13525 Personality
TOEFL Essay Topic:
Clothes and Character
20130615 China
Jeenn Lee Hsieh
Essay Question:
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? The way a person dresses is a good indication of his/her personality and character. Use reasons and specific examples (from your knowledge or experience) to support your answer.
Example Answer:
Fine clothes do not make character because people seldom notice old clothes if you wear a big smile. To show your personality, how agreeable you are is much more important than how expensively you are dressed. Judge not your character or personality by the number of people who jealously look at you, but rather by the number of people who respectfully smile at you.
On the one hand, your character and your dress do not always match. It is true that clothes improve your external appearances, and yet they do not reveal your real character. The way you dress is perhaps a good indication of your personal success; however, beautiful clothes do not tell your character more than beautiful feathers make fine birds. By simply being well-clothed, therefore, you may catch people's eyes but do may not actually win their respect at heart. In comparison, the expression you put on your face is far more impressive than the garments you wear on your back. Apart from that, it is possible that clothes intended to shine just as well talk for you as against you.
On the other hand, clothes matter in many societies stressing conformity. It is understandable that there are times when you need to be dressed in steps with the current social conventions and special events. In this case, it is the style, rather than the fashion, that is associated with your personality. To be sure, this means that your personality is your style, independent of how fashionably you are dressed or otherwise out of vogue. However, this does mean that you ought to wear something worthy of your character without appearing as if being naked in the society's critical eyes. At this point, you may paraphrase a joke from Mark Twain: "clothes make the man because naked people have little or no influence on society".
In sum, since your character is inside of you, it does not change much only because of the way you are dressed. Neither do fine clothes win earnest respects from people if there are no sincere smiles. So, as long as you wear a big smil, who cares to tell your character according to the way you are dressed?
(Essay created by Jeenn Lee Hsieh)
