Rachel Morgan

English 10A

11/16/04

Idealist vs. Realist

What is an idealist? What is a realist? Are they complete opposites or are they nearly the same thing? An idealist is someone who always looks for the good things; they never see the bad in things. A realist is someone who sees both ends of things. An idealist and a realist are the opposites like an optimistic person and a pessimistic person, although, they are not quite the same thing. An idealist is like an artist who sees rotten cheese and draws cheese that looks so good that you would want to eat it. A realist is like an artist who also sees rotten cheese, but instead draws the rotten cheese exactly as it looks like on the table. They both see the same thing and their drawings are similar, but not the exact same.

Julius Caesar has several characters that are idealists and realists. Brutus was a very big idealist; in fact, he was such an idealist that it became one of his major flaws. When Cassius persuades Brutus that killing Caesar would be for the good of the people Brutus only thinks that killing him would bring peace. He does not see the other side where it would bring chaos and contention. Brutus was also very trusting. Most idealists probably are trusting. He trusted Mark Antony that he would not create the people to rebel, so he let Antony take the stand to talk to the people and then left. Then Antony took the advantage and led the people to rebellion. Then Brutus still trusted Cassius who had deceived him in the first place and became his partner in battle against Antony. Brutus starts to look more like a realist as the play continues, but at the end, it reveals that in fact, he is still an idealist with his death statement “Caesar now be still; I killed not thee with half so good a will.” (Act V Scene V Lines 50-51)

I think that I would consider myself to be a realist. I see both the good and the bad sides of the choices that I could make. Sometimes it can be hard. When both of the choices are equally good, then I have to weigh one choice against the other and see which one would be more worth while. Like the previous Thursday I had to choose between music lessons and the pep rally. If I went to the pep rally with my band I would get 100 more points to help my grade. On the other hand I could have chosen to go to my music lessons that I have every Thursday. Still, I had missed the previous week due to car troubles, so if I went to the pep rally I would miss the second week in a row of music lessons. Obviously this was a difficult choice to make. So, I weighed things out and realized this was only one week, it would be the only chance I would get to go to the pep rally, and it would help my band grade, whereas I went to music lessons nearly every Thursday. In the end I went to the pep rally and missed my music lessons.

The reason why I do not think of myself as an idealist is because I can see the choices from all sides of the die. In fact, I make choices everyday. They can be as simple as to get up in the morning and go to school, or sleep in and miss school entirely. Usually I get up and go to school because it is required by state law. I try to get perfect attendance, though I am not always successful at it, because I want to learn. Another choice that I make is if I want to do my homework or not. I usually do it because I want good grades and it helps me learn the lesson better. If I did not do my homework I would get bad grades, flunk the tests, and fail to learn the lesson. I do consider myself to be a realist, but I think that I also have some idealism in how I make my choices. I think that I have an equal amount of both.