Franklin D. Roosevelt's Four Freedoms

In the image, Freedom From Want, an image that was part of a four-series publication based off of the “Four Freedoms”proposed in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s State of the Union address, a homologous family surrounds the white-linen table. The family excitedly awaits the meal laid out on the table. The image is number three from the series. Preceding it are Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Worship, followed by Freedom from Fear. His inspiration was the quote "In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms,“ said by Roosevelt. In the Freedom From Want, Rockwell heavily relies on one-point perspective, a technique in which the artist directs the viewer to one central image. In

The title calls into question who the freedom from want is applicable to. Is the freedom from want a right granted to all citizens of America? Or is it just one given to those with the “correct” skin tone? Not only is Rockwell questioning who it is applicable to, he is also questioning whether Roosevelt’s scope of concern can be so wide when there was such a drastic difference between the rights of black people and the rights of white people during its publication. Roosevelt calls upon the world to root themselves in the morals and ideology that America supposedly represented. Roosevelt’s idealistic world was evidently farther down on America’s timeline in Rockwell’s point of view. Rockwell proposes that America itself was not even based upon those morals.
Rockwell uses color to symbolically represent how freedom of want only applied to white people during Roosevelt’s speech. In the entire painting, the entirety of colors shown are whitewashed, with the exception of the couple in the center, who are dressed in blue and black. While usage of white on the dining table would not be considered abnormal, the background, foreground, clothing of the family, and the tablecloth are all white. This dramaticized use of white exacerbates his