The painting The Problem We all Live With is an image drawn by an artist named Norman Rockwell during the period compulsory integration of blacks and white into the same school system and when racism was at the highest point in the country, 1964.
This is scene is of a six-year old girl
named Ruby Bridges who doesn’t know anything about racism, walking to a school
that is only for white children. She is protected by four U.S. Deputy Marshalls
because of the threats issued by the KKK and other white extremist organizations.
One can see that Ruby Bridges has a blank face. Also, one can read slangs
painted on the wall “Nigger” and “KKK” on what seems to be the route she takes
to school, and that people were throwing tomatoes at her on her way there.
When the fruits were thrown she could see that
she is not wanted at the school. The “Body guards” don’t actually protect her;
they are not even trying to block the fruits that were thrown towards her. The Marshalls
escorted her there to make sure she was allowed to enter the school grounds as
the law ordered.
If someone took a guess about this picture
the impression of the viewer would be, that a young African-American girl is walking
to school with some materials and four men with a bandage around their arm. The
bandage says U.S. Deputy Marshalls; they seem to be protecting her. Also, the
tomato that was thrown on the wall was thrown not long before she was there
because of the mark of the exploded fruit and the tomato has not decayed yet.
The words “Nigger” and “KKK” will tell the viewers that this picture was in the
periods when white and black people were segregated.
The artist’s intention of drawing this
picture in my opinion is to show the American society in the 1960’s and how
even someone as young as Ruby Bridges was threatened my white people. Also, the
sign Nigger’s intention is to show how white people were racist.
The reason for the choices of perspective
was so the viewer could see the whole scene, and also the artist purposely removed
the heads of all of the Marshalls in order for the viewers to focus on the
girl. In the image the colors are dull and cold. The only bright colors he used
were yellow and red, which got the attention of the viewers and showed that she
was a student. With a light colored background intended for the girl’s skin
color to stand out. The forms are negligible and flat, and guide the viewers’
eyes to look at the girl, a girl that is a silent victim of her time.
