Consider the following comments on beauty.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Proverb
Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
John Keats
It is the privilege of beauty to be forgiven for almost everything.
Anonymous
A society that worships beauty will always undervalue those born without it.
We mistake the well lit for the good, and the symmetrical for the true.
Write a piece in response to one or more of these comments. Your essay will be assessed on the quality of your argument and the way you express it.
A way into this prompt
Argue that beauty is a real and powerful force in human life, but a dangerous one when we let it stand in for goodness or worth. Begin by conceding that beauty is partly cultural and personal, which is why standards shift across eras and places. Then press a harder point: whatever its origins, beauty is not trivial, since it draws us toward order, life and care in ways that feel close to moral. A useful third move examines the cost of overvaluing it, from the doors it opens for the beautiful to the doors it closes for everyone else. Caution: avoid the cynical reduction that beauty is merely social conditioning, which cannot explain why a sunset moves people who were taught nothing about it.