Known for depicting the plight of impoverished southern African Americans with dignity and sensitivity, Robert Gwathmey concentrated on destitute rural whites in The Farmer Wanted a Boy. World War II has taken the young men away, leaving the elderly, women, and children to fend for themselves. Yet the central focus on the infant and the title of the work suggests an optimistic meaning despite the grimness of the scene. The baby can be seen as a beacon of hope amidst the surrounding turmoil and depair; he is the only one in the composition not weighed down, literally and figuratively, by the overwhelming burden of poverty.
