Art for Heart’s Sake” by R. Goldberg - Text Analysis
Text Analysis
“Art for Heart’s Sake” by R. Goldberg
The author of the text “Art for Heart’s Sake”-Ruben Lucius Goldberg-was an engineer, inventor, cartoonist and sculpture. His cartoons were very popular and highly appreciated by the public. His best comics were exhibited at the Purdue University, and he was even awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for his political cartooning. Furthermore, an award of the National Cartoon Society was named in his honour.
“Art for Heart’s Sake” can be classified as a veritable artistic satire. The main character-a grumpy old man, was always annoyed and bored. Although he was in a rather good shape, his doctor thought he had to be kept from making useless purchases in order to avoid heart problems. The old man accepted doctor’s proposition to take up art just for fun, and Doctor Caswell arranged for an art student to come once a week and teach Mr. Ellsworth to paint. The patient’s works were bad from the very beginning, but he became more interested in paintings and galleries. One of his most awful works-“Trees Dressed in White”-was accepted for the exhibition at the Lothrop Gallery.
The student was ashamed for that “anomaly” of a painting, that was why he was the most shocked when Collis P. Ellsworth was awarded the Lathrop Prize of $1,000. While the doctor, amazed by the news, tried to mumble how important art was in one’s life, the old man admitted he had bought the Gallery, and proved that art was nothing.
The text presents narration intercepted with dialogue in order to render some diversity and to make the story seem taken from the everyday life. As far as the general style is concerned, the author used a great amount of colloquial words, like: nope, bosh, jerkwater, rot, poppycock, kinda, gob etc. All these terms were to emphasize the analogy between the old man and a rebellious teenager. The reader can identify the author’s professional
“Art for Heart’s Sake” by R. Goldberg
The author of the text “Art for Heart’s Sake”-Ruben Lucius Goldberg-was an engineer, inventor, cartoonist and sculpture. His cartoons were very popular and highly appreciated by the public. His best comics were exhibited at the Purdue University, and he was even awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for his political cartooning. Furthermore, an award of the National Cartoon Society was named in his honour.
“Art for Heart’s Sake” can be classified as a veritable artistic satire. The main character-a grumpy old man, was always annoyed and bored. Although he was in a rather good shape, his doctor thought he had to be kept from making useless purchases in order to avoid heart problems. The old man accepted doctor’s proposition to take up art just for fun, and Doctor Caswell arranged for an art student to come once a week and teach Mr. Ellsworth to paint. The patient’s works were bad from the very beginning, but he became more interested in paintings and galleries. One of his most awful works-“Trees Dressed in White”-was accepted for the exhibition at the Lothrop Gallery.
The student was ashamed for that “anomaly” of a painting, that was why he was the most shocked when Collis P. Ellsworth was awarded the Lathrop Prize of $1,000. While the doctor, amazed by the news, tried to mumble how important art was in one’s life, the old man admitted he had bought the Gallery, and proved that art was nothing.
The text presents narration intercepted with dialogue in order to render some diversity and to make the story seem taken from the everyday life. As far as the general style is concerned, the author used a great amount of colloquial words, like: nope, bosh, jerkwater, rot, poppycock, kinda, gob etc. All these terms were to emphasize the analogy between the old man and a rebellious teenager. The reader can identify the author’s professional