So a few weeks ago I had some really interesting classes in Literature and Form and Meaning and had meant to post something about them but then forget. Since I am now having to study for their tests I figured I would post a little.....
In Literature we are studying poetry from World War II which is very depressing but very powerful at the same time. These men had nothing to hold on too and yet they kept fighting amidst hopelessness. Two very moving poems, that may even seem relevant today in honor of or getting into the mindset of what a soldier still deals with today, are called In Flanders Fields and The Target. It seems as if many of these poems were just scribbled on a sheet of paper and yet they went down in history.
Just to wet your appetite....
"We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields."-John McCrae
As for Form and Meaning (an art and music class) the two pieces that are really though provoking are Erich Heckel's Two Men at a Table (To Dostoyevsky) and Edvard Munch's The Scream

The first evokes various emotions most of which are impending doom. One can only wonder what Dostoyevsky had done to get the two of them into that situation.
As for The Scream, which is a fairly well known piece, the alienation is quite evident or screaming if you will. For me, I want to head the warning and remember that you never know what friends are going through our how they may be feeling. As a teacher, one should pic up on warning signs and catch those who seem to be floundering. These expressionist pieces are certainly unforgettable and leave quite the impressions.