Picture Analysis: The Haves And The Have Nots

The photograph of the WWI orphan clutching to his new donated shoes is one that conveys a plethora of emotions and reveals so much about the American society all within a single frame. Striking the viewers as it did for me, the boy possesses a look of absolute ecstasy, clutching his new shoes as if they were a miraculous godsend; the natural light frames the drab clothing, the black and grey jacket and shirt, his white striped shorted, grey socks, and worn-out shoes, in contrast to the child who clings to shiny, black shoes, glowing with jubilation. There is little impersonality between the viewer and the subject in the photograph with the little distance between the lens and the boy, making it nearly impossible to not feel the joy the child is feeling. With this connection manifested, one cannot help, but imagine the
Even now, the United States Census last reported that the poverty rate in 2014 for American chil­dren under age 18 was 21.1 per­cent; poverty itself is timeless and as the spirit of American consumerism deconstructs all of value with holidays, that once celebrated compassion, the deceased, or the giving of thanks, having decayed into empty rituals of frenzy and greed and the continued negligence of the beggars and urban decay, transforming the miserables “Have Nots” into mere props amongst the urban scene, we look to meaning and satisfaction, finding something lost within the disarray; in a paradoxical state of pity and sympathy for the child, the viewers cannot help, but feel almost envious that we, the “Haves”, are incapable of feeling the absolute happiness he feels, the happiness and gratitude that cannot be substituted by any object of