Harvard PS范文
今天要给大家带来一篇哈佛大学的PS范文,
这篇文章展示了如何通过艺术作品开阔视野
也展现了通过个人兴趣逐步发展出更高的社会责任感。🎤
兴趣起源与成长
Lunch and recess were opportunities to ‘play’ Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, so we murdered our friends. We’d bake the dead into meat pies and scream cacophonously, “WE ALL DESERVE TO DIE!” Nine-year-old me even teased my hair, donned my Mrs. Lovett costume for Halloween, and rambled on about Australian penal colonies and how dead fiddle players make for “stringy” meat. You cannot imagine my disappointment when everybody thought I was Frankenstein’s Bride.
午餐和课间休息是 "扮演 "斯蒂芬-桑德海姆(Stephen Sondheim)的《特警陶德》(Sweeney Todd)的机会,所以我们谋杀了我们的朋友。我们把死人烤成肉饼,然后大声尖叫:"我们都该死!"九岁的我甚至在万圣节时梳起了头发,穿上了洛维特夫人的服装,喋喋不休地谈论澳大利亚的刑罚殖民地,以及死掉的小提琴手是如何做成 "绞肉 "的。当所有人都以为我是弗兰肯斯坦的新娘时,我的失望可想而知。
家庭与文化的影响
Like Gypsy Rose Lee, my siblings and I spent our formative years at rehearsals and performances, where I was indoctrinated into the cult that worships Sondheim. In our household, Sondheimian theatre was a religion (I’m not sure how I feel about God, but I do believe in Sondheim.) My brother and I read Sondheim’s autobiography, Finishing the Hat, like the bible, reading the book cover to cover and returning to page one the moment we finished. At six, he introduced me to Sondheim’s West Side Story, which illustrates the harms of poverty and systematic racism. Initially, I only appreciated Jerome Robbins’ choreography (Sorry, Mr. Shakespeare). When I revisited the musical years later, I had a visceral reaction as I witnessed young adults engaging in deadly gang rivalries. Experiencing Tony’s gruesome death forced me, a middle-class suburbanite, to feel the devastating effects of inner-city violence, and my belief in the need for early intervention programs to prevent urban gun violence was born.
就像吉普赛玫瑰-李(Gypsy Rose Lee)一样,我和我的兄弟姐妹们在排练和演出中度过了成长的岁月,在那里,我被灌输了崇拜桑德海姆的思想。在我们家,桑德海姆戏剧是一种信仰(我不确定我对上帝的感觉如何,但我确实相信桑德海姆)。我和哥哥像读圣经一样读桑德海姆的自传《完成帽子》,从头到尾读完,读完后再回到第一页。六岁时,他向我介绍了桑德海姆的《西区故事》,该剧揭示了贫穷和系统性种族主义的危害。起初,我只欣赏杰罗姆-罗宾斯的舞美设计(对不起,莎士比亚先生)。多年后,当我重温这部音乐剧时,我目睹了年轻的成年人参与致命的帮派争斗,内心产生了强烈的反应。经历了托尼的惨死,让我这个郊区的中产阶级不得不感受到市内暴力的破坏性影响,我开始相信需要早期干预计划来预防城市枪支暴力。
意识觉醒
I began to discover political and historical undertones in all of Sondheim’s work. For example, Assassins whirlwinds from the Lincoln era up to Reagan’s Presidency. Originally, I simply thought it was hysterical to belt Lynette Fromme’s love ballad to Charles Manson. Later, I realized how much history I had unknowingly retained from this musical. The song “November 22, 1963” reflects on America’s most notorious assassination attempts and alludes to each assassin being motivated by a desperate attempt to connect to a specific individual or culture to gain control over their life. Assassins awakened me to the flaws in some of our quintessential American ideals because the song “Everybody’s Got the Right” illustrates how the American individualism enshrined in our Constitution can be twisted to support hate, harm, and entitlement. I internalized Sondheim’s political commentary, and I see its relevance in America's most pressing issues. The misconstrued idea of limitless freedom can be detrimental to public health, worsening issues such as the climate crisis, gun violence, and the coronavirus pandemic. These existential threats largely stem from antiquated ideas that the rights of the few outweigh the rights of the majority. Ironically, a musical about individuals who tried to dismantle our American political system sparked my political interests, but this speaks to the power of Sondheim’s music and my ability to make connections and draw inspiration from unlikely sources.
