Art Imitates Life: Zebra, I Want to Write, and Letters to a Young Artist
M.s 210 Britney Schpak
Class: 894 February 2nd, 2014
In life art is not just a form of a hobby, but a passion. Art shows the emotion and inner expression of somebody with their goal as an artist. In the text Letters to a Young Artist by Anna Smith, Smith advises young artists to take everything from the world around them, and develop the eye, the ear, and the heart to create their art. Also, in the story “Zebra,” by Chaim Potok, the main character Adam Martin Zebrin, aka Zebra, encounters an injury and uses art to overcome his depression of the outcome of his injury. Finally, in the poem “I Want to Write,” the poet Margaret Walker describes the feelings, emotions, and the struggles of her people through her poem. Art is most definitely a big part of life, especially in the three texts “Zebra,” “I Want to Write,” and Letters to a Young Artist. From reading these texts, it is shown that art does imitate life. The short story “Zebra” shows and clearly demonstrates the saying “art imitates life.” The conflict started when the main character, Zebra, gets hit by a car which concludes to him getting injured and is no longer able to do his passion, his love… running. After this occurrence, Zebra is a depressed and gloomy person who is blinded by the light. Zebra then however turns to art to try and see how he’ll change as a person if he brings art into his life. In the text it states, “He was looking at himself in the mirror. His long straight nose and thin lips and sad eyes…” (146). This quote represents art imitating life due to the fact that when Mr.Wilson drew Zebra, he didn’t believe it was him because after his injury he became a totally different person, even though he didn’t realize it. The mirror is reflecting a different
Class: 894 February 2nd, 2014
In life art is not just a form of a hobby, but a passion. Art shows the emotion and inner expression of somebody with their goal as an artist. In the text Letters to a Young Artist by Anna Smith, Smith advises young artists to take everything from the world around them, and develop the eye, the ear, and the heart to create their art. Also, in the story “Zebra,” by Chaim Potok, the main character Adam Martin Zebrin, aka Zebra, encounters an injury and uses art to overcome his depression of the outcome of his injury. Finally, in the poem “I Want to Write,” the poet Margaret Walker describes the feelings, emotions, and the struggles of her people through her poem. Art is most definitely a big part of life, especially in the three texts “Zebra,” “I Want to Write,” and Letters to a Young Artist. From reading these texts, it is shown that art does imitate life. The short story “Zebra” shows and clearly demonstrates the saying “art imitates life.” The conflict started when the main character, Zebra, gets hit by a car which concludes to him getting injured and is no longer able to do his passion, his love… running. After this occurrence, Zebra is a depressed and gloomy person who is blinded by the light. Zebra then however turns to art to try and see how he’ll change as a person if he brings art into his life. In the text it states, “He was looking at himself in the mirror. His long straight nose and thin lips and sad eyes…” (146). This quote represents art imitating life due to the fact that when Mr.Wilson drew Zebra, he didn’t believe it was him because after his injury he became a totally different person, even though he didn’t realize it. The mirror is reflecting a different