"There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch" - Text as Meaning Project by CARRIE

Carrie: Image word:: started with chair but moved on to table - hope that's cool Concept word:: racism Phrase of my own choosing:: "There's no such thing as a free lunch"

This piece is called “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” and it consists of a leering white male with his knife and fork poised over two workers in a field. The man is in a suit and tie, and in color, while the migrant workers are in black and white. The field, because of its greyscale, reads as though it is the man’s table. The man is in the top half, the field in the center, and a black band makes up the bottom fourth. In Playbill font, across the top of the black it reads, “There’s no such thing as a” and then in white “Free Lunch.”
This composition is strong in horizontal lines, yet is in a vertical format. This puts the emphasis first on the man’s grin, than on the field and then you notice the fork, knife, and the caption. By drawing your eye downward, the effect of the realization “he’s glutting himself for free on their hard work” is more pronounced.
It makes me feel uncomfortable for the workers, but I don’t really identify with either group in the picture. It reminds me of a book I read once, “Whitebread Protestants,” because the man is so formally dressed, like a church-goer, yet he is eating. The book was about food and religion. I think that the comparison between food and religion could be extended to this piece because the way that people live and eat is affected by their value system, and this piece by Carrie seems to comment on the values behind a free lunch.