我开始在桑德海姆的所有作品中发现政治和历史的影子。例如,《刺客》的旋风从林肯时代一直刮到里根总统时期。起初,我只是觉得把 Lynette Fromme 的爱情民谣配给查尔斯-曼森(Charles Manson)是一件歇斯底里的事。后来,我才意识到自己不知不觉中从这部音乐剧中保留了多少历史。歌曲 "1963 年 11 月 22 日 "反映了美国最臭名昭著的暗杀企图,暗指每个暗杀者的动机都是不顾一切地试图与特定的个人或文化建立联系,从而控制自己的生活。刺客》唤醒了我,让我意识到我们一些典型的美国理想中的缺陷,因为歌曲《人人都有权利》说明了我们宪法中规定的美国个人主义是如何被扭曲为支持仇恨、伤害和权利的。我理解了桑德海姆的政治评论,并在美国最紧迫的问题上看到了它的现实意义。被误解的无限自由观念可能会损害公众健康,导致气候危机、枪支暴力和冠状病毒流行等问题恶化。这些生存威胁主要源于少数人的权利大于多数人权利的陈旧观念。具有讽刺意味的是,一部关于试图瓦解美国政治制度的人的音乐剧激发了我对政治的兴趣,但这也说明了桑德海姆音乐的力量,以及我从不太可能的来源建立联系和汲取灵感的能力。
艺术塑造思想
Absorbing historical and political commentary set to music allows my statistical and logical brain to better empathize with the characters, giving me a deeper understanding of the conflicts portrayed on stage, almost like reading a diary. Theatremakers are influenced by both history and their life experiences. I internalize their underlying themes and values, and my mindset shifts to reflect the art that I adore. I’m an aspiring political changemaker, and Sondheim’s musicals influence my political opinions by enabling me to empathize with communities living drastically different lives from my own.
在音乐中吸收历史和政治评论,能让我的统计和逻辑大脑更好地与剧中人物产生共鸣,让我更深入地理解舞台上描绘的冲突,就像阅读一本日记。戏剧创作者受到历史和生活经历的双重影响。我内化了他们的基本主题和价值观,我的思维方式也随之转变,以反映我所崇拜的艺术。我是一个有抱负的政治变革者,桑德海姆的音乐剧影响了我的政治观点,让我对与自己生活截然不同的群体产生了共鸣。
I sang Sondheim melodies before I could talk. As I grew intellectually and emotionally, Sondheim’s musicals began to carry more weight. With each viewing, I retained new historical and political information. This ritual drives me to continue studying Sondheim and enables me to confidently walk my own path because Sondheim’s work passively strengthens my ethics as I continue to extrapolate relevant life lessons from his melodies. Sondheim’s stories, with their complex, morally ambiguous characters, have solidified my ironclad set of morals which, together with my love of history, have blossomed into a passion for human rights and politics.
我还不会说话,就会唱桑德海姆的旋律。随着我智力和情感的成长,桑德海姆的音乐剧开始变得更有分量。每一次观看,我都能保留新的历史和政治信息。这种仪式促使我继续研究桑德海姆,并使我能够自信地走自己的路,因为桑德海姆的作品被动地加强了我的道德,因为我不断从他的旋律中推断出相关的人生道理。桑德海姆的故事中有着复杂、道德模糊的人物形象,这巩固了我坚定的道德观,再加上我对历史的热爱,使我对人权和政治产生了浓厚的兴趣。