Rockwell's The Runaway Intro

America in the 1950's was bustling with important events and issues; the civil rights movement, better living, and new inventions. The 50's were known for their state of mind or way of living rather than just another decade. Life was peaceful, freedom and equality were emerging with the ideas we carry today. In Norman Rockwell's painting, you see a small child that appears to have runaway, sitting in a store and chatting up with a police man. At first,  it may seem normal, but once you realize the little child really has run away on his own, the "perfect" imagine of the 50's seems to melt away. No longer is this decade so innocent and wonderful our in heads. Rockwell's "The Runaway" overlooks the fundamental rift that was rising in America throughout the 1950's - an emerging counterculture that was not concerned with how things were but rather how they are.