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Viviana Duran
Essay #1
Final Draft
Prof. Sibbitt
ENG101.7406
People Who Inspire Us
Many times, those who motivate and encourage us to succeed and strive to be the
best can also make us feel uncomfortable and angry. However, those people who
reprimand us are the ones who most value, love, and care for us. We may not see the
importance of their strong and unpleasant reproaches towards us at the present moment,
but we tend to greatly value them as we go along in life. In the reading
“Antidisestablishmentarianism”, Gayle Pemberton illustrates how we get annoyed at
times by the people who we admire and who are constantly inspiring us.
Most of the time we are expecting to hear good comments that will make us feel
comfortable. Who doesn’t like to be admired or to be recognized for the good work they
have done? I think no one, but when people make a negative comment to correct us, we
may think that they are against us, or that they don’t appreciate our hard effort to succeed
in life. For instance, in the reading, the grandmother tells Pemberton, “you ought to try to
be more like” Gloria Lockerman, a young black girl, who was about to participate in a
spelling contest (32). Pemberton received this as negative criticism as she was “modestly
proud of her accomplishments given the price she was paying every day” (32). However,
the grandmother was stressing to Pemberton that if she tried to imitate anybody it should
be someone like this young, brave, and intelligent black girl, who was willing to appear
on TV, in times where most of the black people shown on TV had a less important role.
Pemberton success, can lead one to predict that her grandmother’s many displeasing
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comments, while she was growing up (such as this one) were exceptional motivation for
her.
Another reason why we become furious is when we get reprimanded in an
undesirable manner for our own good by the people who we most admire. It has been
said that true love always hurts. Someone who loves you will always tell you what is
right or wrong, it doesn’t matter how painful it can be for you. On the other hand, what
certain people say to you really hurt because either you love them very much or because
what they tell you is where your strongest challenges are. A clear example is illustrated in
the reading, where Pemberton’s grandmother yells at her: “Pay no attention to that shit”
(36). This happened while Pemberton was watching a show called “The Mickey Mouse
Club”, where a group of young black children were dancing. We can see how
Pemberton’s grandmother may wanted to teach Pemberton that everything they showed
on TV about black people was to make fun of them, and probably Pemberton’s
grandmother didn’t want her to be influenced by those kind of program. In the beginning
we may not see the importance why the people who inspire us also reprimanded us for
our own good, but later with the time we may thank them for their behavior toward us.
As a third reason I will like to point out a comparison that Pemberton makes in
the reading. She illustrates how her grandmother was very different from her grandfather.
Her grandfather has not really being an inspiration to her. The nickname “Half-Wit”
given to him perfectly demonstrates this; Pemberton explains how the nickname given by
her and her sister only showed the “slight effect on our relations with him and our
willingness to obey him—though I cannot recall any occasion calling for his authority.
Grandma was Grandma, Half-Wit was Half-Wit” (33). As we can see, we constantly
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appreciate more the qualities of those people who infuriate us and tend to let them play a
major role in the shaping of our lives. For instance, I pay more attention and remember
more when my brother corrects me rather than remember my aunt with her sweet voice
telling me that everything I do is okay. I really appreciate and love more those people
like my brother who sometimes make me irritates and cry, but thanks to their attitude I
can really learn to be strong and never give up in life.
Finally, these three examples demonstrate how important it is to learn to
recognize and understand the way people may act, think or express themselves. People
can make us angry and criticize us for our own benefit. However, our value and respect
towards these people motivates us to correct our behavior and negative thinking towards
their reproaches as we mature and become better persons. As we grow older we
understand that we were reprimanded for a good cause and establish these reproaches as
our foundation for a better quality of person.