Maddie and I already conferenced with you.
Still
Around me I hear breathing. Breathing in front of me, Breathing behind me. Even breathing far, far away from me. I feel the people surrounding me, And yet, I cannot see them. I try to open my eyes. I look in front of me, I look behind me, I look off in the distance. But everywhere I turn is complete darkness. I see nothing. So, I try to use my other senses. I feel in front of me, I listen behind me, I try to sense what is off in the distance, But none of my senses seem to be working. It is then that I realize that it isn't just me who is broken. Everyone around me is still. Those in front of me don't move. Those behind me don't speak, No one around me does anything. Soon I realize, that they are not the only ones who are still. I am still also. But suddenly, light floods the room. As my eyes focus, I see many things, I see people In front of me, People behind me, And people in the distance, staring at me. I see that I am on a stage. I then realize that everyone around me is not just still. Those In front of me are preparing, Those behind me are ready to perform, And those in the distance are anticipating the event that is to come. So I watch as those around me raise their heads in preparation, And the cacophony begins. I try to keep up, try to not stop. But alas, I know that I am way behind where I should be. Those in front of me have gone ahead, those behind me have moved on, Those off in the distance show no signs of slowing and waiting for me to catch up. So I lower my head once again, as everyone else plays on. I lower my head and once again, I am still. This poem is meant to represent the picture of the Vietnam war vets. Although the poem sounds like it is representative of the actual war, it is supposed to represent their struggle once they returned home. Because the U.S. lost the war, the Vietnam war vets weren't treated with the respect that they should've been treated with. This probably made it hard for them to readjust to civilian life, when everyone was moving on without them without so much as offering a helping hand. That is why the poem is titled “Still”. It shows how the rest of the world kept going, but they couldn't until they dealt with their feelings on and memories of the war. For many of them, their brothers were killed (whether biological or not). It must have felt like they were still stuck in Vietnam with those of them that didn't make it out. That is mainly what this poem represents, and I feel as though it is representative of the picture because the picture shows them with their brothers and those they fought along side with, and that is probably who they felt stuck with afterwards and what made it hard to move on. Connections to other courses:
Orchestra: the connections to orchestra seemed very apparent when I did my innovations project. I was able to see how there has been some debate over the way music is recorded, released, and listened to in history. Creative Writing: many great books and short stories were inspired by the things we learn about in history. Some examples would be The Things They Carried an East of Eden. These stories were inspired by true events that we studied, and these are also the kinds of things we read in creative writing. As far as the actual writing goes, we learn in creative writing to incorporate the components of an essay into stories to make them more interesting. Psychology: psychology has so many connections to what we study that it would be impossible to list them all. Psychology explains so much of the behavior that we study all throughout history. For example, Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini all clearly exhibit the behavior of people who have antisocial personality disorder, as well as narcissistic personality disorder. In addition to diagnosing the many infamous people in history, psychology can also help us to understand the way many people act. For example, learning about PTSD helps to empathize and understand the way veterans act after war. This giant wall (called throughout this explanation “the blue wall”) was built to represent one of the most infamous walls in history: the Berlin wall. The Berlin wall was built in 1961 by East German authorities, and for 28 years this heavily guarded fortress served as a very tangible symbol of the Cold War. As far as the rest of the world could see, the Berlin Wall was an actual iron curtain that divided Europe.
