"The Pinch of Poverty"

• Poverty can be caused by many of the following situations: lack of job opportunities, being born into poverty, only one source of income, being unemployed, etc.
• The artist portrays poverty in a negative light by using dull, gloomy neutral colors and solemn looks on the faces of the family members.
• The message may be that poverty is bondage, but that optimism can help one to become liberated.
• One element that backs this message up is the contrast between the dull colors and the bright yellow of the flowers. The little girl holding the flowers - presumably to sell them - appears more hopeful about the family's current predicament. The placement of the bars behind the rest of the family seems to display that these people will remain imprisoned by poverty, but the girl has no bars behind her and appears to be stepping out of the situation, out of the poverty.