Approximate topics of the final essay 2017-2018 (list). Direction "Man and Society".
What is the conflict between the individual and society?
Do you agree with Plautus' statement: "man is a wolf to man"?
What, in your opinion, does the thought of A. De Saint-Exupery mean: “All roads lead to people”?
Can a person exist outside of society?
Can a person change society?
How does society affect a person?
Is society responsible for every individual?
How does society influence the individual's opinion?
Do you agree with the statement of G. K. Lichtenberg: “In every person there is something from all people.
Is it possible to live in society and be free from it?
What is tolerance?
Why is it important to maintain individuality?
Confirm or refute the statement of A. de Stael: “You can’t be sure of your behavior or your well-being when we make it dependent on people’s opinions”
Do you agree with the statement: “Inequality humiliates people and instills dissent and hatred between them”?
Do you think it's fair to say that strong people often lonely?
Is Tyutchev's opinion fair that "any weakening of mental life in society inevitably entails an increase in material inclinations and vilely selfish instincts"?
Are social norms of behavior necessary?
What kind of person can be called dangerous to society?
Do you agree with the statement of V. Rozanov: “Society, those around you diminish the soul, but do not add it. “Adds” only the closest and rarest sympathy, “soul to soul” and “one mind”?
Is it possible to call any person a person?
What happens to a person cut off from society?
Why should society help the underprivileged?
How do you understand the statement of I. Becher: “A person becomes a person only among people”?
Do you agree with the statement of H. Keller: “The most beautiful life is a life lived for other people”
In what situations does a person feel lonely in society?
What is the role of the individual in history?
How does society influence people's decisions?
Confirm or refute I. Goethe's statement: "Only in people is a person capable of knowing himself."
How do you understand F. Bacon's statement: “Anyone who loves loneliness is either a wild beast or the Lord God”?
Is a person responsible to society for his actions?
Is it difficult to defend your interests before society?
How do you understand the words of S.E. Letsa: “Zero is nothing, but two zeros already mean something”?
Should I express my opinion if it differs from the opinion of the majority?
There is safety in numbers?
What is more important: personal interests or public interests?
To what does society's indifference to man lead?
Do you agree with the opinion of A. Morois: “You should not be guided by public opinion. This is not a lighthouse, but wandering lights?
How do you understand the expression "little man"?
Why does a person strive to be original?
Does society need leaders?
Do you agree with the words of K. Marx: “If you want to influence other people, then you must be a person who really stimulates and moves other people forward”?
Can a person devote his life to the interests of society?
Who is a misanthrope?
How do you understand the statement of A.S. Pushkin: “The frivolous world mercilessly persecutes in fact what it allows in theory”?
What causes inequality in society?
Are social norms changing?
Do you agree with the words of C. L. Burne: “A person can do without much, but not without a person”?
Is a person responsible to society?
Can the individual win in the fight against society?
How can a person change history?
Do you think it's important to have an opinion?
Can a person become an individual apart from society?
How do you understand G. Freytag's statement: “In the soul of every person there is a miniature portrait of his people”?
Can social norms be violated?
What is the place of man in a totalitarian state?
How do you understand the phrase: “one head is good, but two is better”?
Are there people whose work is invisible to society?
Is it difficult to maintain individuality in a team?
Do you agree with W. Blackstone's statement: “Man is created for society. He is unable and does not have
the courage to live alone"?
Confirm or refute the statement of J. M. Cage: "We need communication more than anything else"
What is equality in society?
What are community organizations for?
Can it be argued that a person's happiness depends solely on the characteristics of his social life?
Do you agree that a person is shaped by society?
How does society treat people who are very different from it?
How do you understand the statement of W. James: “Society degenerates if it does not receive impulses from individuals”?
How do you understand the phrase "public consciousness"?
What is missing in today's society?
Do you agree with I. Goethe's statement: “Man cannot live in solitude, he needs society”?
How do you understand T. Dreiser's statement: "People think about us what we want to inspire them"?
Do you agree that “there is nothing more dangerous in society than a person without character”?
List of literature for preparation for the final essay. "Human and society".
