I agree with the speaker insofar as the arts, in some certain aspects, can reveal the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a society. However, both of the arts and a society are complex entities, the statement unnecessarily overstates the importance of the arts, as well as neglecting that a society is so complicated that we have to understand it through other ways rather than only by the arts.
Admittedly, the arts can instruct us to some extent that（赞！）expresses meaningful connotations beyond their forms. After all, the arts are entities that can not only show the inner feelings of the makers, but also represent the emotions of a nation. For example, Chopin, one of the greatest and most refined pianists in history, whose works are filled with a distillation of folk music and national pride. Schumann described Chopin's music as "cannon buried in flowers." Actually, when you hear the Polonaises, you will be truly moved by the intensive love to their homeland even you are not Polish, that is the power of music. Meanwhile, we could see ourselves in the characters of a novel, which brings us to reconsider the natural instincts of human beings. A story of love and pain, of loyalty and desertion, A Farewell to Arms, which is written by Hemingway, indicates a romanticism that everyone wishes to have. The purchase to the purest love, reflecting we are losing one of the most important things in our lives. When it comes to the war, we will find how precious the love and the peace is.（例子很多，很丰富，都很形象的例子。）
However, not all the arts have such strong social influences. Since one of the traditional definition of art's function is to provide pleasures, it is probably the makers just use the arts to please themselves, express their private feelings, so as we can see today. For example, Emily Dickinson, who is considered one of the most original 19th Century American poets, was a deeply sensitive woman who questioned the puritanical background of her Calvinist family and soulfully explored her own spirituality, often in poignant, deeply personal poetry. Although her poets are highly valued by the scholars and other authors, we could see her own world rather than a society through her poets. （又一个例子，很形象，词汇也很丰富，要是把语句再改进一下就更好了）
Moreover, there still many things that the arts can never tell in a society. For instance, if we want to know whether a country is really a democracy country, we have to observe the world around us very carefully, not only in politics, but also in enterprises, in schools, or even in communities. Sometimes it is the behaviors and attitudes of people that represent the elemental quality of a country. May a brilliant art work reveal a hidden side of a society（这句话什么意思）; we can not get a comprehensive understanding unless we inspect the world from different angles.（感觉这段比较空，有那麽点像argu，纯属个人意见）
To sum up, without the arts, our lives would be dim and boring, and the world would become colorless. Nevertheless, it could not be universal effective for us to turn to arts when we want to uncover the hidden impulses of a society. We need more other ways, which ensure that we can observe the society all around to draw a more profound conclusion.
整体来说，很不错的文章，丰富的例子为这篇文章增色不少，再多加几句分析的语句会更丰满的。
发表于 2008-1-14 23:38:43
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