Gre analytical Writing issue essay Topic 101

GRE Analytical Writing ISSUE Essay Topic - 138 
"People have been so encouraged by society to focus on apparent differences that they fail to see 
meaningful similarities among ideas, individuals, and groups." 
GRE AWA Analytical Writing ISSUE Essay Sample 
Solution - 138 
A society is formed of people. There are many similarities as well as differences found amongst 
the people of a society according to which people have made self-created distinctions. Those 
with similarities form a group amongst themselves and consider themselves different from the 
rest of the society. In the process of finding the existing differences, these man-made distinctions 
become so large that they surpass all other things that keep us binding to each other. I agree with 
the given statement that the society created by man makes him focus largely on the differences 
amongst people, which eventually make them unable to see the basic similarity that exists among 
human beings. People forget that despite the differences there are many things that are common 
amongst everyone, which are of a greater importance. 
One might wonder what these differences that exist between people of a society are. While God 
did not make any distinctions while creating human beings, we have created differences like 
caste, religion, regionalism and nationalism. These boundaries exist in every society as people 
identify with the people of their own caste, religion and region. Because of this, people tend to 
distance themselves from others belonging to a different caste, religion or region. For example, 
people of a particular religion follow certain customs and beliefs that are different from the 
customs of another religion. They worship different gods, have different Holy Scriptures and 
chant different hymns and prayers. These differences become the basis of their existence and 
they forget that the gods and goddesses they worship are just different manifestations of the same 
God. However, people do not acknowledge the existence of one God and instead go ahead to 
attack other religions in order to protect their own. There have been cases where this religious 
intolerance has resulted in riots and violence as well. However, what people fail to understand is 
that while there are different religions, the purpose of all is the same. There is a greater similarity 
between these religions, which teaches love and affection for all living forms, but this is 
overlooked in order to protect the man-made customs. 
Different nations come at war with each other due to the difference in existing ideas. However, 
what we fail to realize is that there are common enemies like terrorism, pollution, global 
warming and exhausting natural resources, which need to be concentrated upon. It is only joint 
effort of all nations that can save the earth from all these things. This effort requires different 
nations to unite and look above the differences in ideas in order to come to a solution. Similarly, 
people of one region and caste consider themselves different from the people of another region 
and caste. On the basis of these boundaries, people only focus over the existing diversity. 
However, if we look at these differences with a wider perspective, we will find that we all are a