Norman Rockwell Visual Analysis

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I believe that the Norman Rockwell painting induces his audience to become visible to themselves as white in a politically progressive way by displaying nostalgic concepts that his audience can identify with as they relate to the white boy more than the black man. Norman Rockwell is known for his radical, edgy, non-mainstream images and has very different visuals displayed in magazines. These radical images he produced were to manipulate people’s aesthetic sensibilities. In this painting, it looks like a nice, nostalgic image of a boy figuring out his bill and maybe a tip for the black server. The boy does look like a well-behaved child and looks determined to figure out the bill as he holds his change bag. The server, on the other hand, is looking very happy and optimistic, and is looking at the boy with compassion and patience. The server is poised and stands in a confident manner in his work environment. Meanwhile, the boy, about to pay his own bill, is figuring out how to. This concept is a manner of adulthood for the young boy, for he probably has never paid his own bill before, especially by himself. The boy could be …show more content…

I believe that this image is moving the audience to think more about the progressive movement and how much America has changed throughout the years. Today, if this image was resurfaced and remade as more modern, it probably would not gain as much attention as the original because we are so used to this image in real life. In addition, some people today, such as myself, can probably identify with both the white boy and the black server. This image, however, is inducing whiteness towards the audience as it has the power to challenge the viewers’ established beliefs of their whiteness, and helps create public opinion on what it means to be the boy and the server in a politically progressive

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