Art and Society

How does art reflect society? Well, in the painting The School of Athens strongly reflects on the society in the Renaissance time period. The Renaissance was a very important time in history. It was when people started to consider views other then the church's. It shows that people were starting to learn and discuss subjects more and that they started to care less about what the church thought. This painting shows two things that the people in the Renaissances started to adapt, architecture and knowledge. In the Renaissance the achriteture really developed. The buildings became more rounded by having arches and domes and they carved decorations into the walls. This painting shows all of those things. In the front of the painting there is an arch which they had developed in the Renaissance time period, and in the back of the painting the walls have statues carved into them. These achritectual ideas were originally from Greece and Rome but got adapted to Europe, most buildings made in the Renaissance have these design characteristics. This painting also shows how people were starting to care about learning and knowledge. In this painting everyone in it is learning, weather it's discussing a subject or reading or writing. This shows that the Renaissance society cared a lot about knowledge. Art reflects a lot on a society, it shows what there culture and values are like.

In the painting School of Athens I think that I would probably most represent Epicurus. He believed that you should have a happy life surrounded by friends and loved ones. I think that I would be Epicurus because that is exactly what I believe. I believe that everyone should live a happy and joyful life and that being surrounded by friends and family helps achieve that goal. Friends and family are one of the most important things in my life. They help you when times are bad, they make you feel less lonely, and they help your self-esteem. I think Epicurus represents me the most because we believe in the same ways to live your life.

Da Vinci

How can Da Vinci be characterized as a true Renaissance Man?

Da Vinci can be characterized as a true Renaissance Man because he was good at everything. He is probably most known for his paintings and inventions. He painted many well no pictures such as the Mona Lisa, The Last Super, Virgin of the Rocks, and many more. He also invented many things that we still use today, like the parachute, the tank, and even a flying machine, but a lot of his inventions were just ideas in his notebook and they never got built. But he wasn't just a painter and an inventor. He was also skilled in architecture and design, he designed Church's, buildings, and statues. He liked to design things that the military could use. He designed a giant crossbow, the first tank, and an eight barreled machine gun. Da Vinci had one of the most modern minds of his time, and he was a true Renaissance Man.

Unbreakable Love

The play Romeo and Juliet is similar the book The Alchemist. Both stories deal with destiny and love. In Romeo and Juliet they are both madly in love, even though no one approves of it. They are each others destinies. In The Alchemist, Santiago finds Fatima and instantly falls in love with her, as well as in Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet see each other they fall in love. Even though the similarities are not as direct as The Alchemist it still has concepts do to with destiny. In Romeo and Juliet, the characters Romeo and Juliet are destined to be together and in The Alchemist, Santiago has to complete his journey by finding his destiny. Both stories, Romeo and Juliet and The Alchemist, also deals with love. In The Alchemist, Santiago finds Fatima, the love of his life. He would do anything for Fatima and he thinks she is the most important thing in the world, even more important then his journey. It is the same for the story Romeo and Juliet. They love each other more then anything in the world, so much that they can't live with out each other.
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The Universal Language

Love

Love sings in your heart
Draped in a flowing pink gown
Her compassionate melody calms the soul

In The Alchemist, Coelho talks a lot about love. He says that love is the universal language, meaning that everyone can understand and "speak" love. I think that this is true. Love is in every culture and time, it is instinctive to humans. "I also have Fatima. she is a greater treasure than anything else i have won." (Coelho, 110). Coelho says that if you truly love someone, you'll do anything for that person. You will love them all your life, and hopefully so will they.

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Destiny

Listen to Your Heart

“I had the same dream twice......It’s a dream in the language of the world” (Coelho 12)
In The Alchemist, Santiago, a young shepherd boy, dreams of treasure in Egypt. He decides to sell all his sheep and leave his home in Andalusia, Spain to go on a quest to Egypt to find his destiny and treasure. On his journey he discovers love and meets many people, who teach him new skills and help him achieve his destiny. Trust, bravery, and determination are the qualities that help Santiago on his quest to achieve his destiny.