A.P. Chekhov "", "", "", "", "Death of an official", "The Cherry Orchard"
J. Verne "Mysterious Island"
S. Collins "The Hunger Games"
W. Thackeray "Vanity Fair"
F.M. Dostoevsky "The Idiot", "Crime and Punishment", "The Brothers Karamazov", "Poor People"
M. Gorky "At the bottom", "Former people"
A. Camus "Outsider"
Ch.T. Aitmatov "And the day lasts longer than a century"
D. Defoe "Robinson Crusoe"
W. Groom "Forrest Gump"
A.N. Tolstoy "Peter the Great"
E. Hemingway "To have and not to have"
V. V. Nabokov "Invitation to execution"
E.I. Zamyatin "We"
A. Platonov "Pit"
B. Pasternak "Doctor"
J. Orwell "1984", "Animal Farm"
R. Bradbury "451 degrees Fahrenheit", "Martian Chronicles" N.V. Gogol " Dead Souls”, “Overcoat”
A.I. Kuprin "Garnet bracelet", "Olesya"
W. Golding "Lord of the Flies"
G. Marquez "One Hundred Years of Solitude"
G. Hesse "Steppenwolf"
R. Gallego "White on Black"
T. Dreiser "Sister Kerry", "American tragedy"
J. Steinbeck "The Grapes of Wrath"
D. Mitchell "Cloud Atlas"
A. de Saint-Exupery "The Little Prince"
O. Wilde "The Picture of Dorian Gray"
J. Sallinger "The Catcher in the Rye"
M.A. Bulgakov "Heart of a Dog"
A. Rand "Atlas Shrugged"
E. Fromm "Escape from freedom"
I.A. Goncharov "Ordinary History"
F. Kafka "Process"
Ch. Palahniuk "Fight Club"
In the story of A.P. Chekhov "Death of an official" Chervyakov is incredibly infected with the spirit of servility: having sneezed and splashed his bald head in front of the sitting general, the official was so frightened that, after humiliated requests to forgive him, he died of fear.
Hero story by A.P. Chekhov "Thick and thin”, official Porfiry, met at the station railway school friend and found out that he is Privy Councilor, i.e. moved up significantly in career. In an instant, the “thin” turns into a servile creature, ready to humiliate and fawn.
Molchalin, a negative character comedy A.S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit" I am sure that one should please not only "all people without exception", but even "the janitor's dog, so that it is affectionate." The need to tirelessly please is also his affair with Sophia, Famusov's daughter. Maxim Petrovich, whom Famusov tells about as a warning to Chatsky, in order to earn the favor of the empress, turned into a jester, amusing her with ridiculous falls.
In the story of A.P. Chekhov "Chameleon" police warden Ochumelov grovels before those who are above him in the ranks and feels like a formidable boss in relation to those who are below. He changes his opinions in each situation to the opposite, depending on which person - significant or not - is hurt in it: the general's dog or not.
N.V. Gogol-comedy "The Government Inspector". In this comedy, N.V. Gogol presents us with the world of city officials. The writer exposes bribery, embezzlement, sycophancy, strict observance of official subordination. All officials speak to Khlestakov obsequiously, with trepidation. They know that everyone takes bribes, so they immediately start thinking about how to bribe the auditor. It is characteristic that the merchants, who are under the bureaucratic world in the play, come to Khlestakov with "a body of wine and sugar heads." Officialdom is depicted in the play grotesquely. So, the tyranny of the Governor is limitless. He appropriates the money earmarked for the construction of the church, subjected the non-commissioned officer to the rods. The trustee of charitable institutions believes that a simple person "if he dies, then he will die anyway, if he recovers, then he will recover anyway," and instead of relying on oatmeal soup, he gives the sick one cabbage. The judge, confident that in his papers “Solomon himself will not decide what is true and what is not true in it,” turns the judicial institution into his own fiefdom. Dr. Gibner is unable to communicate with his patients due to complete ignorance of the Russian language. The finale of this mess, according to the writer, is natural - the imaginary auditor leaves, but the real auditor arrives, who will be able to punish the guilty.