After WWII ended in 1945, Germany was divided into four sectors: a United States sector, a Great Britain sector, a France sector, and a USSR sector. Although Berlin was actually located deep within the USSR sector, it was the nations capitol and was therefore also divided into equal sectors. In 1948, the United States, Great Britain, and France united their sectors to form one entity called the Federal Republic of Germany, which is also known as West Germany. This decision angered the USSR because West Germany was now very clearly a democratic nation. In response to this, the USSR started a blockade. The USSR tried to use the blockade to force the West out of Berlin, however, supplies airlifted in by Britain and the United States were enough to shut this down fairly quickly. By 1961, about 2.5 million people had already fled from East Germany to West Germany and away from communist rule. Because the USSR lost so much of their work force, their economy was failing (the “for rent” sign on the blue wall represents the failing economy). This caused the USSR to want to build a literal blockade, one that would stop citizens of East Germany from getting to the democratic West once and for all. The wall started out as a barbed wire fence that ran through Berlin. This is similar to the way the blue wall started out, as smaller, weaker pieces of cardboard that just laid the groundwork. Checkpoints where people could cross through the Berlin wall were drastically reduced as was the number of Westerners allowed entrance into the East. Easterners were no longer allowed to enter the West at all, and for them the wall served as a cage. The blue wall sports signs that say things like “No trespassing” and “keep out”. This represents the message that was sent to Easterners. Eventually the wall was reenforced with concrete pilings and guards with machine guns, just as the blue was was reinforced with paint sticks, duct tape, and the negative messages on the outside. Eventually the Berlin Wall was 103 miles long, 15 feet high, and topped with barbed wire, watchtowers, and even more machine guns. Eventually, the sweep of democratic views and culture all across Europe and the crumbling of communism caused the wall to come down, but for a long time, the Berlin wall stood as a symbol of the oppressiveness of communism. It also served as a symbol of the selfishness and greed that drives communism. Some people say that capitalism is based on greed, which is true. Capitalism is based to the greed felt by everyone, the greed that is an undeniable part of human nature, and capitalism focuses on turning that greed into a helpful force that drives an economy and benefits everyone who works hard. Communism, on the other hand, seems to have a reputation even today that focuses on helping everyone, when in fact communism could not be more greed oriented. Communism focuses on the greed of a select few, the people in charge. It only ever benefits the people at the top because no matter how hard or how little everyone else works, their greed is never fulfilled, and their work is never rewarded. This is perfectly shown by the Berlin wall. East Germany built the wall, ignoring the wants of it’s citizens, and continued to hold to this value of communism even when people were dying because of their need to escape. A system like that only benefits one person. For this reason, Swift’s face is on the blue wall. (Sorry Swift, not trying to compare you to an oppressive communist leader.) The face of only one person is on the wall because only one person really benefits from communism. The American flags on top of the blue wall represent the fact that America won out over communism in this instance. The flags also represent all that America stands for: freedom and democracy. I submitted the following poem to the American High School Poets contest.
My first step is hard, and my foot nearly breaks, But on I continue, ignoring the ache. Hands reach up through the cracks, to slow my climb. But on I continue, ignoring the crime. My second step hurts, and the third hurts even more, But on I continue, with the agonizing chore. I can no longer see the bottom with my watering eyes, So on I continue, ignoring my own cries. As I continue on up, I feel the hate of those left behind, They wish they had continued, they wish they had been kind. The stairs keep breaking, but I have almost reached the top. So on I continue, I can no longer make myself stop. I reach the top, in spite of those who tried to stop me. And I am glad that I continued, for now I am free. I am so much stronger, than the people that I hate. So I will bend until I bend no longer, but I will never break 1. Possible statements the artist attempted to convey through the piece:
The person who captured this picture and then released it was probably trying to convey a message of hope. This boy who is in the picture is a 19-year-old soldier of East Germany during the time of the Cold War. He is jumping over the Berlin wall to get to West Germany (a place known for being democratic). This picture really gave hope to people during the time period because it showed someone who would likely agree with communism, if he was fighting for East Germany, and yet didn’t. In this time, the more people who openly disagreed with communism, the better chance they had of freedom. This picture also conveys a message of hope because it shows that some people can get out of bad situations, like communism was in East Germany. 2. Symbolic elements present in the piece: The Berlin wall (the barbed wire that is in the picture) was very symbolic during this time period. The wall symbolized the Cold War, and furthermore, symbolized communism and the divide between communism and democracy. The wall was built by East Germany after over 2.5 million of their citizens had escaped past the borders to West Germany. The USSR felt the need to prevent this, and as a solution, they built the wall. The wall literally showed how oppressive communism is because it prevented the citizens of East Germany from leaving. It also very much represented the sharp differences between communism and democracy because it literally divided the two and showed that those who were communist feared the power of democracy. 3. Themes that arise from the piece: The main theme that comes up in this picture is the oppressiveness of communism. In the background of the picture, citizens of East Germany are staring at the boy jumping over the fence. They must have been surprised that anyone would that openly defy such a powerful and oppressive force as communism was in East Germany. The boy who is jumping over the fence is also doing so at great risk to himself. Many people were shot and killed for attempting to do that, but communism must have been so oppressive that he would rather face death free than face live oppressed. 4. Artistic and/or historic importance of the piece: This piece is very important historically. It really shows how the acts of the USSR and the state of East Germany during the Cold War, as well as communism in general, can affect people. If a boy was that determined to leave, even knowing that he was risking death, it must have been pretty bad living under communist rule. Luckily, we don’t have to live like this, which means we will never know what it feels like to be in his shoes. By looking at pictures like this, however, we can gain a snapshot into such an important time in history. I chose to do my art project on the Dominant American Values that we were taught about in class. When I first started out doing the project, I tried to think about what message I wanted my art to convey. My original idea was, well, pretty unoriginal. I assumed I would just do an art project that showed each value used in day-to-day life. The more I thought about the topic, however, the more problems I ran into. You see, I was trying to think of ways to prove that each of the things we were taught about in class actually were American values. The problems that I kept bumping up against all had one root: the American values we were taught about in class are, well, not American values at all. The curriculum was...wrong. Wow. That certainly threw me for a loop. I then had to ask the question, "how do I prove something that is false?" I am a superior lier. I guess I could've used my expert skills in the art of deception to pull off this art project without stumbling onto a conclusion that is *gasp* politically incorrect! But, then again, when have I ever worried about offending someone? So I decided to make my art project represent the truth, or at least what I perceive to be the truth.
