A reaction essay is an essay that is written in response to something else. The initial topic that the writer is responding to could be anything from a speech that was heard to another essay to the latest breaking news event.
When life serves us up a set of circumstances that we don't like, our automatic reaction as human beings is to want something else by trying to avoid our circumstances rather than practicing acceptance and learning from our experience.
I watch American Idol every week, to see the talent, as well as the reactions, of the judges; Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Kara Dioguardi, and recent new judge Ellen Degeneres(Ellen
is taking Paula Abdul's former spot as a judge).