On Santiago’s journey he had to trust many people including a young boy that turns out to be a thief, omens, and the alchemist, in order to achieve his destiny. At the beginning of his journey, Santiago arrived in Africa and met a boy that said he can lead Santiago to the pyramids. The boy told Santiago that they had to buy some camels at the market, so the boy took the money and lead Santiago to the market. Then when Santiago gets distracted the young boy takes off with all of Santiago’s money, leaving him penniless and alone in the new land. Even though this event left Santiago hopeless and unable to trust many people, it taught him a valuable lesson to not believe everything a person says and not to trust the first person you meet. When he arrives in the oasis he sees omens. “Looking up, he saw a pair of hawks flying high in the sky……. An army is coming.” (Coelho 95) During most of Santiago’s journey he had to trust god to give him omens to lead him down the right path. God would send omens to Santiago and he would have to interpret them and then trust his interpretations well enough to follow them. This played a big role in the story. If Santiago didn’t trust the two hawks as an omen then he wouldn’t have told the elders of the oasis about the omen he saw and the oasis would have been attacked. Since Santiago saved the oasis, the Alchemist found him and led him to the pyramids where he achieved his destiny. Santiago had to trust the Alchemist to lead him to the pyramids and to teach him new skills that Santiago would need to know to be able to survive on his own in the desert. Santiago trusted the alchemist to be a fearless leader and to lead him to his destiny. Even though Santiago had struggled in the beginning, he bravely overcame it and learned to trust people, so they could help him on his journey to achieving his destiny.

Bravery is another important characteristic that Santiago has. If Santiago was not brave he probably would not have achieved his destiny. He had to leave his home to travel to an unfamiliar land, to search for a treasure that may or may not exist. He sold all his sheep, which were his only companions, and set out to Egypt with hardly any money. Even in the worst situations he remained calm and tried to find a way out of it. For example, when he had to turn himself into wind, or when he told the chieftains on the oasis that they were going to be attacked and the chieftains said that if this wasn’t true they would kill him. When Santiago and the Alchemist were travelling to the pyramids, they came across a military base. The soldiers there thought that Santiago and the Alchemist were spies. The alchemist convinced the soldiers to let him and Santiago live if Santiago could turn himself into wind. Santiago didn’t know how to turn himself into wind so he started to worry. After a day or so, he tried to calm himself down and he thought of a way to turn himself into the wind. Another situation that showed Santiago’s bravery was when he saw the two hawks while he was in the oasis. He thought that it was an omen that the oasis was going to be attacked. He decided to warn the chieftains about this. When he did they said “Arms are capricious as the desert, and, if they are not used, the next time they might not function....... if he had died tomorrow, he would already have seen more than other shepherds, and he was proud of that.” (Coelho 103) This passage shows that Santiago was put in a life or death situation, but he didn’t try to run or convince the chieftains to let him live. He accepted the odds and didn’t think about what was going to happen if no one came and attacked the oasis. Santiago was threatened a lot throughout the book, and every time he remained calm and kept on going.

Determination was another characteristic that kept Santiago travelling. Even when he was robbed, when he was beaten up at the pyramids, and when the crystal merchant told him that he was never going to get enough money to travel to Egypt he kept going. When Santiago was robbed, when he first arrived in Africa, the thief took all his money and left him alone in the strange new land. But Santiago found a way to keep going towards his destiny, even though he had no money and he couldn’t speak the same language. When Santiago finally arrived at the pyramids he met a gang of men who tried to steal his money. They beat him up and just as they were about to leave, one of the men told Santiago about a reoccurring dream he had, and to not listen to your dreams. Instead of just giving up, Santiago didn’t listen to the man and figured out where his treasure was. “In, return I need money to get to Egypt tomorrow...... I need some money to buy some sheep.” This is the quote where Santiago asked if he could work for the crystal merchant so he could get enough money to get him to Egypt. The merchant said that if he worked for years he still wouldn’t have enough money. Even though Santiago said he needed to buy some sheep, deep down inside, he had a plan to make enough money to go to Egypt. He worked in the crystal merchant’s shop for about a year and by the end of it he had enough money for a lot more sheep then when he started out with. Even when things aren’t looking his way, he still strives to achieve his destiny.

Santiago relies on the three characteristics of trust, bravery, and determination. These qualities help Santiago achieve his destiny. Santiago’s life was changed in a big way. If he wasn’t trusting, brave, and determined he wouldn’t have achieved his destiny, met new people, and found the love of his life. Most importantly he learned how to listen to his heart. He learned that your heart tells you what you really want in life and how to achieve it. If you never listen to your heart you will never get what you really want and be fully satisfied.

Peter Grant- Determination

I think that determination is my best characteristic and I think that it will help me a lot later on in life. I think that determination is one of the most important characteristic a person can have. Being determined means that you don't give up easly and even though something gets in your way, you over come it and find a way to keep going. You can not give up if things do not go your way in life. You have to keep trying, or eles you will never get what you want and never be truly happy. If something gets in your way, you have to find away to get around it and over come your fears and keep on going.