Making A Small Difference

4. Select a creative work – a novel, a film, a poem, a musical piece, a painting or other work of art – that has influenced the way you view the world and the way you view yourself. Discuss the work and its effect on you. (New York University)


Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List was a film that effected my way of viewing the world and its people and, somewhat, how I view myself. The film is about a man who begins to realize the horror of the persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust and tries to make a difference for them.

The movie influenced how I view the world because of all the suffering that happens, and how most people do not respond. Living in India, we see hundreds of slums, we see homeless people sleeping in Metro tunnels, and most of us don't do anything to help them. Sitting in traffic in Delhi, you'll most likely be approached by a woman with a baby on her hip asking for money and she goes ignored. I usually roll up the window, or start talking to the person next to me; ignoring the needy.

After seeing the movie, I got to thinking how miserable other people are and how the smallest thing can make them happier. I realized that ignoring them only makes me look selfish. From then on, I dropped money into the outstretched hands or gave food to the kids.

There's little we as one person can do for the world's problems and suffering. Yet what we do does make a difference to the people we help, as well as ourselves. We have the satisfaction of the feeling that we have helped someone, made them happy.