Here are the dominant American values that were taught in class: order and security; achievement and success; activity and work; moral orientation; efficiency and practicality; progress; material comfort; freedom; equality; humanitarianism; science; nationalism and patriotism; democracy; racism and group superiority. Now, those things all sound pretty great. And politically correct. But they aren't American values. As Americans, we say we value order and security. In fact, just last night our president said in his address regarding the San Bernardino shooting that "The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it. We will destroy ISIL and any other organization that tries to harm us." Unfortunately, he later disproved that when he said "We should not be drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria." What? Huh? Wait...you mean we aren't going to fight the terrorists? I'm confused, if we refuse to fight, how do we win? Do we destroy them with our minds? Luckily, Obama jumped in with an answer to my questions when he said "we will continue to provide training and equipment to tens of thousands of Iraqi and Syrian forces fighting ISIL on the ground so that we take away their safe havens." Right, so we just sit back and hope that eventually, someone else will handle the problem. Until then, I guess we just wait until the terrorists come to us. You know, that really is a shame. I like the new freedom tower and all the other tall, shiny buildings in New York, and I think our nation's capital is really pretty, too. It's really gonna suck when some idiot who thinks he has a purpose knocks one of those down in an attempt to go out in a blaze of terrorist glory! Tell me this, when did we become such cowards? I know for a fact that order and security used to be one of our values. When did we throw that away? We don't even value our police officers anymore. Whenever one of them does their job, and gets a criminal off the streets, we just have to jump in and criticize. "Oh, but that criminal was black..." "That guy he shot was black." "That person he pulled over was black." Yep. Criminals can be black. In fact, 60% of all criminals are black, which is impressive because they only make up 30% of the population. But you know what? If they're black, and they happen to be speeding, let's just let it slide so we can be politically correct. Because THAT isn't at all discriminatory towards ALL other races. Speaking of which, why was racism and group superiority on my list? It definitely is still one of our values. Just listen to the entire last half of President Obama's speech. He spent a good portion of his speech last night talking about how we can't blame Islam for the actions of ISIS. Here is my question. Why does it matter what religion they are? Are muslims so much more important than everyone else that he had to spend that much time defending them? How about this? I don't care one bit what religion you are. I don't care if you are white or black or mexican or canadian or from the Dominican Republic. I don't care what age you are or how much money you make every year. If you want to harm the U.S., then we will ANNIHILATE you. The moment you decide to harm us, you put a target on your own back and YOU. WILL. DIE. End of story. If you want to practice your religion in peace, good for you, but if your religion says to harm the U.S., much like the Quran tells to Muslims, and you decide to act on it, much like radical Muslims do, it isn't a discriminatory act when the U.S. kills you. Why couldn't Obama have said that in his speech? Why did he have to bring race into it? Why did he have to let race overshadow the real issue? Because our society still values race. I actually do think that racism and group superiority are still American values, but I still put it on my list of things to disprove because I think it was explained incorrectly in class. What I got out of the class discussion on racism and superiority is this: poor black people, slavery, poor females, slavery, unequal income, slavery, unequal police treatment, women didn't have the right to vote, etc., etc.. Well good honking grief. I'll tell you one thing Americans are good at: holding a grudge. Another thing Americans are good at (specifically those of my generation): regurgitating whatever opinion is politically correct in order to avoid actually having to think for themselves. Whenever I see a black person, I don't feel one bit sorry about slavery. Wanna know why? BECAUSE I DIDN'T ENSLAVE ANYBODY! In fact, my mother didn't enslave anybody, my grandmother didn't enslave anybody, my great-grandmother didn't enslave anybody, and ALL of those people are from the DEEP SOUTH. Can we not get over that already? Same thing with voting rights. WOMEN CAN VOTE NOW. It's high time they get off their high horse. So the type of racism and the type of group superiority (whites against blacks and men against women) that we seem to think is still one of our values, is not really one of our values. Racism and group superiority is, however. It just isn't whites against blacks. Now it is more blacks against whites. Take the Mizzou issue for example. The president was forced to resign. Why? A few black people demanded it because their feelings were hurt. Some racist acts occurred on campus and the black students decided to take a stand. They thought that the president wasn't doing enough to solve the racism issues on campus. I mean all he did was have certain students KICKED OUT OF THE COLLEGE for saying racial slurs and IMPLEMENT A WHOLE NEW MANDATORY FRESHMAN COURSE