Hobo and Dog Analysis
Hobo and Dog by Norman Rockwell, 1924
Since the time most of us were kids we have heard the phrase ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover,’ meaning that we should not judge people without getting to know them. This idea of not judging others at first glance is very hard for many people to adapt. It is overly typical that people in our society judge one another and do not even bother to get to know a person and their backgrounds. Normal Rockwell’s painting, Hobo and Dog, from 1929 can really be viewed as a piece of art that expresses the idea of not judging people based on their appearance.
One of the first things that stick out to us is the imagine of the dog. The man is protecting and guarding over the dog. Most of the time people associate dogs with friendship, company, and loyalty. The man having the dog can make us think the man is lonely and wants a friend. The dog could very easily be only companion and friend the man has in the world. It may be easy for people to think that hobos do not associate with others because they do not want or because they are mean. The presence of the dog makes us think that maybe people never approach the man or give him a chance but the un-judgmental dog does, so the dog has befriended him because in actuality he is a nice man.
As we also notice the dog is shielded by the man’s jacket. The jacket is tattered and torn which immediately causes people to recoil or turn up their nose. If we take a deeper look though the jacket is a long trench coat with cufflinks! This obviously poor man has a very nice jacket, and although tattered and torn it was once one of a very high class individual. Maybe the jacket belonged to the man a long time ago and he was once a wealthy man that just happened to suffer some financial disaster. We cannot just blindly assume the he found the jacket in the trash or stole it. There may be a story behind the jacket and an insight to who the man really is. Just because the jacket is the man’s shell it does not mean that beneath it there is a genuine heart and soul of a sophisticated man.
Most people would also make the assumption that hobos are uneducated and violent. If we notice though, the man has a rolled up newspaper in his back pocket. We cannot honestly believe the man would use the newspaper as a blanket or for protection against the weather; after all it is just newspaper. So it can be assumed the man can read and has had some type of education. The man also has a knife in the ground beside him. It is not in his hand and he is not running around looking for trouble or a violent situation. He is just sitting, minding his own business and perhaps has the knife for protection or tool-like purposes. We cannot just assume since the man has a knife he is going to attack.
If we take time and dissect the painting and view it for more than it is on the surface we can see that the man may not be who we think he is. Most of us though would never approach a man like this in person because of our initial judgments or fear and disgust. Maybe we should take the time and get to know people because we can never know their true story, past or their intentions without getting to know them for more than just what we see as their ‘cover’.