First I will discuss the literal interpretation of Hopper’s painting. Literally, this image expresses a picture of a young woman and man sitting in close proximity on a porch. An image of a house is placed in the background of the image. The man, woman, and face of the porch are in the foreground. The color of the house is white, and the colors of the door and window match the army green color of the mans pants. Blue is also found on the ceiling of the porch, the man’s shoes and his shirt. The woman is wearing a pink tube top and skirt, which causes her to stand out the most in the image. It is clearly nighttime in the picture. The sky surrounding the house is dark and the source of the light is contained in the porch setting. The light is reflecting most prominently on the girl’s face and body. The house and the boy provide shadows within the image as well as the girl’s legs.
Next, I will discuss a textural interpretation of the image. As I have mentioned in my previous blog, an anthropological interpretation of the image will suggest that this is a representation of a common ritual known as dating. If this image fit into a story about a boy and girl out on a date, this would take place after the date. The boy may be returning the girl to her parents house and taking advantage of the time they have to carry on a personal conversation. They appear to be either discussing their relationship, which according to the girl’s facial reaction, doesn’t seem hopeful. They could also just be carrying on a private conversation, in which the boy is doing the talking and the girl listening. The reason I gave in my previous blog to suggest the intimacy of the relationship is the body language of the boy and girl. The boy’s leaning towards the girl suggests that he is close to her. The girl’s body language also suggests that she is at least submitting herself to the boy for the sake of flirtation.
Now I will discuss an intertextual interpretation of the image. Hopper’ painting references a typical image of a boy and girl returning home after a date (e.g. the fair or drive in movies). We have read about or seen this image in novels or film plenty of times. The film that I always think of when I study this image is the Notebook. The architecture and clothing styles also resemble a particular time period: the mid 20th century. During the 1940s and 50s many girls were only concerned with courting and marrying men. As I suggested in my previous blog, this image would support that stereotype of girls in the 1950s with the exception that the girl seems slightly disinterested.
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