The idea of beauty in the Laguna culture is not something that has to do with physical appearance, but rather the content of a person’s character is something that is valued. Silko compares the modern culture to the Laguna culture, emphasizing how the ideals of beauty truly set them apart. In the modern culture, beauty is something that is achieved physically. If someone is viewed as physically attractive, they are deemed as beautiful. In the old times, beauty is characterized by how individuals behave towards other people, animals, and the earth itself.
What is the definition of beauty? Webster’s dictionary says “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses”, but to some people true beauty comes in fire. Such is it with the society seen in Fahrenheit 451. As Shown during the course of the novel the differences of character, acts, and opinions between Montag and Captain Beatty burn brighter that the kerosene drenched houses at night.
The people during the Classical Era of Greek worshipped God and godlike appearance was the main standard in their art. Statues became more natural and their posture, bodily movement were less stiff. They focused more on Olympics sports since ability to play sport became more important to the Greeks. They believed it was a way to become closer to their gods. To them, arete can be depicted through controlled movements and staged faces.
The primary focus of ancient greek sculpture was that of the human body. The idealism of physical perfection was embodied through many aspects of Greek culture. Although the Greeks produced monumental statues of both men and women, there is an undeniable differentiation along gender lines. To the Greeks, men represented the ideal physical form they were seen as objects of beauty and furthermore often became disproportionately subjects of art and sculpture as artists strove to recreate the perfect human form in their works. Through a study of this complex form, the Greeks made significant advancements in proportions and depiction of motion while developing the human form to be depicted as more realistic.
”-Melissa Bury. The Ancient Greeks had a fixation on an “ideal” world. This was prevalent in their architecture, and in their art of the human body. However, the Greeks pursuit for perfection ends up being just a pursuit, as the goal never can be or will be
Creating an amazingly life-like appearance to its sculptures, not only demonstrated, in my mind, a higher intelligence, but is defiantly a tribute to their focus on superior strength and fitness. Although the realistic style was soon changed to create an even more ideal human figure, the understanding of the human body and how to recreate it through art was only the beginning of Greece’s contribution to the “classical ideal.” After their rise to power, gained by their triumph over Persia, the Greeks again changed the way we see art. This time they turned to their knowledge of geometry, focusing on the creation of grand architecture as their medium.
The Greeks saw beauty in the naked human body. Hemingway also states “Ancient Greek architects strove for the precision and excellence of workmanship that are the hallmarks of Greek art in general. The formulas they invented as early as the sixth century B.C. have influenced the architecture of the past two millennia.” (Hemingway.1) Without greek architecture other people would not have got some ideas of them.
The Greek sculptures reach the new height of beauty, not only because the mastery of the technique, but also the fascination of human body. Greek art uses the outer appearance to reflect the inner power, it is the representative pattern of western art. The myth inspires the creation of sculpture. The fantasy of nature and society and the admire of god’s shape and personality makes the sculpture more multiple and abundant.
Thus, beauty, a concept that is assumed to be subjective, now morphs into something objective. Valenti notes that in popular culture, for instance, the most desirable woman is depicted as one
Beauty is a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. Brutality is savage physical violence; great cruelty. The human race can be beautiful a brutal since it balances the complex character which humans are, we see this in The Book Thief with the characters and how war makes them react. Compassion is beautiful since the caring nature which human can bring comfort for those who are sad and conflicted.
When one first meet her, one has to admit, first thing they notice is her looks. Right? “wow she have it all” or maybe the opposite. Beauty for women may be easier for them, like getting out of an officer giving them a ticket or walking into a restaurant without a reservation. Beautiful women could get more smiles, more handsome men, and better treatment sometimes.
Uncontrolled emotionalism and shameful truth were now common characteristics to most of them. Still throughout the hellenistic, many sculptures were distinguished by their calmness, grace, and compassion for human suffering. The Ancient Greek sculptures were commonly made from stone or wood and very few of them are still existing to this day. Many were made to reflect the image of a freestanding human form even when the statue was of a god, and for this reason many of the sculptures were naked, the Greeks saw nudity as something beautiful. Other of the sculptures showed athletic figures, to essentially portray what the Greeks perceived as an ideal human and what it should look
The narrator claims, that beauty is essential to give us a purpose of life. It has the ability to transform our surroundings, and get us to a higher spiritual level. He explores
In 1.6 of Enneads, On Beauty, by Plotinus discusses the common questions surrounding beauty. Such as, what is it? Why are we, as humans drawn to it? Why are some things thought to be beautiful while some are not? And, how do we know when we see beauty, or something ugly?
However, what one may see as beautiful may not be so through another’s gaze, which leads me onto my next point about beauty and desire. Beauty & Desire Firstly, if something is considered good, it does not mean that it is beautiful or that there is a desire for it. As Umberto Eco states, we can enjoy something for what it is and not desire it. Therefore, beauty and the good are subjective, clarifying that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, a term coined by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford in her text Molly Bawn from 1878.