The bar man is accepting the mans money with a smile on his face and has one arm out in a welcoming fashion, accepting the money. But the other hand is put across the open till in a protective way. The bar man is dressed in an outfit similar to one a ventriloquist’s puppet would wear and the barman’s reflection appears to be the devil, this gives the suggestion that bartenders are evil and are the devils puppets, all proceeds go towards evil. This is also assuming people who drink alcohol have no moral and are funding an evil business, helping sustain criminals.
The Saloon is portrayed as a den of iniquity, with the fiendish bartender and men in the corner drinking, smoking and gambling. All these things are sins, and this poses the question, would a holy, decent, moralistic man want to go into this place? This would effect many people who use saloons as America was very religious, people followed religion or had religious influence in there lives and wouldn’t want to be associated, or relatives would not want the associated, with a place that has men taking part in such sinful things such as these.
Within there is a small picture of the mans family, the wife is sitting crying and she is dressed in puritan clothing, this suggest innocence as if she’s done nothing wrong and it’s all the man and saloons fault she’s in this position. The little boy is holding up his dish, its empty, he has no food to eat because there is no money as it’s all being spent in the saloon. There is a dispossession notice on the floor, indicating that his family are losing all their belongings and their home because they have no money to pay bills or food. This is because all of their family income is being spent in the saloon on alcohol. This shows the way in which the cost of alcohol can affect family life. The caption is ‘the saloon is well named “the poor mans club” it keeps its members and their families always poor.’ This could attract a secondary demographic of wives and relatives of the men in saloons, it could be persuading them to get their husbands out of the saloon. The content of this Poster is clearly against Saloons, therefore against prohibition.
Source D shows a boy and a girl standing outside a saloon, the caption above says ‘Daddy’s in there, and our shoes and stocking and clothes and food are in there too, and they’ll never come out.’ This suggests all of the families’ money is being spent in the saloon depriving the children from the necessities which they require. The girl already understands the situation, implying that she has grown up with it, whereas her younger brother doesn’t understand yet; he just wants his father to look after him and provide for his family. The girl knows he won’t come out of the saloon, we can tell by her body language she no longer wants anything to do with him as her back a turned on the saloon, representing her turning her back on her father. She knows her father has picked alcohol over them and this indicates that he values alcohol more than his family. This may be seen as indicating that many of the fundamental family values, which America hold dear, are being damaged by alcohol therefore invoking an emotive domestic argument against alcohol. The little boy still wants his father, he is much younger than his sister so doesn’t understand the situation so he is looking into the salon expectantly waiting for his father to come out because he wants to see him. The caption underneath the poster says ‘Wanted- a father: a little boys plea.’ By using emotive language, with words such as “plea”, the poster is supposed to make men in saloons feel guilty about their actions by showing them the effect upon their children, and family in general.
We can tell money has run out as both children seem to be wearing clothes that have been given to them as they are big and baggy and seemed to have been wearing them for a long time as they are ragged and worn out.
The saloon is portrayed as dark and foreboding as behind the doors is darkness even though it’s daytime, we can tell this from the children’s shadows. This also creates sympathy as their dad is in the saloon in the middle of the day when he could be working and making money to help his family.
This Poster is aimed at men with families its making them feel bad for drinking when they could be earning money for the family.
The over all idea of this poster is that saloons directly affect the family of the men in there, turning the family against the father/husband, using all the money on alcohol instead of buying the family essentials, the family is suffering due to the saloon.
So this poster is for prohibition as it displays saloons of evil places that cause suffering in families which were a cornerstone of American society. The poster clearly indicates that this cornerstone is being eroded by the evils of alcohol.
Sources C and D are both posters produced by the anti-saloon league. The authorship clearly indicates that both posters are against prohibition as the anti-saloon league were a group who supported the introduction of prohibition in America. The content and message of these posters reflect this view as both show the ill affects of alcohol, with particular attention paid to family life. Source C shows the immorality and the evils of the drinking lifestyle and portrays a family experiencing the negative affects of having a father who drinks, this poster was aimed at men who drink in saloon’s and their families. Whereas source D is aimed specifically on fathers as it focuses on the affects of drinking on children and aims to invoke feelings of guilt in an attempt to gain support for their cause.
