Tow #1 - The Ivy League, Mental Illness, and the Meaning of Life

The Ivy League, Mental Illness, and the Meaning of Life is a powerful interview of former Yale professor William Deresiewicz. His purpose is to inform elite university hopefuls that perhaps their goal could stunt their mental growth and crush them. Maybe his cause is a personal homily, as he too found meaninglessness in life when he ignored himself in order to get a respectable education. It is an essay directed towards elite students and their parents about the dangers of their non stop pursuit of perfection. It describes the elite student as a sheep, albeit a successful one, constantly being guided to acceptance at one of the best universities in the nation. Then, once it gets in, it collapses, and realizes that it has lost meaning in life. All of their lives they have been guided to this goal, and once they are guided no more, they no longer know what to do. Some even realize that their time has been meaningless, and they do not truly understand themselves or their goals beyond college because they were too focused on getting into a prestigious institution. Perhaps more sinister is that when many are first introduced to leadership and service, they learn to treat it as a resume builder, and not as a humanitarian act. This essay was successful in its purpose by masterfully using conceit. The extended metaphor comparing hyper intelligent students and simple sheep was really quite powerful, as it showed that these students are really being manipulated and being intoxicated by the allure of success via an excellent institution. The interviewee's personal experience of ignoring his dream of studying Egnlish and instead studying science felt made the essay have a personal touch, and thus developed ethos. By crafting his powerful argument using expertly manipulated rhetoric, the author made me believe that perhaps by pushing myself too hard toward elite education, I may be permanently damaging my future happiness.