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GRE-The arts reveal the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a society.


broad 4 / 11  
Aug 8, 2010   #1
hi! everyone!
Nice to see you again! Thank you for your valuable suggestions!

Present your prespective on the issue below. Please
-consider the complexities and implications of the issue
-organize, develop, and express your ideas on the issue
-support your ideas with relevant reasons and examples
-control the elements of standard written English

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

Response

The speaker asserts that arts reveal the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a society. I fundamentally agree; however, I think arts sometimes only reveal one individual's own ideas.

Based on the different purposes of arts, I think we can divide arts into "individual arts" and " social arts". The purpose of individual arts is basically to meet the artists' own needs while the social arts can be described as a way to reflect social phenomenon and the purpose of the social arts is to serve society. This classification may sounds very abstract. Some examples will be given below.

First, the individual arts are something that stimulates an individual's thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or ideas. It becomes unique for involving the artist's own opinion; but this also makes the individual arts hard to popularize. They can only be understood by a few people. For example, the world famous German composer and pianist Beethoven, after his last public concert in 1824, he turned to writing the string quartets for Golitsin. This series of quartets, known as the "Late Quartets", went far beyond what either musicians or audiences were ready for at that time. One musician commented that "we know there is something there, but we do not know what it is." However, I consider that this series of quarters is not "indecipherable, uncorrected horrors" as one composer named Louis Spohr said, and they are just Beethoven's individual arts. Think about Beethoven's situation at that time, he was very poor and he is badly ill, his artworks involved his own emotions and feelings obviously that common people hardly understand. Often this sort of arts like Beethoven's "Later Quartets" doesn't reveal the hidden ideas and impulses of a society.

Second, compared with the individual arts, however, the main purpose of social arts is to serve society. This sort of arts can be described as several things: products by the artists, opinions of a society, the response of the audience. For example, the popular music can be describes as social arts: musicians express their opinions about the trend in society by rhythm, at the same time, they try to find the common points with their fans. We can see that there are many vague words in a popular song and a song will become popular soon when it actually meets the audience's current tastes-the trend in society. And I know an American Writer, O. Henry, famous for his short stories, most of which are set in his own time. By reading his stories, audience can have a knowledge of the background of American society in the early years of the 20th century as well as the situations of the ordinary people that mostly dealt for in his stories. I think his stories can also be described as social arts. This sort of arts do reveal the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a society.

To sum up, the word art is as an abbreviation for creative thing. There are multiple issues about the function of arts, especially for a society. I think arts reveal the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a society but sometime not.
ershad193 14 / 333 5  
Aug 9, 2010   #2
I think you need a comma here
social phenomenon, and the purpose of the social arts

This classification may sounds very abstract

Some examples will beare given below.

concert in 1824, he turned to writing

Here it should be a semi-colon
he was very poor and he is badly ill; his artworks involved his own emotions and feelings obviously that common people hardly understand understood
^^Don't switch from past to present tense in the same sentence.

impulses of a society but sometime not always.

This is a good essay. I liked the ideas you presented. You also substantiated them properly. Just look out for those grammar errors. Otherwise, a job well done.
OP broad 4 / 11  
Aug 9, 2010   #3
Dear Ershad Hussain,
Thank you for your valuable suggestions, I really appreciate it!
hannahan - / 7  
Aug 10, 2010   #4
the popular music can be describes

can be described

vague words in a popular song

the word vague does not make sense here
vague mean something not clearly understood or expressed. Do you want to express this meaning?

A very fluent essay!^_^
OP broad 4 / 11  
Aug 10, 2010   #5
Dear Hanna,
Thank you for your comments, I notice that the word should be "vogue".
Thank you!
EF_Kevin 8 / 13,321 129  
Aug 10, 2010   #6
This is very interesting. I think you can put your first 2 paragraphs together as one paragraph, and it will be very strong. When you give this observation about art sometimes expressing only individual views, it is good to keep explaining before ending the first para. That is why I think you should put the first two paragraphs together.

The last paragraph should be longer, too. Give a full explanation for each paragraph, especially the first and last paragraph in any essay. The purpose of a paragraph is to let you express an idea and then explain it with a few sentences, including an example.

:-)

An essay with a very short intro and a very short conclusion is like a big fat guy wearing a very small shirt.
OP broad 4 / 11  
Aug 16, 2010   #7
thank you! Kevin, a good image given!


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