on being sensitive to all races. How could he not have done more? I mean, I totally understand that it is wrong to shout the N word at a black person, and I get that it is not okay to dump cotton on the black student center, but here is the amazing thing: if it had been a bunch of white kids protesting, saying that they felt like black students were being racist towards them, the issue would've been laughed off. It wouldn't have gotten the media coverage that it did, it wouldn't have gotten the support that it did, and the president certainly wouldn't have resigned. I know for a fact that the racism on campus DOES go both ways. My dad is a professor at Mizzou and he has seen, with his own eyes, awful racism directed towards whites. However, that seems to be a non-issue. Who cares about white people in today's society? As long as the black people don't have their feelings hurt, then all is well. Seriously though, what would happen if the black students dumped something on the white student center? Oh, that's right. THERE IS NO WHITE STUDENT CENTER. Tell me how THAT isn't racist. And let's also talk for a second about group superiority, specifically the men vs women debacle. "Women get paid less, women are seen as inferior to men, blah, blah, blah." Yep. In many jobs, women are paid less. Women also work less, so I'm not sure why people see that as such a confusing thing. Women take maternity leave more than men. Women vacation more than men (women vacation, on average, every 10 months, compared to men's 12 month average). Women are also more likely to sue for harassment and cost business owners a lot of money in legal fees. Makes sense to me that they get paid less. But, in today's society, that isn't ok. So we overcorrect this "mistake" of not paying women enough by essentially elevating women in social status. So we have gone from women being inferior to women being superior. As a young woman myself, I am told by society that I can't ever rely on a man. And I'm not a strong woman if I choose to marry and stay home with my kids. In order to be strong I must work and try to show up every man I come across. Well, that is possibly the most destructive thing society could tell me. Good job society! Way to make me feel like crap! So what if I want to get married? So what if I would like to have children and actually raise those children myself? So what if I want my marriage to be about my husband and I relying on each other? How does that make me weak? Both my mother and my grandmother had those ideals, and they are two of the strongest people I have ever met. So don't tell me for a second that we still value racism against blacks and group superiority against women. No, we have moved past those things as a society and we are poisoning our next generation with something entirely different. It still falls under the category of racism and group superiority, but it certainly isn't the type of racism and group superiority that we discussed in class. Next I would like to talk about achievement and success. This certainly isn't one of our ideals today. Nope. Today we are so focused on handing out welfare to those too lazy to get a job, that we could care less about achievement and success. We would rather take a bunch of money from the rich and give it to the lazy than use the rich as an example of achievement and success, so maybe the lazy will get off the couch. The middle and higher classes in America represent achievement and success, and as a society, we want nothing more than to belittle their success by forcing them to share it with everyone else and then telling them it is the "right" thing to do. We have definitely thrown out this ideal. Right along with activity and work. When the successful people give a big part of their money to poor people without jobs, what need is there for activity and work? The rich will handle that, while the poor reap the benefits. How about efficiency and practicality? I agree that one of these things is an American value. I think it is, however, quite impossible for them to both be American values. You see, the more efficient we get, the less practical we seem to be. Take Obamacare for example. Obama care is all about giving medical care to everyone! Sounds great, right? That is, until you realize the quality of that medical care. Obamacare certainly is efficient, but is it practical that people pay for sub-par medical care? Honestly, wouldn't it be better to just save the money? Today's society is all about being efficient, and so much so, that we have thrown practicality out the window. Next up? Progress. Hey! Isn't that what we talked about last unit? Well, America certainly has had a lot of progress. We got rid of slavery, we got women the right to vote, we legalized the murder of innocent babies, we are even taking steps to ensure that people can't have a voiced opinion anymore if it qualifies as "hate speech". Yay! That all sounds like progress, right? Well, some of it does. Here is the problem. Many years ago, when slavery was still a reality and women were still treated as inferiors, progress was very much dependent upon fixing those things. After those things were fixed, however, I think that we, as a nation, started believing that the only way for progress to occur was through civil rights movements. So today, even though we really don't have any civil rights movements left, we have created some just so we can say that we are still progressing. Yay for us! Unfortunately, we have lost sight of what real progress is, which is why this is no longer a true American value. If we really cared about progress, we would be working to fix the fact that, compared to the rest of the world, we are seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, and twenty-second in science. We would be working toward fixing the national debt crisis, or working towards ending ISIS. But no. Instead we are working on redefining the word marriage, so no one's feelings are hurt. And, while we are on that topic, let's just talk a little bit about moral orientation. Since when have we abandoned that ideal? First we legalize abortion, which is nothing short of murder. Next we redefine the word marriage because some people got their feelings hurt by the actual definition. News flash: the government didn't define the word marriage. In fact, religion defined that word. So whether you want the government to be religious or not, that word was not their's to redefine. Since when did we lose sight of these morals in our country? And here is the crazy part: we don't even admit that we are losing our morals. Nope, we blame science. We say that science says that fetuses aren't alive. Science says that we should teach evolution in schools. And the truth is, we don't even value science. We value liberalism, and we justify it with science. And when science fails to justify our moral short comings, we blame freedom and equality. Two more American values that we have lost track of. Freedom used to mean the first amendment, and the second amendment, and all the other amendments after that. Freedom used to mean that everyone had the right to be human, and to act in whatever way they chose to so long as it didn't hurt anyone. Well, we don't care about that anymore. Take the baker in Chicago, for example. He refused to make a cake for a gay wedding, as should've been his right, his freedom. But, that made the gay couple upset, and we couldn't have that! So that baker almost lost his business. Why? Because he had the nerve to exercise freedom. And what about equality? Equality used to mean that everyone had the same rights. Nope. Not anymore. Now equality means that the more of a minority you are, the more opportunities you get. The more priority you get when applying for jobs or colleges. Now equality means that the more of a minority you are, the more you are catered to, just so you won't complain and make the majority look bad. We've even legalized murder, just so women can feel like they have rights! Then we throw democracy into the mix to justify our actions. We say that we do all of these things because it is what the American people want, but it isn't. It is what the most powerful group in America wants. And contrary to popular belief, that isn't the white people, or the Christians, or even the upper class citizens. Nope. It is those who chose to be politically correct in their beliefs. And there lies the problem. The more I think about all of this, the more that I see that the underlying cause to all of these problems is that we are SO worried about being politically correct that we have lost sight of who we are. As a nation, and as a people. That is what my artwork represents. All of the values that are written on the outside of the canvas have been thrown by the wayside in our society today. They used to be our values, but in our quest to conform, we have lost them. And the funny thing is, we CHASE after conformity. We WANT it. But, once we have it, it cages us. It takes away our own identities. As far as the other values: material comfort, humanitarianism, nationalism, and patriotism, well, we've lost those, too. How can we be comfortable when our nation is going down the toilet? How can we help others when we can't even help ourselves. And most of all, how can we be patriotic when we don't even know who we are anymore? Political correctness, which, at it's core is really just conformity, had caged us. And the worst part is that we have the power to leave the cage anytime we want. We have the keys in our hand, but we refuse to use them. Because, to some extent, it is comfortable in the cage. We can't ever be different, because everyone else is in a cage as well. And we can't ever be wrong, because someone else controls our opinions. We like the cage we are in. And it blinds us. I was going to just stop this project right there, but the more I think about this, the more it upsets me, so I have decided to do something about it. I have created my own list of what this country means to me, of the identity and the values that I hold dear. Here is that list: To me, America means: The right to learn to shoot a gun, and get a carry permit as soon as I am old enough. The right to go to church, and the right to share my religion with others freely. The right to accomplish whatever I want to accomplish in life, but also the right to make my own mistakes and learn from them. The right to live on my own, own property, and also the right to marry and never work. The right to stay home and raise my children while still having the ability to accomplish my goals. The right to form my own opinions and share those opinions. Having a dad who is willing to leave me to go overseas and fight for my rights. Having an entire army of people who believe in this nation enough to die for it, to pay the ultimate price. My list goes on and on, but those are the most important ones. I have unlocked my cage, and I have figured out what I believe and what I want this nation to stand for. And that is the nation I will stand for, that is the nation I will fight for, and that is the nation I want to grow up being a part of. I hear them before I see them.
The guns, creating loud noises in the distance, the bullets hitting the ground, and the screams of the people, who were in the way. I command myself to move, but I can’t. So I stand still, awaiting the bullets to come. Soon, they aren't in the distance. They are right in front of me. And I see them, turning up dirt, turning down people, all the people that don’t move. I command myself to move, but I can’t. So I stand still, awaiting the bullets to come. I watch as I turn red. Not from my blood, but from the blood of my friends, and my family And I know, that they, too, were still. I command myself to move, but I can’t. So I stand still, awaiting the bullets to come. I hear loud slapping noises. First they get louder, and then they get softer. I look and see that the noises are feet, running, moving, living. I command myself to move, but I can’t. So I stand still, awaiting the bullets to come. I want to be like the running people. I want to get away, before I am hit. I don’t want to become like my family, red, cold, and dead. All because I didn’t move. I command myself to move, but I can’t. So I stand still, awaiting the bullets to come. Soon, they do come. And I feel myself crumble. I look down and see that I am now red and cold, and that I will soon be dead. I see that I was still for too long. And I know, that in the end, It wasn't the gun that hurt me. It was my inability to move. And I know, that in the end, It was being still that killed me. Poem Reflection: This poem is meant to represent what trench warfare must have felt like. I, obviously, was not there, but I imagine that this is what it would've felt like to be trapped in a trench. The trenches were a great defense strategy as long as both sides were on defense, but, unfortunately, when one side decided to go on offense (like with the gas attacks) the trenches served more as a coffin than as protection. The soldiers knew that if they got out of the trenches, the would be shot down, so they would have had to stay inside. I can only imagine how hard it would be to be still, and know that you were going to die. Part 1--Possible statements the artist attempted to convey through the piece:
I think the main statement that is made in this piece is just how hard the great depression was on the people in America. So often we look back at the great depression as an event and we don't truly grasp how it devastated families. Take the men on the train, for example. They are forced to move from place to place to find work. They don't have homes because they are forced to start over so often. What they do have is hope. Hope that the next place will be better, will have more jobs. Hope that they might get to settle down again. Hope that they might just make it through another day. What they also have is disappointment, hence the need to board the train once again and try and start afresh. I think the main focus of this painting is the people, which is interesting because the focal point seems to be the scenery. I think this is significant because the artist uses the scenery to showcase the people and their struggles. The scene behind them is so large and they are so small, and I really think that show how the Great Depression must have felt. It was such a big force, and it must have felt insurmountable. Part 2--Symbolic elements present in the piece: There are many symbolic elements in this piece. One of them is that the people don't really have faces. I think this represents that people in that time period were, in some sense, all the same. They were all poor, all out of work, all looking to take care of their families. Their identities didn't matter, the only thing that mattered was that they got through the day. Another symbolic element is the train. This symbolizes that people were having to move around. Because jobs were so scarce, people often times had to move to find another job, and sometimes they just had to move to a smaller house because they could no longer afford their own home. Another symbolic element is the ground in the background. It is empty, and dry. This represents the many droughts that destroyed farmers, and it also represents that many farmers had to pack up and leave their farms. Part 3--Themes that arise from the piece: I think the main theme the artist wanted to show with this piece was desolation. This painting was created during the Great Depression, a time where America was in tatters. The dust bowl forced many people to have to leave their homes and go elsewhere to find work, the stock market crashed bankrupting many, and to top it all off, most people were too proud to take advantage of the government's help. The country was being torn apart. This painting is seemingly peaceful, but that is the problem. It is TOO peaceful. Life isn't peaceful, and when it is this peaceful it is only because people have given up. This peace is eerily calm to show how the country's devastation is affecting it's citizens. Part 4--Artistic and/or historic importance of the piece: The historic importance of this piece is that it shows the people's side of the story. Many of the paintings surrounding the Great Depression are of the land, or are depictions of the economic crisis, but this painting so simply, and yet so symbolically, shows how the Great Depression must have really felt to the people. |
Alli FosterThis blog contains details and updates for my honors projects. |