The Ills of Urbanization Page 3

This dark mood is directly linked to the psyche of our main subject. We can tell a lot simply by the physical presence of our subject. From the hair and mustache we see that he is an older man, from the suit he is wearing we see that he has done well for himself, and from the defensive fold of his arms and the look on his face we see that despite his apparent success, he is in a troubled state. Again, we are not left to wonder what he is troubled about for it is all clearly depicted in the piece.

Our subject is being troubled by the vices that urbanization has presented to him. Specifically, he is troubled by the ills of gambling, substance abuse, and the lure of sex and prostitution. The playing cards represent his vice as a gambler, both literally and figuratively. Not only does he gamble with playing cards, but also with life, and it seems to have taken its toll. He gambles with alcohol and substances abuse. The bottle and glass in front of him are very telling. The glass suggests that he is drinking alcohol, but the stars and moon in the bottle suggest that there might be something more mind enhancing involved. This mysterious bottle coupled with his distraught body language help paint a picture of a man that is trying to escape the reality that he is in and that urbanism has brought him.

Just as he gambles with substance abuse, he also gambles with another byproduct of urbanization, the seedy underworld of prostitution. The woman to his side is extremely symbolic towards the nature of prostitution. First of all, she is faceless. This could be any girl that came to a new city looking for hope but ended up having to work the streets to make ends meet. The prostitute is sympathized with here as she uses here knees to try and block our main subject's impeding phallus. Likewise, her far hand is desperately reaching for a flower that is seemingly repelling away from her, a symbol of her deflowering or loss of virginity and her yearning for its loss. Despite the fact that the prostitute seems very hesitant, she is grounded in the reality that she needs money to live, thus her "prix" is 300.

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