Analysis of Art

Over this very relaxing and refreshing winter break I have seen AP English’s application to the real world in countless ways, but I witnessed the class’s impact most notably on my recent trip to New York City. My family visited New York City several days after Christmas and it so happened that we arrived the day after the huge snowstorm. This snowstorm canceled thousands of flights and as a result the airlines were struggling to keep up with the crowds of people trying to make reservations and arrangements. It is because of this that Continental lost our luggage. My family stayed for three nights in New York, and Continental never delivered our bags to the hotel (it is standard procedure that airlines will deliver your bags if they lose them during your trip). So as you can probably imagine, I was frustrated that my family visited there for three nights without any of the clothes we packed. When we arrived at the airport my dad and I went right to the Continental service desk to try to understand what could possibly have happened that it would take them four days to return our luggage to us. I should explain that they simply took our bags off our initial flight because the plane did not have enough room. But then our bags came on the next flight into New York several hours later and then sat in the airport for four days and three nights. When we arrived at the service desk, I used the discussion and arguing skills that I have honed in AP English to convince Continental to let my dad and me go in their bag room and look for our suitcases. AP English taught me how to get my point across in a somewhat respectful yet stern manner and in this case, the skills were successful. After some looking around we actually did find our luggage and we took it with us back to Cleveland. AP English helped me even more when my family visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the MET, my family had a tour guide take us on a highlights tour to show us the more notable works of art. I really recommend this because for anyone who has ever visited, you know how incredibly massive the museum is. While the tour guide was talking about the pieces of art, I realized that my AP English analysis of literature correlated perfectly with the analysis of paintings. I never really realized how similar a painting is to a novel. There are the obvious similarities such as both have authors, occasions, audiences, and purposes. But additionally, both include all kinds of symbolism and hidden messages. Our extensive work with analysis helped me to look far beyond just the surface picture painted by the artist and instead look at every single object chosen and color and placement of the people. I was able to have an intelligent conversation with our tour guide even though I am not very familiar with art at all. Also, because of all of the many different larger occasions we have researched, I was able to use some of this knowledge to tie in with why the author painted certain scenes or depictions. I was truly amazed with the extent to which AP English teaches us all how to think and discuss.