Silence Is Golden

Is silence golden, or not? The phrase "Silence is Golden" can be true at sometimes and not at others. Sometimes it's good to keep quiet, but sometimes people need to speak up. Silence can be nice when someone doesn't want to talk about something or should keep something secret, but it's not nice if something needs to be exposed or heard. The Great Gatsby is a good example of times when silence is good or not. It portraits the way Nick keeps quiet about everyone in the story, except through his narrating.

As Thomas Carlyle says, "Speech is silvern, silence is golden." (Bartlett 1) It means that speech is like silver or money, in that speech last only a while, but silence is golden and last an eternity. So speech may seem to be good but doesn't last. The event occurred three years ago when I first entered the school. Stepping into the new environment as a 7th grader, I was both exciting and nervous. The year began with the electing of class cabinet members and that was when my immaturity was portrayed. I clearly remembered that five candidates ran for the president position and the competition was intense. Everyone was working tirelessly and competing passionately hoping to earn those precious votes. Muhammad Ali once said, "Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer." I experienced the lessons of his wise words personally in my first year at Whitney, with an incident had changed me tremendously. The episode had taught me a lesson, but at the same time, left me embarrassed and ashamed; and even today, memories of what had happened are still clear in my head.END.