issue 36 求拍

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In history, there are many people identified as greatness for their contributions to the society. However, who can decide the greatness of individuals, those who live after them or their contemporaries? In my opinion,because the influence of the time, in most cases, those who live after individuals are able to give them a more believable evaluation.
When people assess individuals of their time, they will be influenced by the limitations of government or thought trends at that time. For example, Caoxueqin, the author of Dream of the red Chamber which is one of Four Classics in the Chinese history, is regarded as the most great reality writer by people live after him. However, when he was alive, for the reason that his novel reflects the cruelty reality and social currency under the domination of the feudal government, his art works are prohibited from spreading and reading and he himself died of hungry and cold weather. At another hand, some people are glorified too much by the public because of misleading of the social thought tread. Just as in the ten years’ culture revolution, in order to get the power over the government, several politicians misled the current thought of the public and resulted in the situation that Chairman Mao are regarded as god and his word should be obeyed as truth, which is obviously unfair in the view of today.
Also for majority of great people, their thoughts and concepts transcend the time so much that it is hard for their contemporaries to understand them and their works. Take Einstein as an example, when the theory of relativity is came up with at that time, it is said that only two and a half people can understand it in the world including Einstein himself. The theory which has revolutionary significance and opens the door of a new world in physics in our eyes has been attacked by most famous physicians of that time and were evaluated as ridiculous imagination. Not only scientists but also artists would face the misunderstanding and even unfair criticism in their lives. Van Gogh, the talent and creative painter, has never been praised and appreciated before he ended his own life. During his short life, he has traveled a lot of countries, sold his paintings on the streets and gave his works to critics for countless times. However, due to the limitation of people’s concepts and appreciate standards at that time, he could only exchange his works which now is millions of pounds for little money.


However, I concede that there are several individuals whose greatness are realized and valued by their contemporaries so that they obtain both reputation and wealth when they are alive fortunately. For instance, the famous painter Picasso is such a lucky person. Dislike most artist, although he has transformed his painting style for several times, his works are always highly spoken to and had a high value at that time. In 1949, his painting “dove” was even used as the poster of the international peace conference, bringing him with much more reputation and popularity.
To sum up, the greatness of individuals usually cannot be decided fairly and objectively by their contemporaries. Only by those who live after them, can their contributions be well realized and evaluated.