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• 1 2018-05-22T15:20:27+00:00 Gluttony/"Reducing Diet" 1 plain 2018-05-22T15:20:27+00:00 In Stanley Appelbaum’s collection of satirical drawings from Simplissismus, hunger and plenty are physicalized. Thomas Theodor Hein’s drawing, “Reducing Diet,” shows a gluttonous, bourgeois couple. They are obese and wear accessories and colorful clothing In their capacity to own a dog and cigarettes, they epitomize luxury. On the other side of the frame is a starving, withered mother and child. The child is barefoot, the mother’s shoes are falling apart. Both figures are long and lean and their clothes hang off of them. The subtitle states, “Here is a mark for you—and now tell me your secret. How did you go about getting that slim?”  The rich, fat woman offers the starving pair a single German Mark. The amount is laughable, but her remark is even more biting, demonstrating how unaware she is of the world around her.
  
  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.