It's Thanksgiving. Grandma's been up all night, preparing and slaving away. The setting is beautiful. Finest china and whitest tablecloth, waiting, ready for the inevitable spills and memories. Everything is finally ready; the family is once again whole, rustling around the house, chattering away, unloading food and children, filling every open space with holiday noise.
A hush moves over the house and we are summoned to the table. A Thanksgiving prayer is offered up by Grandpa before Grandma triumphantly enters with her masterpiece. There is a moment of inhaled magic as she sets the bird on the table, and we are completely, wholly, beautifully...Family.
We've come from the far corners of the county, making long drives of twenty minutes and some even an hour to be together. Despite the distance, we make a strong effort to see each other... at least twice a year. Life's busy you know... work. friends. life. But we're all here now right? And as we hold our breaths before we start the meal, eyes glazed, and plastered smiles, somehow I think we all know the same thing; that it's a lie. None of us want to be here. Poor Grandma's best attempt is to hold us together with mashed potatoes. But we are not together, or happy, or whole. We are forced, and fake and obligated. With each passing of the cranberry sauce one more judgment of each other is added, and by pumpkin pie we can nearly see the pile of annoyances and frustrations and indifferences growing between us. We want the idealized holiday magic, and create it for ourselves the best we can, but at the end of the night, that exhale is nothing more than relief, because we can once again be honest. At least until Christmas...
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Analysis:
Rockwell's iconic painting for so many evokes a sense of family, safety, home, and happy togetherness. I can see a peace attached to this family feasting together. But in studying Shklovsky and his work "Art as Technique," I grew to wonder if the peace and joy that surrounded this picture was simply another societal construct. Shklovsky states that "as perception becomes habitual, it becomes automatic," and he describes this act of 'defamiliarizing' in order to create new perception and vision.
Though the story above seeks to change the original, or at least widely accepted perception of the painting, more than anything it demonstrates the power of automatization and habit. At the same time it shows the power of shocking the audience, and forcing and alternate vision.
So much of family holidays and get togethers are filled with dread, obligation and frustration. Family is forced together through blood, not common interest or unadulterated and unmotivated care. Depressing and pessimistic, yes. But in fact closer to many people's realities than what we are led to draw from Rockwell's "Freedom from Want." Maybe the family still desires freedom from want.