Family In Barn Analysis

Superior Essays
Could a photo of a family in a house show suffering? Dorothea Lange’s Living Conditions of Workers in Agriculture on whom Depend the Crops of California, Family of Migratory Cotton Pickers, Originally for Oklahoma, Living in Abandoned Cow Barn, Note Bed in Corner, Kern County, California (Family in Barn) offers an unusual view of Dust Bowl migrant workers that were displaced due to agricultural damage. Unlike many of her other photographs, Family in Barn does not depict squatters, or struggling workers, or even the outside conditions that many others were subjected to and it makes the viewer wonder how this family’s dilapidated house and seemingly ordinary life fits into the unseen, harsh outside world. Family in Barn makes the viewer sympathize …show more content…
There seems to be use of artificial lighting as exemplified by the cast shadows of the daughter and of the small table in front of her. Considering that both the mother and daughter are both facing the baby, it makes the viewer realize that the main focus needs to be placed on the conditions that the baby specifically has to experience. Images of children in a traditional still life usually involve joyfulness and wonder, little concern for anything. Although the baby seems to be laughing, when juxtaposed with the cracked floor, precariously hanging pipes, and lack of crib, the audience worries about the child’s development. When viewers act vicariously in this situation, a few questions arise: How much food is there? Where does the baby sleep at night? Who takes care of the baby during the day? A feeling of sympathy is invoked when the audience sees the baby girl surrounded by large iron pipes and the hard dirt floor, as the child does not have much protection from hurting herself. The same can be said about the many other migrants, offered no cushion against the hard place that they are stuck in and the potential to be constantly bashed if not careful. Although the mother is watchful over her child and ensures her safety from the obstacles in the house, the rest of the public does not reciprocate the action. Seeing both the daughter’s grimaced, …show more content…
The limited space and small beds do not seem accommodating for anymore people and the audience is left wondering where the “head of the household” is. One might say that the male figures, husband, brothers, sons, are outside tending to work while the women are staying inside tending to the house and up keeping their belongings. However, as Lange explained, “life of the migrants is not a succession of vacation camping trips. Men, women, and children work.” Considering most of migrant farmers pay depended on the quantity of the crops picked, there would not have been the double standard for the work that needed to be done. But, it seems as if “pioneer life was founded on a double standard,” as most women were excluded from images involving exploring and creating a new life. Lange’s specific photograph with the absence of a male figure is able to invoke sympathy on two fronts. For one, by specifically only having women, a new perspective and dialogue is added to the idea of the “dying western dream.” By acknowledging women, the photo conveys the family’s ability to survive and demonstrate that women had the ability to move out on their own. Regardless of race or gender, many people who were drawn to the West by the promise of a new life were only met with unemployment and indifference. The audience realizes that the subjects in the photo are not only met with the same difficulties, but are

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Stranger Danger “The Displaced Person” by Flannery O’Connor, was published as a story in the Sewanee review in October 1954. The setting takes places after World War 2, where some refugees from the concentration camp are resettling to a farm. The literary techniques that O’Connor uses are symbolism, imagery, and irony. She uses these techniques to state her purpose about how people should not be judged for the way they are.…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The author of the written passage, “The Horizontal World”, Debra Marquart utilizes the rhetorical strategies of bleak imagery and ethos to initially encourage harmful stereotypes of the upper Midwest and later prove that region, where she grew up in, is in fact special. Marquart describes the region’s topology, famous trivialities such as it being in several movies, and even political stance. However, she does so by at first describing its physical characteristics with disgust and even with hints of disdain in order to support her intended audience’ existing viewpoint that the Midwest is simply a “fly-over” region in the United States with no real significance to it. Given her credibility as a midwesterner herself, being acquainted with all…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    As Estrella returns home scared, her mother tells her to not “...let them make [her] feel [she] did a crime for picking the vegetables they 'll be eating for dinner” (Viramontes 63). Estrella’s mother, Petra, realizes that Estrella and the family being in the States does not affect anyone negatively and sees no harm in their presence. They only help others by being migrant workers, harvesting the food for others to eat. The harsh realities of migrant workers are present in the examples above as the reader can recognize that the migrants must be in constant fear of being caught by the very authorities who are benefitting from their…

    • 1710 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Do you think it’s worth it? Working hard and only get paid only about 10-12 dollars an hour as a man of the household? In the article “A Gringo in the Lettuce Fields” by Gabriel Thompson, he talks about how hard working in the field can be and what kind of obstacles field workers deals with on their daily basis. As Thompson tries to experience working in the field he deliberately interprets how the human body reacts after working for a certain amount of time in the fields. He also discusses how much trouble a single head of a lettuce can bring to its laborer.…

