ISSUE NO.131【六人行】by CrazyJoO

crazyjooUID: 2805124

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


Do arts serve as a mirror to reflect the hidden ideas and impulses of a society as the speaker claims? I partly agree with the speaker's assertion since we cannot ignore the strong connection between arts and society. However, some forms of arts, due to their special characteristic, are employed by artists for other purposes.

Admittedly, the primary principle of most arts is to lift human soul, inspire people's imagination and broaden people’s perspective by making invisible ideas and impulses of society visible. One example aptly illustrates this point involved music, especially national anthem. We can know the hidden ideas of a country either from the melody or lyrics of its national anthem.By reading the lyrics of American anthem--<The Star Spangled Banner>, we come to realize American people's endless pursuit for freedom. By appreciating <God Save Our Queen>, we also learn English people's great respect to queen and monarchy. Likewise, most literature works are aimed at striking symphonies among the readers. The most successful writers are often people who grasp the general but hidden ideas of a society. For instance, one of the most successful novel of America--<Uncle Tom's Cubin> not only embodies the society’s cry for egalitarian and but also incite these hidden impulses and prompt the American Civil War.

However, some forms of arts appear to enlarge the gap between themselves and the society. Artists turn from impulses of society to their personal impulses. The changes in painting styles clearly reveal this point. In the Renaissance, many artists like Rafael tend to draw more painting involved religious theme which was the dominant ideology of the society. As time passes by, artists like Picasso and Dali tend to focus on exploring personal impulses. From the abstract line and droll due of Dali's most famous painting--<The Persistence of Memory>, we can hardly tell anything that has something to do with the current society. What does the melting clock mean? Does it mean our desire for time? Or does it just reflect the fancy events existing only in Dali's subconscious? In this respect, modern painting such as surrealism, impressionism are largely derived from the artists' own feeling of the surround world.

Yet, still other forms of arts contradict to the widely accepted ideas of society, Although music is supposed to appraise what the society accept and denounce what the society disdain, however, some kinds of music apparently deviate from its original direction and end up in nonsense. For supporting example, one needs look no further than the metal music like hardcore and death metal. It is not difficult to recognize the hidden ideas behind these horrible names. Death metal singers usually pretend to be a misanthropist or cynic and define the whole society especially people's religion belief unscrupulously. In fact, misanthropist, violence, bias and death all of which the artists manifest and advocate are merely gimmick. These artists even do not know who Jesus is and the clear definition of cynic and hence their songs are simply meaningless art works, not to say can reflect something of the society.

As shown above, some forms of arts reveal the impulses of society, some kinds of arts has nothing to do with the ideas of society and some forms of art are meaningless. The diversity of arts is understandable; after all, they are created by individuals who express their subjective ideas by their arts work. In this light, the speaker's claim is presumptuous.

odiehereUID: 2502172

Do arts serve as a mirror to reflect the hidden ideas and impulses of a society as the speaker claims? I partly agree with the speaker's assertion since we cannot ignore the strong connection between arts and society. However, some forms of arts, due to their special characteristic, are employed by artists for other purposes.
Admittedly, the primary principle of most arts is to lift human soul, inspire people's imagination and broaden people’s perspective by making invisible ideas and impulses of society visible. One example aptly illustrates this point involved music, especially national anthem. We can know the hidden ideas of a country either from the melody or lyrics of its national anthem.By reading the lyrics of American anthem--<The Star Spangled Banner>[英文中没有书名号，可以用引号代替], we come to realize American people's endless pursuit for freedom. By appreciating <God Save Our Queen>, we also learn English [British] people's great respect to queen and monarchy. Likewise, most literature works are aimed at striking symphonies [resonance?] among the readers. The most successful writers are often people who grasp the general but hidden ideas of a society. For instance, one of the most successful novel of America--<Uncle Tom's Cubin> not only embodies the society’s cry for egalitarian and but also incite these hidden impulses and prompt the American Civil War [这段写得不错。但是一定要挑毛病的话，就是把tom那本小说描述成‘promted the civil war’似乎太绝对，虽然我知道它在当时确实很influential].
However, some forms of arts appear to enlarge the gap between themselves and the society. Artists turn from impulses of society to their personal impulses. The changes in painting styles clearly reveal this point. In the Renaissance, many artists like Rafael tend to draw more painting involved religious theme which was the dominant ideology of the society. As time passes by, artists like Picasso and Dali tend to focus on exploring personal impulses. From the abstract line and droll due of Dali's most famous painting--<The Persistence of Memory>, we can hardly tell anything that has something to do with the current society. What does the melting clock mean? Does it mean our desire for time? Or does it just reflect the fancy events existing only in Dali's subconscious? In this respect, modern painting such as surrealism, impressionism are largely derived from the artists' own feeling of the surround world[其实在这点论证上，我个人不太同意你和北美范文的观点。modern和post-modern artists的自由作风其实正反应了当代社会对个性张扬和自由表达的认可，我自己并不觉得这些作品和社会脱节。不知道评卷人看到这样的论点会怎么想。].
Yet, still other forms of arts contradict to the widely accepted ideas of society, Although music is supposed to appraise what the society accept and denounce what the society disdain, however, some kinds of music apparently deviate from its original direction and end up in nonsense. For supporting example, one needs look no further than the metal music like hardcore and death metal. It is not difficult to recognize the hidden ideas behind these horrible names. Death metal singers usually pretend to be a misanthropist or cynic and define the whole society especially people's religion belief unscrupulously. In fact, misanthropist, violence, bias and death [加一个“--”]all of which the artists manifest and advocate are merely gimmick. These artists even do not know who Jesus is and the clear definition of cynic [what is a 'clear definition of cynic?']and hence their songs are simply meaningless art works, not to say can reflect something of the society[类似我对上段的评论，为什么这些音乐不能是反应社会阴暗面的呢？].
As shown above, some forms of arts reveal the impulses of society, some kinds of arts has nothing to do with the ideas of society and some forms of art are meaningless. The diversity of arts is understandable; after all, they are created by individuals who express their subjective ideas by their arts work. In this light, the speaker's claim is presumptuous.
[除去在思想上的分歧，我认为文章的论证还是很有章法的，语言表达也很到位。例子的选择也很广泛，值得学习！]