Essay Test: Creativity, Vision, and Shrimp

The essay below was written in response to the the following University of Chicago prompt:

The mantis shrimp can perceive both polarized light and multispectral images; they have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. Human eyes have color receptors for three colors (red, green, and blue); the mantis shrimp has receptors for sixteen types of color, enabling them to see a spectrum far beyond the capacity of the human brain. Seriously, how cool is the mantis shrimp: mantisshrimp.uchicago.edu What might they be able to see that we cannot? What are we missing?

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It’s like the smooth, sticky-sweet taste of maple syrup.

This is how I’d explain the color gold to someone who can’t see it.

It’s like a flowy sundress, I’d say to describe lavender.

It’s like listening to Eartha Kitt sing C’est Si Bon, I’d say of peach.

Colors are so sublime. The world I see through my human eyes is already endlessly magnificent. I can’t imagine what it’s like to see more. I can’t imagine how anyone could see more. A mantis shrimp would have to explain to me. Unfortunately, none can.

But through a quick Internet search, I learned that the mantis shrimp’s complex visual system is a result of evolution. Their complex eyes help quickly distinguish shapes, patterns, and other life in the brilliant reef environment. With this, they are better equipped to recognize food sources or enemy species. With their amazing color vision, they are able to survive. In that case, what we are missing is the mantis shrimp’s coral reef home, its evolutionary journey, and its color receptors.
That’s why I’ll never see swoot, the color of speed, or kackle, the color of hunger. I’ll never see prigmacious, the color of the smell of cinnamon, or bwobbla, the color of the sound of a trombone. I’m making things up here, because with sixteen color receptors, who knows what you can see. Who knows what I’m missing out on.

Instead, we humans have our migrant evolutionary journey and our red, green, and blue color receptors. We’d never see the color of time or the color of pain or who-knows-what you can see with sixteen color receptors. Yet to the human race’s credit, though we don’t have as many color receptors, we can do a lot with the ones we have. We can write The Scarlet Letter, Green Eggs and Ham, and The Bluest Eye. We have minds that crave to explore and create. Compared with the mantis shrimp, we are missing thirteen color receptors gained from the history of playing I Spy—Survival Edition in a coral reef, but instead we have the ability to wield artistic power and create.

My human eyes and my human mind have enabled me to splatter luxurious explosions of rich colors on a canvas, to arrange ornaments and ribbons on a Christmas tree, to adjust the exposure on a camera and with a click, capture the otherworldly luminosity of bright cities in autumn. With my three color receptors, I create.

Right now, I create. I am writing.

I discovered writing at six, when I was vulnerable and addicted to the video game Kirby. With Kirby, I was on a quest to conquer the world and inhale anyone who stood in my way. Yet the more I played, the more fascinated I became with exactly who Kirby was. I elected to decide for myself. My attention turned from the video game to the character, and I began writing. When I put pen to paper, I realized I could create anything—I could bring life to my craziest ideas from the corner of my room. Kirby was the fat, mutant frog who was born without a tongue, so he learned to inhale to catch prey instead. Kirby was the humanoid marshmallow who ate his anthropomorphic enemies to become more human. Not long after, I graduated from Kirby and started writing about—everything else. I became infatuated with the blankness of new pages, and obsessed with the power I could unleash upon it. I felt like someone opened the top of my head and poured in a shot of cosmic enlightenment.
In comparison to the wary lifestyle of the mantis shrimp, our somewhat sedentary lifestyle and meager color receptors allow us to create. We create so we can make the most out of the colors we can see. Unlike the mantis shrimp, we don’t work to acquire. We don’t always work necessarily to obtain food or sustain life. We work to become; to become a force of profound good, to become empathetic and considerate, to become curious and delve into knowledge, to become passionate on a journey in search of purpose and meaning.

Would it be incredible to be able to see with sixteen color receptors? Yes. Am I curious? Yes. But if this is all the color I will ever see, then so be it. The world I see through my human eyes is already sufficiently spectacular. The world of creation that humans have shaped for themselves is plenty amazing.

Questions

Rate this essay from 1-5 with 5 being the highest rating. What number did you give it and why?

How would you describe the tone of this essay?

Is this student smart?

Is this student creative? 

Which of the above two qualities should be given more weight in the admission process?

Can creativity be quantified when determining whether a student should be admitted to a highly selective university. How?

Should writing that is exceptional be counted as a special talent in the way dance, painting, other fine arts are in the admission process?

Describe the external characteristics of this student (for example:  male, Hispanic, attends boarding school in New Hampshire). Would having demographics prior to reading this essay change your perception of the essay?  

Would permitting students to submit photos or graphics with their essays help to determine  students' creative abilities? 

Is English this student’s first language?

Would you want this student as a roommate?

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