Problems and arguments for an essay on the Unified State Exam in Russian on the topic: Art

The role of art in human life

1. Petrus, the hero of V. Korolenko’s story “The Blind Musician ,” has been sensitive to the world of sounds since childhood, because for him this is the only opportunity to experience the world (he was born blind). For Petrus, art is an outlet, a way of self-expression. The hero listens to the groom Joachim playing the pipe, and soon he himself begins to play the piano. He had to go through many trials to achieve recognition. Petrus doesn’t just play, he feels the music, conveys life and people’s aspirations in it.
2. Yakov, the hero of the story by A.P. Chekhov's "Rothschild's Violin", is indifferent to art, seeing in it only work. But he feels the power of art when he is overwhelmed by melancholy about a wasted life. Then Yakov comes out with such a plaintive and heartfelt melody that he cries. The hero dies, and gives his violin and music to the Jew Rothschild, whom he constantly attacked during his life. And the composition continues to live.

The influence of art on human life

1. Nina, the heroine of the play by A.P. Chekhov's “The Seagull” , is passionate about theater, dreams of becoming an actress. But her parents are categorically against such a career for their daughter. Nina goes against her family, leaves home, plays a lot, but poorly, “with howls.” However, after suffering tragedies: a break with her loved one, the death of a child, the heroine decides to change her life, goes to the province, feeling the ability to play in a completely new way. For Nina, art is all of life, with its joys and tragedies.
2. Nikolai Rostov, hero of the epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" , lost a large sum at cards. He arrived home in a terrible state: where to find so much money, how to tell a poor family about losing? But when the young man heard the singing of Natasha’s sister, it captured him and saved him from the oppressive state, because all these cards, money, cheaters - all this comes and goes. But art is eternal, it remains forever.

The influence of art on humans: arguments from literature

Literature influences us infinitely. Let us remember how in Leo Tolstoy’s brilliant work “War and Peace” Natasha Rostova sang for her brother and healed him of despair.

Another elegant example of how painting can save a life was described by O. Henry in the story “The Last Leaf.” The sick girl decided that she would die when the last ivy leaf fell outside her window. She did not wait for her last day, since the leaf was drawn for her on the wall by an artist.

Another example of the influence of art on a person (arguments from literature are very revealing) is the main character of Ray Bradbury’s work “Smile,” who saves the painting with Mona Lisa, believing in its great significance. Bradbury wrote a lot about the power of creativity, he argued that only by reading books can a person become educated.

The image of a child with a book in his hands haunts many artists, in particular there are several wonderful paintings with the same title “Boy with a Book.”

Understanding the value of art

1. Natasha Rostova, heroine of the epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy's War and Peace , has an amazing musical flair. She not only sings herself, but also hears true art in the music of others. The girl starts dancing to a folk melody, because she is overwhelmed with delight from the amazing world of sound. Natasha sees a whole world in music, she gets closer to the people in their understanding. It is this sensitivity that makes Rostova the author’s favorite heroine.
2. Vasily Terkin, the hero of the poem of the same name by A. Tvardovsky , plays this instrument in the chapter “Accordion”. The sounds of music seemed to make me warmer in the cold winter, to smell like home and my native places. And I no longer felt pain in my frostbitten fingers, and my legs began to dance on their own. The music dispersed painful thoughts, in this short episode the soldiers took a break from the tragic military events, forgot themselves at least for a moment, pushing aside fear and fatigue. That is why they gave Tyorkin an accordion; he warmed people’s hearts with his song.

How does art affect the subconscious?

Even when our consciousness is busy with something else, the subconscious continues to work in its own direction, known only to it. We can easily say whether we like or dislike a song without delving into the presence or absence of verbal rhyme or the correct selection of chords for a given key.

We almost immediately determine for ourselves whether we like or dislike a painting, without even knowing the title, the author, and without understanding the nuances of color selection and image application techniques. And we practically don’t care how reliable the plot of a film or play is if it touches us. This is because His Majesty the Subconscious worked on all this.

So, how does art work with the subconscious:

1. Art promotes the development of empathy and the ability to empathize. These are exclusively emotional states that are difficult to learn. A work of art literally forces us to put ourselves in another person's shoes and feel their emotions.
2. Art expands our range of emotions. We sympathize with heroes in trouble, even if the plot is fictional, we hate scoundrels and villains if they are presented as such in a work of art. These emotions can be noticeably stronger than in an ordinary life, especially one that has already been established in terms of family, life and work.
3. Art affects the level of stress hormones in the body. There is a well-known experiment when, before and immediately after visiting the sanctuary of the Virgin Mary in Vikofort, all participants in the excursion had their saliva analyzed. It turned out that after the excursion the level of the stress hormone cortisol was on average 60% less.
4. Art teaches you to think, i.e. use your thinking potential. Even if you think very badly about a work of art and its author, you are still thinking at that moment. Even if you didn’t plan to think, but just went to a museum or a concert to unwind.
5. Art influences the intellect, i.e. the ability to think as such. Most often, such studies are carried out using musical works. The results are generally similar. Students and schoolchildren who listened to classics (especially Mozart!) before taking test tasks performed better on tests than those who listened to rock music.

By the way, contrary to the long-prevailing misconception, rock music has a positive effect on the psyche (not on the intellect!) of a person. The University of Queensland in Australia conducted a study in which participants were asked provocative questions that could make them angry. From time to time, the participants were played post-punk, heavy metal and other aggressive music. It turned out that while the music was playing, all 39 participants in the experiment reacted to questions that irritated them more calmly than without the music.