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin - "The history of one city." This
the work is a bold and evil satire on the administrative arbitrariness that reigned in Russia. The writer creates grotesque images of mayors replacing each other in the city of Foolovo. Each of them has its own salient feature something different from the rest. So, Perechvat-Zalikhvatsky rode into the city on a white horse, "burned the gymnasiums and abolished the sciences." Another mayor, Brodysty, instead of a head had a vessel with an organ, giving out only two phrases: “I will not tolerate it!” and "I'll ruin it!" Major Pimple had a stuffed head. Thus, the city of Foolov near Shchedrin is a grotesque image of all of Russia.
A.P. Chekhov - the story "Thick and thin." In this story, the author raises the problem of bureaucratic subordination, servility. Its plot is simple. Two old friends meet, at first they are very glad to each other, they communicate easily, but then the “thin” learns that his old acquaintance occupies an important government post. And all the simplicity of communication is immediately replaced by the observance of bureaucratic subordination. "Thin" begins to talk to the "fat" obsequiously, curry favor with him. The second hero maintains equanimity and good nature throughout the story. Thus, the writer here opposes the slavish psychology of a person, which leads to servility, flattery and servility.
V.V. Mayakovsky - the poem "The Sitting Ones".
In this poem, the poet raises the problem of bureaucracy. We see officials coming to serve in institutions and a pile of papers, from which "fifty" are selected for the next meeting. Moreover, these meetings follow one after another, their subject matter is ridiculous: the theater department meets with the main department for horse breeding, the purpose of another meeting is to resolve the issue of “purchasing a bottle of ink by the Sponge Operative”. Lyrical hero, vainly seeking an audience with officials, is sincerely indignant. He breaks into one of the meetings and sees "half people". The hero from this terrible picture "has lost his mind." The secretary calmly explains that the officials are "at two meetings at once." So in the plot of Mayakovsky's poem, a phraseological unit unfolds: "I can't be torn in two." realistic, life situation Mayakovsky merges with hyperbole, fantasy, grotesque.
Kindness is the desire to help people, and without demanding gratitude for it.
This property of the soul, which allows not to remain indifferent to the troubles of others,
to be around when it is so necessary for a person.
Kindness and sympathy are the basis of the character of Russians, who are always striving to help not only their neighbor,
but also to a total stranger.
Kindness is also a gentle, caring attitude towards people, all life on earth.
The kindness of a child is manifested in his caress for a cat or puppy,
in his care of flowers, kindness must be taught from childhood.
Kindness is a somewhat abstract concept.
Much can be invested in the meaning of this word.
At first glance, it is easy to answer the question: what does kindness mean.
But at the same time it is difficult. After all, kindness is the basis of such concepts as mercy, empathy, sympathy, selflessness and even heroism.
It is love for a person, kindness, the desire to save him that becomes the motivation for a heroic deed.
And what gives kindness to a person?
Of course, respect and love of loved ones, good relations with friends and colleagues.
But kindness is often shown so disinterestedly that the person who has committed a good deed even remains unknown. For him, the main thing is to help others.
An unknown person transferred a large amount of money for the treatment of a child in need.
Do good, and it will definitely return to you, even from the side of sometimes completely strangers to you!
Composition-reasoning on the thematic direction Kindness and cruelty
Cruelty is a rude, aggressive attitude towards living beings,
I don't feel any pity.
It can be expressed in words or in the use of force.
Cruelty can arise due to stress or some kind of mental trauma.
A young child may experience cruelty because someone in the family is cruel,
and it just copies the behavior.
Most often occurs in families where there are constant quarrels and assault.
The child looking at this either takes the side of the offender and behaves in the same way, or takes the side of the victim and becomes angry towards everyone because of suffering. And in a teenager, cruelty can arise either due to the fact that no one notices him either at home, at school, or with friends.
Cruelty is probably the result of the incorrect formation of the human personality, when, during upbringing in childhood, parents do not see a person in a child, do not evaluate him as a person.
Cruelty is generated either by dislike or indifference to the child, or vice versa by boundless blind love, which gives rise to permissiveness.
School or a bad group of friends, the Internet, all this breeds cruelty in a child, which grows and gets stronger over the years. From childhood, it is necessary to instill in the child respect for him as a person, to instill respect for the child for himself and for the people around him, to be able to evaluate his actions and the ability to be responsible for them.
