Power Changes a Person Essay Sample

Does power change a person? Some say power doesn’t change a person because people with power want to be the same as others and not use their power as an advantage to be better. Having power changes a person's behavior and can result in a negative impact. 

One reason, people that have power may believe they deserve everything they want. For example, Tonya wanted to hold the power of having the first place spot at the Olympics and would do anything to keep that, “terrified when she first got word of the incident, worried that the hitman might come after her”(McBriney). Tonya knew nobody was going to come and attack her. She just had to play along so she wouldn’t become suspicious and wouldn’t get her Olympic spot taken away. Another reason is that Tonya's plan had soon come to an end when people started to find out about this attack, “had not only knew about the attack, she had given the go-ahead to carry it out” (McBriney).  For instance Tonya had wanted that spot and was going to do anything in her power to secure it. She planned an attack that didn’t work in her favor.

When people know they have power they will start to become greedy. For instance studies show that kids that are popular are mean and use that to their advantage, “the more kids cared about popularity, the more aggressive they were” (Luscombe). Kids will become greedy to be popular and will start acting aggressive and mean to other kids in order for them to get a higher chance of being popular. The kids thought if they were “powerful” and mean to other kids they would get the popularity they wanted. In addition to this Mrs Hutchinson wanted to get the lottery done without knowing it was going to be her family, “I tell you it wasn’t fair. You didn’t give him time enough to choose” (Jackson). Mrs Hutchinson became greedy for more time for her husband because she thought it was unfair he had less time to choose the paper. Her greedy ness came back as karma and she had gotten the rocks thrown at her. 

Some people might say power doesn’t actually change a person's personality. People with power will feel more confident in themselves and can be more of who they really are. Power allows people to be more outgoing and not care what others think of them. However, people will soon start to change and their behavior will not be how it used to.

Furthermore, people with power will start to change and it will result in a negative impact. Especially when Macbeth knew that great power was coming and knew everything would be fine when he killed the king, “that soothes away all our worries. Sleep that relieves the weary laborer and heals hurt minds” (Shakespeare II,ii). Macbeth slept peacefully and was soon to be announced the new king. He had nothing to worry about and at this point felt no guilt for what he had done. Lady Macbeth was ready for anything she wanted the power, she wanted to be in control, “I’ll paint the servants' faces with his blood. We must make it seem like they’re guilty” (Shakespeare II,ii). This happened since she knew Macbeth was taking the spot as king. She just needed to do something to make it happen faster which was killing the recent king and making the guards look guilty for her wrong doing.

Although power might not completely change a person's behavior, it does change who they are. From what we read it does change a person for who they are. It makes them do things they wouldn’t have done without power, and things they would do to receive power.