popularity #2

[meaghangarrigal]

Meaghan Garrigal
Period 10
English 2
Essay 2
Message Board



In “Nineteen Minutes” the books main theme was popularity. Josie thought being popular was what defined her. Peter, on the other hand, wasn’t popular, he was a total reject, and the way he was treated at school made him do something extremely drastic and bring a gun to school. There are all sorts of kids in high school who think that they are superior to those people they feel are below them, like the character Matt. For Matt, being superior to those who were below him is what defined him. To me, being popular isn’t the most important thing in the world, as long as you are comfortable with who you are, then other people will be good with you too.
Popularity isn’t as important as dying of thirst. Some People may disagree with me, but as long as you have some friends I think you’re good. I guess to the kids who don’t have any friends, they feel the need to fit in so maybe being popular is everything to them. But to me, high school is only 730 days give or take, and after high school it’s not going to matter if you were popular or not.
There is a big difference between fitting in with a group and being popular. Fitting in with a group is when you can relate to someone just like you, where you can still be a “math geek” or a “science freak” but still fit in with people who are just like you. But being popular is when you have to act a certain way, dress a certain way, and talk a certain way just like the people who are surrounding you. For the people who are popular in “Nineteen Minutes” they make fun of anyone who is different, anyone who doesn’t dress a certain way, look a certain way, or who isn’t very athletic. For the popular kids they make fun of anyone who is different then themselves.
I don’t think you will ever find a high school where everyone is popular. Maybe you’ll find a high school where everyone is friends but never a high school where everyone is popular. There are always going to be those kids who wear the weird clothes, or who are just to shy to try and fit in. Then there also those kids who make themselves feel better, or higher their self – esteem by making those people who are different feel below them. In “Nineteen Minutes” Matt makes a comment about how if there wasn’t a “them” then there couldn’t be an “us” inferring that if there couldn’t be the loser who made the popular kids feel superior then there wouldn’t be any popular kids.
High School is just a short part of your life and whether you’re popular or not will not determine the rest of your life. I think in “Nineteen Minutes” they made all the popular kids out to be these terrible people and I don’t think that’s the case. “Popular” kids have just as much self confidence issues as do the people who are made fun of by everybody.

[brimccaffrey]

Hey meaghan =]
I think this is a really great essay.
You put a lot of good points, but you also had a lot of grammatical errors.
My suggestions are to fix those errors and to try and go more in depth and explain some things in your paper. At the end you have : “Popular” kids have just as much self confidence issues as do the people who are made fun of by everybody.
^ why do you think that popular and unpopular kids have about the same amount of self confidence issues?


You also repeated "certain way" a lot in your third paragraph. I would say maybe try and find another way to say it. Even though you aren't saying the same thing in those sentences it kind of sounds like it.

[lanzano61]

I think this essay is a well written essay. I thought you made good comparisons, and i thought you made some excellent points. I wouldn't change anything on this essay. I thought it was excellent.

[macstudy56]

This was a pretty good essay. There were some gramatical errors that I saw. You could have used some synonyms to improve the writing a little bit more. Other than that your story was written very well.