An analysis of the image painted by Grant Wood American Gothic was painted by Grant Wood in 1930. When looking at the picture you can see two individuals that evidently appear as how two individuals would hold looked like in the thirtiess. They are simple living people. dependant on their modus operandis and clearly life on the countryside.
The adult male holds a pitchfork in his manus and wears typical husbandman apparels and the adult female wears characteristic homemaker vesture. The picture does non truly supply other information in add-on to than the one’s presented in the beginning. The picture offers a distinguishable description of the rural life with contrasting point of positions which in whole signifies the typical life in America in early twentieth century. The two individuals seen on the image symbolizes the mean American that of all time so frequently lived on the state.
There are obvious connexions between the different composings of the picture. Every item is related to another that belongs in a long concatenation of associated inside informations. Husband and married woman or male parent and girl? Nobody truly knows what relationship the two individuals on the picture have to each other. even though I think they are related more at a father-daughter degree. I have made this decision because my reading of the male on the picture is that he is defensive.
standing a spot in forepart of the female. He has a facial look that is instead protective and he is at the same time gazing at us intently. even threateningly. as an carnal observation over his kids. demoing how his true carnal inherent aptitudes take consequence when the affair comes to protection of the household sphere.
Anyway. the adult female and the adult male typify the importance of households. However. as seen on the image.
they were non that large of a household due to several possible grounds. Possibly because of bad times in economic system or agriculture. The pitchfork represents the work work forces execute and the perspiration they secrete to supply their households. but it besides defines the maleness of the character and even the immorality we can place us with that pervades the hostile universe we live in. The difficult clasp which the adult male holds the pitchfork with shows how the brace as persons.
but besides as a community since they represent the mean American. had to work hard for their ain good being. You can see in their facial looks that they are a small worn out and tired. possibly even to some extent suffering. Possibly a consequence of their dissatisfaction of their life conditions while working so hard.
The neatly clothed adult female is positioned a small spot in the background and officially she is in a low-level place compared to the male. Even though the female is standing one measure below than the male on the household hierarchy. I think that she is stand foring authorization in the household ; it is the females who do all the work at place. maintaining everything in topographic point and order.
physically and mentally. But still. a lock has escaped her gathered clump of hair. screening that she is merely every bit human as everybody else. full of mistakes her excessively.
but that doesn’t impact her self-righteousness with what she does. What more is that she has bluish eyes. which helps us to place her as rather naif. She believes in what she hears without being critical to the beginning. While holding an overview when perplexing the pieces that holds in the analysis of the adult female we can reflect to religion in one manner or another.
Since the Gothic house in the background of the picture is non complete. the roof is non to the full seeable. we can non truly state what sort of house it is. it merely might be a church. This states that faith is of import in America.
for the household every bit good for the authorities since the females represents authorization in general. This combined with her. the peoples. naivete Markss that they lay all their trust in God. independent of the improvable being of a higher being. There are cultural every bit good as societal hits in American Gothic.
I said before that the individuals on the picture are a spot sad. and taking into consideration when the picture is created we can somehow correlate the picture with the American depression that raged throughout the United States from 1929. when the stock market crashed. to 1941 as America decided to fall in the 2nd World War after they had been bombed in Pearl Harbour by the Japans. What more is the cultural struggle within the picture.
for illustration the large difference between the American life style and European architecture of the house. Nevertheless the parts don’t lucifer together they stand for integrity and possibly as a item of the relationship between the United States and Europe. These theories are based upon my ain reading of the picture. but I think that American Gothic by and large is analyzed as an American self-image because the picture gaining controls so many of the old traditional values in it. Whether Grant Wood’s purpose was to typify any of these things or non is non of importance since the picture has more impact than the creative person.
All in all the picture is rather empty. there is no certain symbolism embedded in add-on to the pitchfork and the Gothic window. It is the inside informations that are of import to look for. and they can be analyzed otherwise depending on what individual that is sing the picture.
We all have our ain ideals and the universe affects us otherwise. Therefore the spectator can come in whatever reading he or she wants. The image is a enigma that you are to work out for yourself.