The Satisfaction of What is Given, and the Anger of What is Not:

An Essay about Satisfaction in Life

Pine Point School

9th grade English

Jordan Crawford

October 11, 2011

           In life you should always be thankful for what life gives you even when you may not be fully content. In the song ,“Desperado”, the character held an unsatisfied attitude towards what life gave him. Also in Avatar the humans aren’t satisfied with what they are given by the Earth. This essay revolves like a planet around ,“Desperado”, and his search for more than his share of “fine things” in the dinner plate of life.    

If you ask an adult for something when you have just got something else, they will say “be satisfied with what you were given”. In the song,“Desperado”,however, the song’s character doesn’t listen to this advice. The song describes ,“Desperado”, as a man who has “fine things” on his table but they aren’t enough to quench his thirst for the ungraspable.“ Desperado”, searched up and down the fence for what he was looking for every day.Sometimes I think metaphorically he was looking for a pear but he got a plum, which he was unsatisfied with, even though it is still sweet and fine.Sometimes I think ,“Desperado”, might have been a gambler and may have had a loved one waiting for him to change his gambling ways(anaphora). “Desperado”, possibly had a girlfriend or wife that he doesn’t spend time with because he gambles and the song tells him that the queen of diamonds, or gambling, may hurt him but the queen of hearts, his wife or girlfriend, still loves him. “Desperado”, may be gambling while his loved one is trying to make him realize he has “fine things”.On a completely different note, you never should ride into the sunset(poly.). In a comic a cowboy tries to ride into the sunset to get into it rather than just watch it. In the song and the comic both of the men where cowboys that wanted to receive “fine things” that they couldn’t get.As the last cord is played in the song ,“Desperado”, it leaves the listener wondering if ,“Desperado”, “came to [his] senses”.

A good movie usually has a message, no matter how deep it is embedded in the core of the DVD, and Avatar is no exception. The movie Avatar takes place when the human race has taken all the resources from Earth that the planet didn’t have to offer in the first place.(anaphora). Also humans were given resources from Earth, but like ,“Desperado”, ignored their senses and they take more than is necessary.When all Earths “fine things” are used up they head to Pandora in search of other resources. In many ways the people of 2154 had a lot of resources but they only wanted resources that were for other species. On first arriving on Pandora the humans took what they wanted without asking the natives before they plowed and blew up trees where the Na’vi lived(poly.).This horrified the Na’vi because they used only what the forest had to offer them.Many times in stories protagonist don't always start out as the “good guys”. In Avatar the protagonist is Jake Sully and he was a “shoot first then ask questions” kind of guy. By the time the movie ended, Jake had “come to [his] senses” and was helping the natives save their planet from his volitile former race. In many ways the song ,“Desperado”, is very much like Avatar, with ever roaming, never satisfied characters.

In my life being satisfied has a large importance for my friends and I. Though in some ways a person is never truly satisfied with what they have since everyone switches side like a flipped coin(anaphora). But there is also a sliver of a fine line between being unsatisfied and greedy. Let’s just hope we figure it out before we start blowing up trees and “hop[ing] fences”.

Self Assessment

1. I think that I could have used more instances of fast words.
2. I  also need to use better anaphora in my writing.
3. I think that I did a good job with comas.
4. I would give myself a B.