The five paragraph essay is a simple structure for organizing persuasive rhetoric. You open with a paragraph explaining the topic, have three body paragraphs defending the thesis, and then close with one last paragraph to summarize and synthesize the previous points. Its simplicity and versatility has led it to become a staple of the U.S. education system. But its overuse has also drawn much ire. Many people claim that it is relied upon too heavily in teaching while others criticize it for being bland and unoriginal. We focus so much on their production that we completely overlook other aspects. The structure and popularity of five paragraph essays makes them all function as art.

Most critics would say that the five paragraph essay is too structured to be art, or that its structure limits the creative possibilities. However, structure rarely inhibits art. In some cases it’s an essential part of the art form. For example, haiku is a type of poetry where there are exactly 17 syllables arranged in three lines. It is adored for its simplicity and its creative potential. That is, a rigid structure does not prevent haiku from being art. This is true of other art forms as well, like jazz, which provides guideline chords while giving freedom to performers to create music. The five paragraph essay’s structure does not limit the scope of its topics or its ability to be expressive. That much is left up to the writer, who may use that freedom to create art.

There is a necessary disjointedness driven by the difference in topics between each paragraph. These breakpoints serve as a way to detach a reader psychologically from the work, which is what Bertolt Brecht would call “aesthetic distance.” Aesthetic distance is the separation that viewers have from a work, and which allows them to analyze a work critically. Brecht was a playwright who used aesthetic distance to emphasize works and make audiences understand them as things to be analyzed. For example, he would break up action by starting a song or have the characters speak directly to the audience. Distance, he argued, was what allowed a work to become art by having the audience reject a subjective attachment to a piece. The form of a five paragraph essay dictates when and how these separations occur. This forces a reader to distance themselves from the essay to observe its aesthetic, allowing it to become art.

But perhaps the most interesting idea is that five paragraph essays are symbolic. Due to their presence in education, they are often used to represent how we teach children as a whole. Five paragraph essays have come to represent a rigid structure with no room for creativity. Moreover, they represent the struggles for people who have difficulty within that kind of education system. Five paragraph essays, and the pain and despair that is associated with them, serve as a stand-in for primary education. But this also means that every five paragraph essay is an instance of the symbol, whether intentionally or not. With each essay being different, they manipulate the symbol in different ways to different effects. The use and manipulation of symbols is evidence of expressive form. As Susanne Langer says of art, “[t]he making of this expressive form is the creative process,…the making of any work symbolic of feeling, even in the most canonical context and manner.” That is, art can occur anywhere, so long as it expresses some emotion. In five paragraph essays, the symbol is present and actively shaping the experience the reader has, even when not being used purposefully within the text. Symbolism is what makes all five paragraph essays art.

Five paragraph essays are used primarily for their ability to structure a persuasive argument and in teaching children how to structure their own writing. But the structure which makes it such an effective tool, also makes it an effective way to generate art. By defining what happens in each paragraph, it frees writers to focus on content and presentation. The separation of paragraphs draws critical attention to the presentation the writer produced, while the content is subject to the context of the symbol it is molded in. Five paragraph essays are so common and mundane to us, that we pass over these key pieces imbued in all of them. By taking a closer look, we can find the artistic sense they all share.

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Works Cited:

“Aesthetic Distance”. Oxford Reference. Accessed Jun 20, 2019. Online. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095354604

“Aesthetic Distance”. Encyclopedia Britannica. Augustyn, Adam et al., ed. Accessed Jun 20, 2019. Online. https://www.britannica.com/art/aesthetic-distance

Langer, Susanne K. Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art Developed from Philosophy in a New Key. 1953. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. Online. https://monoskop.org/images/1/11/Langer_Susanne_K_Feeling_and_Form_A_Theory_of_Art.pdf