Art will always be persevered but
its interpretation will change with time. Likewise, people can preserve their
physical form, but their mindset and morals can change. The greatness of art is
something that is up to discretion of viewer. Before a Painting by James Weldon Johnson shows the unparalleled
admiration of art, while Pat Barker’s Life
Class contrasts this view point by stating that art is powerless and
meaningless. In the eyes of Johnson, art in its most appealing form can bring a
viewer to their knees.
People take art for granted at times
and often underplay its value. Johnson proves this false by describing
the power a piece of art can have on an interested viewer. Empirically, a
painting is just “color, curve and line” (Johnson 4). To the eyes of an
objective viewer, art is meaningless. Art is all about symbolism and what it
means to the viewer. When one feels so overwhelmed with a piece of art they
will “reverently apart” themselves from the crowd. This shows the level of
interest that a painting can bring something so powerful that it roots the
viewer into its gaze. From the first stanza, the idea arises that given the
right motivation, anything can have this “sense of beauty.” But the author then
goes on to describe why a piece of art specifically can have such meaning.
Art has the ability to touch the
feelings of a viewer who has never beheld something so relatable. Hidden
thoughts and morals that one cannot find in verbal form is expressed through
the dashes of the brush. Johnson articulates this meaning through his
comparison of art to a “deep-voiced organ breathing out a hymn.” The power for
a visual form of art to transcend into music implies that art power is
unlimited to the viewer who relates to it. Yet to those who do not relate to
the work of art as well are, no meaning resonates from their emotions. For
example, Paul in Life Class sees the
writing of a hospital patient, who keeps giving him paper, as “meaningless
scribble” (Barker 202). To the patient, the paper could have been him leaving a
life legacy, but to the fully literate Paul, the paper was nothing. Paul then
proceeds to “tear notes into tiny pieces” as soon as he leaves the ward. The
papers represented hope to the man, but Paul gave up when he looked at “the
body of a young man who hadn’t recovered consciousness, and wouldn’t last the
night.” Paul’s new life as a frontline doctor hardens his emotional responses.
Ultimately, he begins to realize how
meaningless art is as he cannot return to his old life as a painter. Barker
creates the juxtaposition between past and present when Paul “is standing there
in the darkness, bracing himself to go back onto the ward, thinking like a
painter” (Barker 201). Although he still thinks like a painter and aspires to
be one, his current situation devalues the usefulness of art. As Paul
symbolically enters the hospital ward, he submits to society and what it wants
from him. At the end of passage, instead of becoming “one who kneels” (Johnson
14) to the presence of art, Paul “turned away” (Barker 203). Paul cannot relate
to art the way he use to so he sees the writing of the man as nothing more than
scribbles. Nothing stops Paul from ripping the papers. Paul becomes cold.
Johnson and Barker have distinct
opinions on the power of art. Accordingly, they represent their ideas
differently. Johnson focuses more on a divine image while Barker seeks to use
symbols to characterize her themes. Overall, art is always judged with bias.
There is no one clear message that a picture can send.
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ReplyDeleteI like how thoroughly you thematically relate your poem to your text. I didn’t quite get the connection during the presentation or when reviewing the PowerPoint, but your essay explains it very well. I would, however, like to analyze the texture of your poem a little more. I disagree with one of the comments you made on your PowerPoint: that the rhyming couplets advance the notion of detachment. I would argue that it is actually the use of the negative that underscores the detachment. “Not with the crowd. . . nor felt the power” (Johnson 6-7). “Not” and “nor” are the words that emphasize the sensation of isolation. The rhyme scheme does draw attention to the lines, but it doesn’t serve to emphasize detachment.
ReplyDeleteAlmost all of the literary devices in the poem serve to emphasize the speaker's awe for the artwork. The polysyndeton in the first stanza, "He had created life and love and heart" (Johnson 3), underscores the power of art with universally positive qualities; the multiple “and[s]” puts the focus onto these ideas. Relating the art to the music of an "old cathedral dim" (Johnson 14) imbues the painting with the feeling of reverence that many associate with religion.