<p>I'm sorry if this is really annoying, but I recently took a practice test at a SAT prep place and they gave me an 8 on my essay, which I think was unfounded. I would like to know what you think please. Thank you VERY much.</p>
<p>The prompt is: Should people study the creative arts?</p>
<p>Here's what I wrote:</p>
<p>"Art is life." This statement once boldly proclaimed by Smithson, a philosopher in the 1950s, still holds truth today, especially in a generation and society dominated by modern technology and increasing superficiality. Art reflects society and being human and thus it is imperative for people to study the creative arts. </p>
<p>Art has always reflected the values of a society and helped shape the beliefs a society lives by. For example, a little more than a century ago, slavery was considered moral and practical. Books such as Uncle Tom's Cabin reflected the values of that society and readers who read the book were more enlightened to the unfair injustice of society. Mark twain, through his book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, satired and criticized the hypocritical superficiality of his times and people who read his book zeroed in on the immorality of slavery. The creative arts reflects a society's values and even changes what a society believes and supports; thus it is crucial to study the creative arts to understand what is wrong and flawed in our societies. </p>
<p>The one differentiating aspect that separates the human from other species is our capability to understand the human condition through art. Part of being human is finding beauty in art. When listeners listen to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, they feel teh burning intensity of fervent passion and they begin to understand that passionate aspect of being human. Likewise, we feel the emotion in Kurt Vonnegut's sci-fi novels; we as readers understand that he is telling us to love other humans because we are essentially the same. Through studying the creative arts, we learn aspects of being human and we find the often elusive beauty we seek in art. </p>
<p>As the modern generation evolves over decades, they will inevitably seek a "meaning" to life, something that has inherent beauty, something that captures life itself. When the time comes, art will be the answer. Nietzsche once wrote that people will learn to cope with the "death of God" and nihilism by finding solace and beauty in art. According to Jean Paul Sartre, art will be the existentialist's meaning to life. If we do not study the creative arts, we will be lost trying to search for meaning in an inherently meaningless world. Thus, studying the arts is essential to society, ourselves as humans, and our modern generation.</p>