This picture is called The Problem We All Live With and it is a
painting done by Normal Rockwell in January of 1964. It features a colored
girl, Ruby Bridges, on her way to school, surrounded by white guards. What I think is so great about this picture
is Ruby’s naïve image. Back then she was just a six-year old girl, on her way
to the first day of school at William Frantz. This scene originally took place
on November 14, 1960 and Ruby’s brave image can be seen in this painting. Even
though segregation was cruel during that time, Ruby Bridges was only thinking
about school. While people think about her being the only “colored” girl, the
only “black” girl in William Frantz, it was only a school day for her.
Ruby Bridges had to be escorted by the
Federal marshals that day and that’s whom the white bodies represent. The wall
behind Ruby has two important signs, details that Norman Rockwell added in
order to make this scene extremely shocking and signs that one might not see. First of all, there is a huge graffiti saying
NIGGER and Ruby Bridges is walking right across it. On the top left corner of
the painting there are three K’s, the initials of the racist group Ku Klux
Klan. Lastly, there is a tomato, lying on the ground after hitting the wall
behind Ruby. This tells the viewer that the crowd was trying to hit Ruby but
missed and instead, hit the NIGGER sign.
Like I said before whoever sees this
painting is well aware of the situation surrounding Ruby. You can see the
demeaning words, a thrown tomato, and the federal government guards escorting
this little girl during her first day of school. You see
how cruel segregation was and you feel sad for how gruesome it must have felt to
be Ruby Bridges. Now, that is a completely different perspective than what Ruby
saw that day. During her interview at the White House she said, “The girl in
that painting at six years old new absolutely nothing about racism. I was going
to school that day”. She also clarifies that over time, she learned that hatred
is passed on to us when we are children and that no one, should be judged by
the color of their skin. This really changes the perspective from the viewer
(us) and the protagonist (Ruby). It shows how innocent a child can be while the
rest of the world is only spreading hate.
Every person sees things differently. What
I think when I see the picture is probably different from what you thought when
you saw the picture. Our eyes see different things, find meaning in objects the
other might not see, and feel sad about scenes the other might not recognize. Therefore,
it is impossible to know exactly what Norman Rockwell was trying to imply when
he drew this painting. Norman Rockwell was known for drawing scenes about the
normal, common American family. I can’t imagine what people thought when they
saw the picture on January 14th, 1964. Because Norman was known for
his conservative paintings this meant he really wanted to make a point. I think
he was simply trying to show people what was going on. Segregation had gotten
to such a level that even six-year old girls were involved. It got to a point
were not even colored children could peacefully walk to school without having
to see what the world was becoming. What Americans were doing was inhuman, and
to him, it made no sense that this poor girl couldn’t even walk to school
without seeing racist signs and being discriminated by the crowd around her.
The first thing I see when I look at this
painting is Ruby. No matter what, I see her. She’s so present, with her head
held high, her school books in her hand, her white dress, and her ribbon. I think
this is why Norman Rockwell decided to crop the guards’ faces. He wanted
everyone to see Ruby. I like the way Ruby is looking ahead, with her right foot
stepping forward, not caring about the signs or the guards in front of her. Her
white dress gives me the idea of pureness, innocence. That girl is only worried about school. The next thing I see is the
NIGGER sign, and the tomato. As you see these things you start to realize what
the whole scene means. I see how the tomato hit the wall, a missed attempt of
hitting the poor girl. The graffiti on the wall inmediately creates a bravery
image for Ruby. I see her expression, the way she is not even looking back at
the wall. The Federal marshals are part of the painting but I don’t think it’s
what Norman really wanted us to see. It is just a detail to remind the people
of that day, the day the African-American girl was escorted to school by the
deputy marshals. The three K’s was definitely the last thing I saw, after looking
and scanning the picture for more details. It is there for the viewer to
discover, a tiny detail. So that when all the demeaning signs around it have
sunk into the viewer’s heart, the three K’s will show up, reminding us all, of
the world we live in.
The name, The Problem We All Live With sums up the entire point of the
painting. We live in a world where everyone judges their neighbor, their
friend, the stranger passing by. A world where the last thing we think about is
how the other might feel. And to me that is the so called “problem we all live
with”. The problem of discrimination. Whether it’s toward African-Americans,
Hispanics, Asians, or just discrimination to that one person we don’t like. This is our problem. Judging people just
because we feel like it, just because everyone is doing it, just because our
first impression of them wasn’t good enough.
