straight People Okay?' I hope after reading this, people will be struck with the delusional confidence of Rob Schneider in the late 90s and pursue big, gorgeous lives."

O'Connell released his debut novel called Just By Looking at Him in 2022. Apart from his work on television, O'Connell also penned a memoir I'm Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves , released in 2015, which became the inspiration for Special.

His breakout sitcom Special , based on his own journey as a gay disabled man coming to terms with his cerebral palsy, ran for two seasons on Netflix and was nominated for four Emmy Awards. He received a Special Recognition Award from GLAAD and a Visibility Award from the HRC for the special. O'Connell also starred in, wrote, and executive produced Queer As Folk for Peacock.

Perry High School students win 2024 Perry Optimist essay contest

Perry High School and DMACC students Jennifer Ramos, Erika Guardado, Kain Killmer and Mia Munoz pose for a photo after receiving medals in the Perry Optimist Club essay contest.

Perry Optimist Club handed out medals to the local essay contest winners during its meeting on Wednesday, April 3 at the Hotel Pattee.

Linda Andorf, who facilitated the contest, said DMACC VanKirk Career Academy's Linda Kaufman assigned a writing assignment to her Perry High School/DMACC students. The assignment was graded and was then judged anonymously by Perry Optimist Club members. This year, 32 essays were submitted and four places were awarded.

Erika Guardado won first place while Jennifer Ramos received second place. Mia Munoz and Kain Killmer tied for third place.

The prompt for this year’s contest was "Optimism: How it Connects Us."

Guardado’s essay has been sent to the district level. She will also receive a $500 scholarship during the senior awards assembly in May.

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Guest Essay

When I Became a Birder, Almost Everything Else Fell Into Place

An illustration showing a birder standing quietly looking through binoculars in four scenes. In the third scene, he says, “Amazing.”

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Mr. Yong is a science writer whose most recent book, “An Immense World,” investigates animal perception.

Last September, I drove to a protected wetland near my home in Oakland, Calif., walked to the end of a pier and started looking at birds. Throughout the summer, I was breaking in my first pair of binoculars, a Sibley field guide and the Merlin song-identification app, but always while hiking or walking the dog. On that pier, for the first time, I had gone somewhere solely to watch birds.

In some birding circles, people say that anyone who looks at birds is a birder — a kind, inclusive sentiment that overlooks the forces that create and shape subcultures. Anyone can dance, but not everyone would identify as a dancer, because the term suggests, if not skill, then at least effort and intent. Similarly, I’ve cared about birds and other animals for my entire life, and I’ve written about them throughout my two decades as a science writer, but I mark the moment when I specifically chose to devote time and energy to them as the moment I became a birder.

Since then, my birder derangement syndrome has progressed at an alarming pace. Seven months ago, I was still seeing very common birds for the first time. Since then, I’ve seen 452 species, including 337 in the United States, and 307 this year alone. I can reliably identify a few dozen species by ear. I can tell apart greater and lesser yellowlegs, house and purple finches, Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks. (Don’t talk to me about gulls; I’m working on the gulls.) I keep abreast of eBird’s rare bird alerts and have spent many days — some glorious, others frustrating — looking for said rare birds. I know what it means to dip, to twitch, to pish . I’ve gone owling.

I didn’t start from scratch. A career spent writing about nature gave me enough avian biology and taxonomy to roughly know the habitats and silhouettes of the major groups. Journalism taught me how to familiarize myself with unfamiliar territory very quickly. I crowdsourced tips on the social media platform Bluesky . I went out with experienced birders to learn how they move through a landscape and what cues they attend to.

I studied up on birds that are famously difficult to identify so that when I first saw them in the field, I had an inkling of what they were without having to check a field guide. I used the many tools now available to novices: EBird shows where other birders go and reveals how different species navigate space and time; Merlin is best known as an identification app but is secretly an incredible encyclopedia; Birding Quiz lets you practice identifying species based on fleeting glances at bad angles.

This all sounds rather extra, and birding is often defined by its excesses. At its worst, it becomes an empty process of collection that turns living things into abstract numbers on meaningless lists. But even that style of birding is harder without knowledge. To find the birds, you have to know them. And in the process of knowing them, much else falls into place.

Birding has tripled the time I spend outdoors. It has pushed me to explore Oakland in ways I never would have: Amazing hot spots lurk within industrial areas, sewage treatment plants and random residential parks. It has proved more meditative than meditation. While birding, I seem impervious to heat, cold, hunger and thirst. My senses focus resolutely on the present, and the usual hubbub in my head becomes quiet. When I spot a species for the first time — a lifer — I course with adrenaline while being utterly serene.

I also feel a much deeper connection to the natural world, which I have long written about but always remained slightly distant from. I knew that the loggerhead shrike — a small but ferocious songbird — impales the bodies of its prey on spikes. I’ve now seen one doing that with my own eyes. I know where to find the shrikes and what they sound like. Countless fragments of unrooted trivia that rattled around my brain are now grounded in place, time and experience.

When I step out my door in the morning, I take an aural census of the neighborhood, tuning in to the chatter of creatures that were always there and that I might have previously overlooked. The passing of the seasons feels more granular, marked by the arrival and disappearance of particular species instead of much slower changes in day length, temperature and greenery. I find myself noticing small shifts in the weather and small differences in habitat. I think about the tides.

So much more of the natural world feels close and accessible now. When I started birding, I remember thinking that I’d never see most of the species in my field guide. Sure, backyard birds like robins and western bluebirds would be easy, but not black skimmers or peregrine falcons or loggerhead shrikes. I had internalized the idea of nature as distant and remote — the province of nature documentaries and far-flung vacations. But in the past six months, I’ve seen soaring golden eagles, heard duetting great horned owls, watched dancing sandhill cranes and marveled at diving Pacific loons, all within an hour of my house. “I’ll never see that” has turned into “Where can I find that?”

Of course, having the time to bird is an immense privilege. As a freelancer, I have total control over my hours and my ability to get out in the field. “Are you a retiree?” a fellow birder recently asked me. “You’re birding like a retiree.” I laughed, but the comment spoke to the idea that things like birding are what you do when you’re not working, not being productive.

I reject that. These recent years have taught me that I’m less when I’m not actively looking after myself, that I have value to my world and my community beyond ceaseless production and that pursuits like birding that foster joy, wonder and connection to place are not sidebars to a fulfilled life but their essence.

It’s easy to think of birding as an escape from reality. Instead, I see it as immersion in the true reality. I don’t need to know who the main characters are on social media and what everyone is saying about them, when I can instead spend an hour trying to find a rare sparrow. It’s very clear to me which of those two activities is the more ridiculous. It’s not the one with the sparrow.

More of those sparrows are imminent. I’m about to witness my first spring migration as warblers and other delights pass through the Bay Area. Birds I’ve seen only in drab grays are about to don their spectacular breeding plumages. Familiar species are about to burst out in new tunes that I’ll have to learn. I have my first lazuli bunting to see, my first blue grosbeak to find, my first least terns to photograph. I can’t wait.

Ed Yong is a science writer whose most recent book, “An Immense World,” investigates animal perception.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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