But often this is not the case in many families when raising children.
And cruelty begins to manifest itself from small things, when children begin torturing animals, offending children weaker than themselves, not respecting the elderly, all this then grows into a tougher framework.
In simple words, cruelty can be called a rude and disgusting attitude towards others.
Where does it come from?
Many believe that such a character trait in a person is born due to a lack of love,
respect and attention from others.
However, there are cases when a person becomes cruel far from because of this.
Violent people feel no pity for those who are hurt.
The cause of cruelty can be both childhood psychological trauma,
and disappointment in someone or something.
It is not for nothing that there is such a science as psychology, which just encourages scientists and doctors to study the causes of such character traits.
Composition-reasoning on the thematic direction Kindness and cruelty
Kindness is a quality that should be familiar to every person,
every inhabitant of our planet should have it.
A kind person is always ready to help all those in need and give the last piece of bread,
without asking for anything in return.
Kindness must be selfless if a person does good for the sake of getting something in return,
then such a person cannot be called truly kind.
Kindness is something without which we cannot exist, and it is difficult to disagree with such a statement.
People donate blood to help others, do charity work and do everything to make other people feel good. Can you name good people altruists? – perhaps yes!
Many kind people can be called altruists, because such people do good without demanding anything in return.
Some people not only sometimes help others whenever possible, but also create entire charitable organizations in order to help a huge number of people.
People at all times considered kindness one of the most important human qualities, we observe the victory of goodness in folk tales, stories and other literary works of different genres. People like it when they see the victory of good over evil in books, so the authors of various works most often end their works with just this very victory.
Today, people with real kindness are becoming less and less.
Indifference and selfishness take their toll, depriving humanity of one of the most valuable qualities.
Many people calmly walk past other people's problems, pretending not to notice anything. Everyone has their own affairs - endless worries, work, people stop appreciating priceless qualities and gradually become robots.
I hope that someday humanity will again prefer real, live communication, will appreciate true friendship and will be not indifferent to people who need help. Now computers have made people more callous and less "alive", kindness has become not as important a quality as it used to be.
When we give up our seat on public transport or help elderly people cross the road, we are doing good, but, unfortunately, few people now think that such actions should be more correctly attributed to our duties, and not to the act of kindness as such.
Kindness is something more, accessible to everyone and, at the same time, characteristic of a few.
FIPI commentary on the direction "Man and Society" :
"For the topics of this direction, the view of a person as a representative of society is relevant. Society largely forms a person, but a person can also influence society. The topics will allow us to consider the problem of the individual and society from different angles: from the point of view of their harmonious interaction, complex confrontation or irreconcilable conflict.It is equally important to think about the conditions under which a person must obey social laws, and society must take into account the interests of each person.Literature has always shown interest in the problem of the relationship between man and society, the creative or destructive consequences of this interaction for the individual and for human civilization. "
Recommendations for students:
The table contains works that reflect any concept related to the direction "Man and Society". You DO NOT NEED to read all of the titles listed. You may have already read a lot. Your task is to revise your reading knowledge and, if there is a lack of arguments in one direction or another, fill in the gaps. In this case, you will need this information. Take it as a guide in the vast world of literary works. Please note: the table shows only a part of the works in which the problems we need are present. This does not mean at all that you cannot bring completely different arguments in your works. For convenience, each work is accompanied by small explanations (the third column of the table), which will help you navigate exactly how, through which characters, you will need to rely on literary material (the second mandatory criterion when evaluating a final essay)
An approximate list of literary works and carriers of problems in the direction of "Man and Society"
| Direction | Approximate list of literary works | Carriers of the problem |
|---|---|---|
| Human and society | A. S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit" | Chatsky challenges the Famus society |
| A. S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" | Eugene Onegin, Tatyana Larina- representatives of a secular society - become hostages of the laws of this society. | |
| M. Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time" | Pechorin- a reflection of all the vices of the younger generation of his time. | |
| I. A. Goncharov "Oblomov" | Oblomov, Stolz- representatives of two types generated by society. Oblomov is a product of a passing era, Stolz is a new type. | |
| A. N. Ostrovsky. "Storm" | Katerina- a ray of light in the "dark kingdom" of Kabanikh and Wild. | |
| A. P. Chekhov. "The Man in the Case". | Teacher Belikov with his attitude to life, he poisons the life of everyone around him, and his death is considered by society as getting rid of something difficult | |
| A. I. Kuprin "Olesya" | The love of a "natural man" ( Olesya) and human civilization Ivan Timofeevich couldn't stand the test public opinion and social organization. | |
| V. Bykov "Raid" | Fedor Rovba- a victim of a society living in a difficult period of collectivization and repression. | |
| A. Solzhenitsyn "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" | Ivan Denisovich Shukhov- a victim of Stalin's repressions. | |
| R. Brdbury. "A Sound of Thunder" | The responsibility of each person for the fate of the whole society. | |
| M. Karim "Pardon" | Lubomir Zuh- a victim of war and martial law. |
"Man and Society" is one of the topics of the final essay on literature for 2019 graduates. From what positions can these two concepts be considered in the work?