    • 1228 Words
    • Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In Sandra Cisneros’ bildungsroman The House on Mango Street, we see the main character, Esperanza struggle to find her place in Chicago, as well as within her own culture’s idea of the “perfect” woman, the ideal woman of her community and the ideal woman of the 80’s. In Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, we see two girls’ journey after they are abandoned by their mother in a small town located in Northern Idaho. Set in the 1950’s, we see Ruth and Lucille develop as they find their place within their small community and within society’s restrictions of this era. Although these two bildungsroman novels are drastically different, Robinson’s Housekeeping and Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street both explore female oppression throughout history…

    • 1975 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Family 1941 Analysis

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages

    I chose to analyze the The Family - 1941 portray for this essay because I like the usage of the colors on this work. I feel confident analyzing colors in artworks because I learned about the emotions transmitted through colors in various art classes that I took in High School and College. Most art professors like to stress the importance of color in a work of art. They say that the understanding of the usage of the colors in a piece is important when criticizing an artwork. Colors are very important in an art work because it can give away a lot of information about the emotional state of the work.…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Elfie Huntington Bagley

    • 1478 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Elfie Huntington Bagley Introduction Elfie Huntington Bagley (fig. 1), a Springville, Utah native, produced a vast number of photographs between the years of 1892 and 1949. Elfie, while primarily working in Springville, Utah, traveled the entire state and the Mountain West making photographs. Her photography tells a story of life in Utah at the turn of the twentieth century. In her work, she shows a particular interest in photographing the lives of women. Her photographs of women and girls shed light on a female culture of exploration, adventure and sisterhood in Utah during a formative time in the state’s history.…

    • 1478 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Struggles of All: Of Mice and Men Up until now, 2015, the years of 1930 to 1940 has been the worst years in American history for people all around the country. The struggles that some already faced from day to day, went from manageable to unbearable. The difficulties that everyone faced, from a day to day basis. The effects that the Great Depression had on everything and everyone. And everyone’s broken plans.…

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Native Americans have always been given the stereotype of "wild savages" by white settlers. The Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison gives a more caring, and human quality to the so-called "wild savages". Through Mary's narrative, the traditions of Native American, as well as the domestic roles of men and women are analyzed. Throughout her captivity, Mary mentions that she was treated with the utmost respect by her Indian family.…

    • 1244 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    1. Amber-Dawn Bear Robe reflects on how photography conducted by settlers and missionaries was historically used to “assimilate, objectify, and control,” and as such functioned as a “tool of colonial oppression.” Reflect on how photographic imagery can convey a political message (think about frame, arrangement, and use). Consider how the examples in Bear Robe’s article use the medium of photography to respond to this problem. Photographic imagery has the ability to strongly impact human perception of the political ideologies they contain or that are later attached to them by third parties.…

    • 1623 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Out of this Furnace by Thomas Bell is a historical fiction novel that describes the life of immigrants coming to America. More specifically, this is a story of different generations of the Kracha family’s immigration to America. There are many setting; the central setting being Braddock, Pennsylvania- a steel town. Bell gives a realistic depiction on what the European immigrant’s personal and work life was like during the eighteenth century.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being poor is just as hard on children of the family. Gordon Parks uses pathos in his photography making the audience feel pity, guilt, and sorrow. In this picture I felt really sad because of the conditions that these two young boys were in, there clothes looks very old and raggedy. The lighting in the background of the picture is dark but majority of the light is on both Flavios and Zacarias face and body, they’re the central focus of the picture. The photo represents Flavio as a very hard working brother or parent to his younger brother Zacarias.…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being an immigrant to the new world was never a simple task. Adversity, opportunity, and adaptability lurked around every corner as these foreign families sought a new and better life. Struggling with standing out as a “new immigrant”, overcoming poor work conditions, pay, and unstable jobs, and seeking out new opportunities while adapting to necessary survival strategies are some of the many trials a new immigrant would face while coming to a new land. Having lived through it all, Kracha and Dubik from Thomas Bell’s Out of This Furnace saw every aspect of becoming an American.…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Thinkprogress Analysis

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The chronicle series of the ThinkProgress is an establishment that discusses the experiences of immigrant families in crossing the United States and Mexican border. The article “What It’s Really Like to Cross the U.S.-Mexico Border.” by Jack Jenkins, published in Feb 10, 2015.…

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays