The Runaway

America in the 50's was a time of seemingly endless bliss. People lived in the moments and tended to not worry about tommorow or yesterday. In Rockwell's painting 'The Runaway' there is a small child that appears to be a runaway. This child is sitting and talking with a policeman who should be trying to help get the kid back home, but instead the scene is painted as peaceful as the policeman seems to be exchanging small talk with the minor. Rockwell's "The Runaway" overlooks the fundamental rift that was rising in America throughout the 1950's - an emerging counterculture that was not concerned with how things were but rather how they are.