Art, Literature, and Culture: Heritage of the XX Century Essay

To portray the events of the twentieth and the twenty-first century I want to create a virtual time capsule that will be buried at this point and opened many years later. Certainly I want to leave something for the future generation in terms of my working activity, life, relations with other people and my own interpretation of this world. My personal activity and everyday life would be depicted in this virtual time capsule. Analyzing everyday life and its events, I would say that I am a decent hard-working American, living in Dallas, TX. I live by myself. My typical day starts with a bowl of cereal that I eat for breakfast over a glass of plain cranberry or orange juice. I drive a Honda Accord. Though not very luxurious, the car breaks down rarely and I don’t go to Auto repair often. Once a month I visit my parents that live in Irving, TX. The ride does not take long. I would have visited them more often if I had time. They live in a small neighborhood. During lunch I go to a Mexican restaurant that is located near the place I work. In my opinion stress at work is much better than depression and having nothing to do. Being lazy and slothful makes me angry. Virtual letter hidden in my time capsule would definitely describe the events concerning my everyday activity and the things connected with it. With Power Point and overhead I may create a document on all the activities concerning ordinary American citizens’ lives.

Different video films and certain pieces of art would definitely serve the purpose greatly. Future generations will be able to compare products of the culture and arts with our own products. Gwendolyn Brooks’ book of poetry under the title ‘A Street in Bronzeville’ serves as a wonderful example of the twentieth century art of poetry. (Brooks, 1945) First poetry collection of Gwendolyn Brooks, the book analyzes many blacks’ lives and their oppression. I would not say that blacks are suppressed at present. However they were in the twentieth century. Different individuals are depicted in the book of poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks including sad hunchback girl. Describing various layers of American black society, Gwendolyn Brooks pictures the true life of domestic workers and individuals of different jobs and occupations. One of the most significant topics that Gwendolyn Brooks writes about in the book is her brother staff Sergeant Raymond Brooks.

Dealing with analysis of twentieth century architecture I may name Seagram building skyscrapers in New York. The most significant feature of the building is its construction in 1957. Skyscrapers are quite new to American culture because they appeared only in the twentieth century. This is the buildings’ main significance.

Art and literature of the twentieth century individuals gave rise to many literary trends and movements in art, literature, architecture, music, etc. Pablo Picasso is one of my favorite painters. ‘Woman ironing’ (1904) is a masterpiece and a wonderful example of art (Mailer, 1995). The picture of a thin woman with a desperate face and a heavy iron signifies hard labor activity of the individuals. Judging from the point of my life I dare say that people are living much easier than they used to.

Concerning music analysis, I could say that Jay-Z’s ‘Black album’ of 2003 appears to be very fascinating in terms of its structure. It was the eighth and actually the final album of Jay-Z. The rapper actually sold 463,000 copies of it. The most significant feature of the album was the interest to The Beatles songs and certain remixes/mash-ups. Personally, it is one of my favorite records.

Nation’s culture and significance are also pretty vital for many people. I could say that by ruling the country in a proper way, people overcome certain injustices. Analyzing people’s strong will, I must list ‘Titanic’ as one of the most significant films of the twentieth century. Generally the film specifies certain people’s strong love and will to live life and achieve certain happiness.

Stressing the strong point of many people’s communication nowadays, my letter would describe mobile phones as an important gadget and means of communication between different people. Certainly in the future people would be able to read one another’s thoughts and live according to their own schedule implanted in them. However, mobile phones would always maintain a great monument and a reminder of our past life and former activity.

Morality and cultures’ decision-making allow certain people to regard different concepts connected with religion and social patterns of behavior concerning many individuals’ lives. To understand or have a clear view of the concept connected with heaven and hell, we might regard the book ‘Paradise lost’ by John Milton and some critics connected with it where different points of view are clearly presented. (Milner, 1981)

People’s morals allow these people live correctly and do everything according to the correct pattern of social behavior. Except for behaviorism there are many other trends and concepts connected with psychology individuals consider being very important. Among them is the so-called existentialism. (Belkind, 1970)

Among things connected with religion a person could list Ten Commandments and six stages toward making a real person. The latter one is described in the book by Plato where he quotes the words of Socrates. (Plato, 1995) Religion in this case plays a very important role because it makes people’s lives easier.

Writing about my own freedom and happiness that may be pictured greatly in the time capsule, I could say that these two notions are very important in their own way. Freedom means the ability to live and exist with abilities to do what you want. Happiness means being in peace with oneself and everything around you. I definitely possess freedom and rights to think, exist and speak openly what I think about the world, economy, society and my own life. In my personal opinion freedom and happiness are closely connected with creating different masterpieces in art, literature and music.

Drawing a conclusion on everything said above, I say that the twentieth century is signified by the drastic success of many people connected with art, literature and culture’s development. Modernism, postmodernism and cubism emerged in the world of art recently. Different important events happening in the world in the XXth century are depicted in different books and literature. Importance of World War II of the twentieth century makes us mention the name of ‘Doctor Faustus’ created by the prominent German writer Thomas Mann (Mann, 1992). Doctor Faustus is compared to Adolf Hitler in the book and his activities are depicted brilliantly in it.

Reference list

Belkind, A. (1970). Jean-Paul Sartre and existentialism in English. Kent, Ohio: University Press.

Brooks, G. (1945). A Street in Bronzeville. New York: Harper.

Mailer, N. (1995). Portrait of Picasso as a young man: an interpretive biography. New York: Grove/Atlantic.

Mann, T. (1992). Doctor Faustus (translation H.T. Lowe-Porter). New York: Everyman’s Library.

Milner, A. (1981). John Milton and the English revolution: A study in the sociology of literature. New Jersey: Barnes & Noble Books.

Plato. (1995). The Last Days of Socrates. New York: Penguin.