Humanities and Its Value

Many times when a person is asked about humanities he may not know exactly what the teacher is asking. “Humanities?” the student may think without realizing how profound and useful it is within the world. Humanities can include many different studies upon the world, in its most general description it is a complete study of human ideas and expressions with emphasis on both developing techniques and skills for studying art, as well as learning about actual artistic creations. Stanley Fish whom argued that Humanities is merely not a tool but a whole category of its own that is taught is most likely hitting the nail on the head. Intriguingly enough, Humanities is useful in its own way of studies of our interpretations through art, music and other categories of historic pieces. For example, throughout the world people may look at a piece and start interpreting it, while referring to its historic features such as the work of Yun Gee’s painting, the Lone Ranger. The lone Ranger is a painting in which has a historic value which refers to the time period where Chinese were migrating towards the U.S. during the time of the gold rush. They were merely looked down upon as workers because of how they looked and acted. Through the use of humanities people may look at this painting and come up with ideas, “Why did Yun Gee decide to paint this man the way that he did?” “What was the reason for the color in the background and the setting that it has taken place in?” Through its historical value people may use humanities to discover what the painter was thinking at that time period and why he had painted it the way he had. Stanley Fish argued that “Justification, after all, confers value on an activity from a perspective outside its performance.” This is a clever sentence used by Stanley as he is actually using Humanities upon the value of Humanities. His sentence incorporates the fact that Humanities being its own category has many historical references as well as value on how it came about. However, this analysis on how humanities is useful and is its own category does not just stop at Yun Gee’s painting and Stanley Fish’s clever argument. There are also other pieces that people can look at and refer to, to make humanities what it is today. Without humanities, people may not be able to look at Lalo Guerrero’s treasury music and interpret these songs as well as view the history as it was written. Lalo Guerrero’s “Pancho Lopez” from 1955 is considered part of humanities, during this historic time period Mexican’s were fighting over their land of Mexico. Again, through the use of humanities people may be able to make these interpretations, “Why did Lalo Guerrero use this song of a stereotypical “Mexicana” moving from Mexico to L.A at this time period when revolutionary changes were happening?” “What does this song actually get at, what was Lalo Guerrero’s motive?” All of these questions cannot happen without the use of humanities combining history with interpretations. However, Humanities isn’t just about using interpretations and history to run back up our ancestors and figure out what they were thinking. Humanities is also a useful tool in which people may personally use to make analysis’s of informative messages as well as help us craft them for audiences. Take for example, Lalo Guerrero’s “No Chicano’s on T.V.” which was a crafty song used to aim at the media excluding Mexicana’s from T.V. Through Humanities, Lalo might have looked at his first few songs and used his own history to conclude that because times are changing, he should make a new song referring to problems that are happening “In the now.” Not only Lalo Guerrero has done this; Book writers such as the book Smoke signals by Sherman Alexie, has also used Humanities value to grab the hearts and wonderments of people. Smoke signals is about an Indian boy who has a rough life on the reservation, however this Indian boy is Americanized. During the time that The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven written, again a historic event was happening. Indians were fighting for their Land through the U.S. jurisdiction of court of law. During this time, based off of Sherman’s short story book the movie was written and thus was released to help educate the people of America. Through Humanities people are able to break down why Sherman had used this type of movie and book during this time period. Sherman has also used Humanities in the way that he had taken opinion’s and views at what people were thinking of Indians as well as what was happening around the U.S. In conclusion, I strongly have this belief that the value of humanities is greater than people usually have comprehended. Humanities are a wonderful mixture and study of people’s artistic choices as well as their inner mind’s workings during that time period. Through interpretations as well as famous styles, people can draw upon conclusions about their history. Humanities value ranges worldwide from discoveries to class teachings, even down to the smallest ideas that it may inspire. As Stanley had argued, “The Humanities are their own good.” As my own interpretation of this brilliantly written statement, Humanities is used as its own category to discover, write and break down items that are either coming into the world or are hidden in the past. This may also be a powerful tool to be able to look at our current time period and craft up an art piece or song that is witty which can make references towards problems that may be happening in the world. Even the smallest non-violent painting’s and music can have the biggest impact on people throughout the world, especially if it’s done well on a subject that people are bordering over. That is my belief of the value of Humanities.

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