On November 14, 1960, US Deputy Marshals escorted a 6-year old Ruby Bridges to her first day of Kindergarten. This event marks the first time where an African American girl attends an all-white school. In the painting “The Problem We All Live With” by Norman Rockwell, Ruby Bridges is walking towards her school, holding a notebook and a ruler. There are tomatoes and negative comments written on the wall behind her. This was because nobody accepted an African American going to a white school. As soon as Bridges step foot on her new school, many white parents pulled their children out of the school. The next couple months, riots and protests happened, as large crowds yelled and threw objects at Bridges to prevent her from going to the school. Despite the situation being a little girl versus a couple thousands of white people, Bridges still had the courage to go to school, ignoring all the remarks at her. Bridge’s mom displayed greater courage in influencing and motivating her daughter to go to the all-white school, knowing that this will cause social unrest and mean comments at her daughter.
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Something that Rockwell did that interested me is making Bridge’s dress plain white. Even though Bridges probably didn’t wear a white dress in real life, the white dress perfectly contrasted with her dark skin. The extreme difference in contrast helps the reader understand that Bridges is the main subject of the painting. The negative comments such as “KKK” engraved on the wall as well as tomatoes splattered around the wall was intriguing to me. Rockwell uses tomatoes and negative comments to make the viewer understand that this painting is about racism. The cut-off heads of the Marshals also caught my eye. Rockwell purposely made the marshals much bigger in contrast to Bridges, to show that they are protecting the little girl. The marshals symbolize the justice in the
Something that Rockwell did that interested me is making Bridge’s dress plain white. Even though Bridges probably didn’t wear a white dress in real life, the white dress perfectly contrasted with her dark skin. The extreme difference in contrast helps the reader understand that Bridges is the main subject of the painting. The negative comments such as “KKK” engraved on the wall as well as tomatoes splattered around the wall was intriguing to me. Rockwell uses tomatoes and negative comments to make the viewer understand that this painting is about racism. The cut-off heads of the Marshals also caught my eye. Rockwell purposely made the marshals much bigger in contrast to Bridges, to show that they are protecting the little girl. The marshals symbolize the justice in the