And, by the way, the pleasure hormone dopamine is intensely produced in any case when we listen to the music that we like. This was confirmed by the results of a study involving students at McGill University (Canada, Montreal, Quebec). In this case, students were allowed to choose a piece of music that evoked the maximum positive emotions in them. Let us clarify that students who had at least 8 years of musical training were selected for the experiment, because Musically educated people react to music more sharply, and positron emission tomography methods give more accurate results.

So, here they are, the main factors that allow us to evaluate the influence of art on the psyche and subconscious. And to get to know yourself even better and understand the underlying mechanisms of the influence of the environment on the psyche, the online program “Mental Self-Regulation”, designed for one and a half months, will help you. This is enough to learn to consciously regulate your mental state, to use adequate mechanisms of influence on the conscious and subconscious for different situations.

And the actual cognitive and educational aspect of art, which makes us more cultured and intelligent, is beyond doubt. Therefore, take advantage of every opportunity to touch the magical world of art.

We wish you many new magical discoveries!

We also recommend reading:

• Storytelling
• How metaphors change the way we think about our own experiences.
• Ways to Learn to Appreciate Art
• "The hands resist him." History of the pattern causing Stendhal syndrome
• A selection of materials on leadership
• Stendhal syndrome
• “Steal like an artist” - ten tips for any kind of creativity
• Mass consciousness and its manipulation
• What is art and why do people need it?
• How music affects a person: 7 beneficial psychological effects
• Art therapy methods

Key words: 1Cognitive science, 1Psychoregulation

Interaction of form and content in art

1. A. Mikhailov in the book “Mayakovsky” describes the biography of the great poet. The famous futurist was constantly criticized for various reasons for the form of his works, as if they did not see the true scale of their content. Torn lines, neologisms, a yellow jacket as the basis for outrageous speeches - all this is not so important, the main thing is the meaning and the problems raised. Vladimir Mayakovsky was a futurist, but, unlike other colleagues in the workshop, he did not confine himself to this form, which is why he became a classic.
2. Salieri, the hero of the tragedy A.S. Pushkin “Mozart and Salieri”, mastered the craft of a musician, the “algebra of art” to perfection. However, he was not a genius, unlike Mozart, so he was jealous and believed that Mozart was behaving inappropriately. For the latter, the main content is: you can create anywhere and anytime, the main thing is what happens, and there are no rules or frameworks. Out of envy, Salieri poisoned his successful colleague, but still learned the secrets of his perfection.

Interaction of art and power

1. Master, hero of the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita" , wrote a brilliant novel. However, this novel did not ideologically correspond to the government policy, since it included biblical motifs. Critics began to persecute the Master’s novel, and he himself found himself in some dark dungeons, about which the author is silent. All these sufferings led the hero to a madhouse, from which he emerged only thanks to the intercession of his beloved Margarita before Satan. Thus, in our country the authorities have repeatedly strove to subordinate art to their will and impose their interests on the creators.
2. A. Akhmatova in her poem “Requiem” truthfully talks about Stalin’s repressions: thousands of arrested people who are not guilty of anything, their mothers and wives who stand in prison lines, waiting for at least some information about their loved ones. According to Anna Andreevna, her duty as a poet is to reflect these tragic events. She believes that if a monument is ever erected to her, it must be done here, where she stood for seventeen long months, waiting for news from her son and the right to give him the “transfer.” Even after the debunking of the cult of Stalin, when the “thaw” began in the USSR, her truthful cry about the fate of thousands of repressed compatriots was never published. It was published only abroad, and the poetess had to justify herself that it was not her initiative, because she was threatened with serious consequences for such creativity. It is enough that in 1946 she was publicly insulted by the official A. A. Zhdanov at a writers’ congress, calling her “an enraged lady.” Since then, they stopped publishing Akhmatova; even poetry that was far from politics was considered harmful by party leaders. Thus, Anna Andreevna survived attacks, bullying and even family drama, paying for her honest position in art.

Author: Maria Blinova
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True and false art

1. Richard Aldington
   in the novel
   “Death of a Hero”
   in the characters of Shobb, Bobb and Tobb, legislators of fashionable literary theories of modernism, showed the problem of false culture. These people are busy only with empty talk and not with real art. Each of them comes out with their own point of view, considers themselves unique, but, in essence, all their theories are the same idle talk. It is no coincidence that the names of these heroes are similar, like twin brothers.
2. In the novel “ The Master and Margarita” M.A.
   Bulgakov showed the life of literary Moscow in the 30s. Editor-in-Chief of MASSOLITA Berlioz is a chameleon of a man, he adapts to any external conditions, any power, system. His literary house works on the orders of the rulers; there have been no muses there for a long time and no art, real and sincere. Therefore, a truly talented novel is rejected by editors and not recognized by readers. The authorities said that there is no God, which means that literature says the same. However, a culture that is stamped to order is only propaganda, which has nothing to do with art.
3. In N.V. Gogol’s story “Portrait,”
   the artist exchanged true skill for the recognition of the crowd. Chartkov found money hidden in the purchased painting, but it only inflated his ambition and greed, and over time his needs only grew. He began to work only to order, became a fashionable painter, but had to forget about true art; there was no longer any room for inspiration in his soul. He realized his wretchedness only when he saw the work of a master of his craft, which he once could have become. Since then, he has been buying up and destroying genuine masterpieces, finally losing his mind and the ability to create. Unfortunately, the line between true and false art is very thin and easy to miss.