Lost Horizon Essay Google Docs
Philip Raftopoulos
English Form III
9/15/14
An Improved but Burdened Life Much can be accomplished in the life of a human being. Yet, inevitably, there will be death. The average person can only expect to live into their eighties or nineties. However, in Lost
Horizon, by James Hilton, there is a very unique way in which the people of Shangri La bypass this expectancy. They combine the characteristics of the nature in The Blue Moon Valley with consuming the tangatse berry. This allows the inhabitants to live to around twice the normal life expectancy and will also retard the process of aging. For instance, someone living at Shangri La is able to live to at least one hundred sixty, and when they are eighty, they will look as if they are forty. There are certainly advantages to this. But, many people would not want to live to such an old age, even with the process of aging being slowed. It is a valid opinion. If this method of living longer happened to one without being confined to Shangri La and having to eat the tangatse berry, there would be both advantages and drawbacks. Two noticeable advantages of living twice the normal life expectancy are that one would have more time to accomplish their goals and that one would gain more knowledge. However, two important disadvantages of this are that there would also be a longer period of time when one would not be able to achieve their goals and that it would become difficult to adapt to the changing world.
A clear advantage of living to a much older age is that there would be more time to accomplish goals. There would be a longer amount of opportunity in which one would be able to do this. For
English Form III
9/15/14
An Improved but Burdened Life Much can be accomplished in the life of a human being. Yet, inevitably, there will be death. The average person can only expect to live into their eighties or nineties. However, in Lost
Horizon, by James Hilton, there is a very unique way in which the people of Shangri La bypass this expectancy. They combine the characteristics of the nature in The Blue Moon Valley with consuming the tangatse berry. This allows the inhabitants to live to around twice the normal life expectancy and will also retard the process of aging. For instance, someone living at Shangri La is able to live to at least one hundred sixty, and when they are eighty, they will look as if they are forty. There are certainly advantages to this. But, many people would not want to live to such an old age, even with the process of aging being slowed. It is a valid opinion. If this method of living longer happened to one without being confined to Shangri La and having to eat the tangatse berry, there would be both advantages and drawbacks. Two noticeable advantages of living twice the normal life expectancy are that one would have more time to accomplish their goals and that one would gain more knowledge. However, two important disadvantages of this are that there would also be a longer period of time when one would not be able to achieve their goals and that it would become difficult to adapt to the changing world.
A clear advantage of living to a much older age is that there would be more time to accomplish goals. There would be a longer amount of opportunity in which one would be able to do this. For