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Ellen DeCastro

Yeaton

Pre-AP English 10H 6

2 May 2018

Argumentative Essay

Think about all the heartbreaks that you’ve experienced. Your first love who you thought

would be your last, ending with what felt like your heart ripping into millions of tiny pieces. You

cry, you hide away from the world, and you promise never to love again to protect yourself, but

then you meet another person worth risking it all for. More relationships come one after another

each one ending, hurting less, and you learning more. Oscar Wilde once said, “Hearts live by

being wounded.” Wilde means that with each experience that tests your will, you have to suffer a

short time in order to learn and grow to be able to persevere through the future tests. It is human

nature to use past hardships as opportunities for positive growth and change.

After coming out the other end of a tragic event, people use their experience to fuel a

positive cause. On the night of Sunday, October 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire on the crowd at

the Route 91 Harvest music festival “that claimed the lives of at least 58 people and injured more

than 500” (O’Brien). This event sparked a wave of aid from people worldwide who wished to

help those affected from the horrors of the worst mass shooting in US history. Over 22 million

dollars was raised with a “$2 million goal” (O’Brien) for the victims of the shooting to honor

those whose lives have been permanently altered by the tragedy. The event was a catalyst for

change to ensure a mass shooting would not happen again. Nevadan officials were able to see the

faults which the gunman exploited and developed prevention methods. Prevention methods, most
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popularly gun control, are being discussed to see what can be changed to stop anymore

exploitation of broken systems. This is how the wounded heart lives. This is how the wounded

heart takes in pain and uses it as a strength. The spirit and happiness of Las Vegas was not forced

into a depression after this day, instead it was sprung into time of innovation and motivation to

do better for the future.

To live in the future promised to oneself is the ideal, but the reality is people must create

the future promised to them. Martin Luther King Jr. had to; he said, “​ I have a dream that one

day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, ‘We hold these truths to be

self-evident, that all men are created equal’” (King). The United States is marketed to the outside

as the land of freedom and individuality, but this was not congruent with the life that was lived

by King Jr., other African Americans, or minorities as a whole in the 1900s. To them, life was an

oppressive hell forced on them when they were promised a free haven, but instead of continuing

to be kicked into captivity by the same men who guaranteed him freedom, King Jr. spoke up

about the injustice saying, “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as

the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation” (King). After being wounded

with empty promises and unjust treatment, Martin Luther King Jr. continued to live to pursue a

better future, his “dream” future.

Family and friends can also be deeply be affected by a loved one’s pain, and sometimes

these loved ones act in place of a loved one who cannot advocate for themselves or others in

their situation. For the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, Komen’s sister, Nancy

Goodman Brinker, is the founder who created the foundation as a promise to her sister to “put an

end to the shame, the pain, the fear and the hopelessness that breast cancer caused” (Rare). The
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social pressures weakening her emotional well-being combined with her deteriorating physical

state from the actual cancer were factors contributing to her early death. Susan G. Komen, died

at 36, spent her years with cancer hiding it because it was not socially acceptable. Brinker’s

foundation was established to ensure that her sister’s life would be the last that was criticized for

an ailment that couldn’t be controlled. The foundation’s purpose is to gather breast cancer

survivors, activists, and supporters “to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all

and energize science to find the cures” (Rare). The founder used the pain caused by the death and

suffering of her sister as motivation to prevent others from suffering the same situation. Nancy

G. Brinker’s heart lives to research and fight breast cancer because of the emotional wounds

inflicted by her sister’s cancer struggle.

Through the responses of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting and historical examples, like

Martin Luther King Jr., and the Komen fight against breast cancer hearts do live by being

wounded. People use their past experiences and emotional agony as fuel and research to change

someone else’s life. Despite the terrible experiences one conquers, each comes out the other side

and does what they can to help ensure no one is fated to endure the same displeasures. Hearts

live in stitches to the benefit of other hearts.

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Works Cited

Martin Luther King, Jr., ​I Have A Dream: Writings and Speeches that Changed the World​, ed.

James Melvin Washington (San Francisco: Harper, 1986), 102-106.

O'Brien, Sasha. “GoFundMe Campaign Set up for Las Vegas Shooting Victims.” ​CNBC​, 2 Oct.

2017, www.cnbc.com/2017/10/02/gofundme-campaign-set-up-for-las-vegas-shooting-

victims.html.

“Rare Interview with Founder of Susan G. Komen.” ABC7 News, 11 June 2009,

abc7news.com/archive/6860494/.