Issue 131, 尝试了一下艺术,求拍

Jamin_CheungUID: 2752925

ISSUE131 "The arts (painting, music, literature, etc.) reveal the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a society."

The speaker claims that the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a society can be unveiled by the arts such as painting, music, literature and etc. In my opinion, the assertion is true in most of time, and meanwhile arts sometimes reflect personal feeling.

Picasso once said that arts is a lie that makes us realize the truth, which coincides with the speaker's assertion. Also, I strongly agree with him. To illustrate the standpoint, we can observe some renowned artists in the history. The first man who occurred to me is Dante, an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. In his marvelous Divine Comedy, Dante showed an imaginative world where he had enjoyed the wonderful journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. After the long-time oppresion during the Dark Ages, it was the Divine Comedy that provoked poets, writers and other artists to discover the themes of Love, which had never been so emphasized before. His book encouraged more artists to break from ideological prisons of religion and turn back to the nature of human, which contributed to bringing about the Renaissance. Another more modern example is Mark Twain. His books which satirize the dark side of the America society reflected the dissatisfication of the public towards the money-oriented custom and united a lot of people to stand with him to challenge the unfair laws and brought out a better society. As we can see from the development of our world, it's artists who bravely reveal the hidden ideas and impulses of a society and promote the advancement of human beings.

In fact, it was a fierce and tough war for artists to tell the truth and try to reform the society. For instance, Milan Kundera had to leave his motherland Czech and live in exile in France artists due to his claim that everyone should remain calm and nobody is being locked up for his opinions yet. He was defined as a thorn in the flesh of the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. As a result, his books were banned from his native country, and that remained the case until the downfall of the government in the Velvet Revolution. Under the pressure from the government, persisting in his revealing of hidden ideas and impulses of a society, Kundera was forced to escape the govern of
the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. Similarly, many artists left homes in extile and even more were kept in prisons for long time, even decreased in the end because they had created something to expressed the hidden ideas against government.

Yet, in modern societies, with increasing different views from people in a wide range of ages, races, natinalities and so on, what artists express are various as well. Arts turn into something that present us with insight into what is eternal and universal. From the materpieces by artists, there lie more treasures in individual's quality. Listening to the fifth symphony by Beethoven, we are encouraged by an endurable heart who never gives up the courage to live. Appreciating van Gogh's paintings, we are moved by a fierce love which persue the beauties forever suffering from misuderstanding and lonely life. Reading Helen Keller's story, we find that there seems nothing can prevent us from realizing our dreams. Moving and inspiring emotions generate in our mind. It's also the magic of arts.

In sum, there's no denying that arts unveil the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a socity even if sometimes they have to fight toughly. And in other ocassions, personal feelings and qualities which spread from generation to generation also become the theme of arts.