Assignment:
The Elephant Rope
As a man was passing by some elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could break away at any time from their bonds. For some reason, they did not. He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. "Well," trainer said, "when the elephants are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them. At that age, it's enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free." The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn't, they were stuck right where they were. Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before? Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.
What is the moral of the story? Do you agree with the story or is this view too naive? What are your ropes? Can you overcome them? Write an argumentative essay of at least 3 to 4 paragraphs that appeals to ethos. logos and pathos. The essay should fully answer the prompt. It should have a thesis statement that is supported through effective paragraphs. It should be well organized and avoid major grammatical errors.