Introductory Paragraph: August 31, 2011

The 1950's was full of optimism and prosperity but great conflict. This little boy has taken his bag and has run away to a diner. He then has lunch with the diner owner and a local police officer. The painting overlooks all the conflict going on in the 1950's and focuses on the optimism of the little boy who has run away. 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.