"The Runaway" by Normal Rockwell

Norman Rockwell's painting "The Runaway" shows a child, presumably a runaway, sitting on a barstool talking to a policeman and a diner employee. This seems simple, however the meaning of this painting is much more intricate than it appears. The policeman and diner employee do not appear to be concerned with why the boy is there or where he came from. During the time period of this painting, this same kind of attitude was occurring in America. People were coming home from the war and looking into the future, not relying on the past. Rockwell's "The Runaway" overlooks the fundamental rift that was rising in America throughout the 1950s - an emerging counter culture that was not concerned with how things were in America but rather how they are.