WWII

This painting by Thomas Benton entitled "Cut the Line" shows a crowd of people watching as workers cut the line on a new war ship. This would probably be a pretty common sight during WWII since so many new ships were being built for fighting. In the picture everyone is kind of leaning forward almost like they are nervous to see if the boat goes into the water cleanly or if it will break on impact. I think that this kind of shows how people were throughout the war, everyone was worried about the fate of their loved ones and for the country in general. So this would sort of set the tone of how people would feel throughout the war, if the ship sinks then people are going to be even more leery than usual, if it is a successful put in then people might be less inclined to worry.