For example, you can write about the individual and society, about their interaction, both about agreement and about opposition. Sample ideas that may come up in this case are varied. This is a person as a part of society, the impossibility of his existence outside society, and the influence of society on something related to a person: his opinion, tastes, life position. You can also consider the confrontation or conflict of a single individual and society, in which case it would be useful to give examples from life, history or literature in the essay. This will not only make the work less boring, but will also give you a chance to increase your score.
Another option for writing about in an essay is the ability or, conversely, the inability to devote one's life to public interests, philanthropy and its opposite - misanthropy. Or, perhaps, in your work you want to consider in detail the issue of social norms and laws, morality, the mutual responsibility of society to a person and a person to society for everything past and future. An essay dedicated to a person and society in the state or historical plan, the role of the individual (concrete or abstract) in history will also be interesting.
Man in a totalitarian state. This topic began to appear in the literature already in the 1920s-1930s, when it became clear that the policy of V.I. Lenin, I.V. Stalin led to the establishment of a far from democratic regime. Of course, these works could not be printed at that time. Readers saw them only in the 1980s, during the period of perestroika and glasnost. Many of these works have become a real discovery. One of them was E. Zamyatin's novel "We", written in 1921. The dystopia depicted by the writer showed what totalitarianism, the silence of people, blind obedience to the regime could lead to. The novel is like a warning that everything depicted in it can happen if society does not resist the terrible system of repression, persecution, when any desire of a person to achieve the truth is literally strangled. The inaction of society in a totalitarian state can lead to the fact that everyone becomes part of a huge state machine, turning into a "faceless WE", losing individuality and even their name, receiving only a number among a huge crowd of people (D-503, 90, I-330) . "... natural wayfrom insignificance to greatness: forget that you- a gram and feel like a millionth of a ton ... ". The value of a particular individual in such a society is lost. It would seem that people built it to be happy. But did it happen? Can life be called happiness by the clock in this United State, feeling like just a cog in a huge mechanism of the state machine (“Ideal is where nothing happens anymore…”)? No, not everyone agrees with such a regimented life when others think for them. They want to feel complete joy, happiness, love, suffering - in general, to be a person, not a number. Behind the walls of the state is real life, which attracts the heroine so much - I-330.
The benefactor decides everything, it is according to his laws that numbers live. And if someone opposes, then there are ways to make people either submit or die. There is no other way out. The author showed that she could not capture some of the workers spaceship, involving one of the builders of the "Integral" D-503 (it was he who tried to charm I-330 for this purpose). Too strong is the Benefactor and his system. Dies in the Gas Bell I-330, unnecessary memory is erased from the number D-503, which continues to be confident in the justice of the state system (“ I am sure that we will win, because the mind must win!”) Everything in the state continues to go on as usual. How terrible the formula of happiness stated by the Benefactor sounds: “ True algebraic love for a person is certainly inhuman, and an indispensable sign of truth is its cruelty. But it is precisely in the victory of reason that the author believes, when society wakes up, understands that life cannot be like this, so that everyone would say to themselves: “ I ceased to be a term, as always, and became a unit. A person must be part of society, while continuing to be an individual. “WE”, consisting of many “I”, is one of the formulas of happiness, which readers of the novel come to realize.
