Gluttony/"Reducing Diet"
Another drawing by Heine also pairs hunger and plenty. In “The Abstemious,” the subtitle reads: “So many potatoes those people need! We don’t eat more than two or three potatoes at lunchtime.” A similar fat couple makes this remark, as starving, withered figures push a cart filled with potatoes. Like the couple in “Reducing Diet, they are also out of touch, ignorant, and removed. These two caricatures highlight the food shortages and comment on the contrast in quality of life of the poor and the upper-class..
Similar to the Hubbuch, the authors and artists depict the poor as weak and lean while showcasing the rich as plump and fashionable. The witty, satirical titles are biting and harsh, further demonstrating the upper-class’s ignorance and indifference to the poor and disadvantaged. Additionally, these cartoons examine the malnutrition that led to a desire of food that never was satisfied. In the critique that these images represent, the extremely rich viewed the lower-class’s unceasing longing and necessity for food as gluttonous. Those who did have enough food were oblivious of their over-consumption and enormous privilege.