London: Crystal Palace Int.: etching main avenue display areas

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George Cruikshank, London: Crystal Palace Int.: etching main avenue display areas, 1850-1

By ELISE FINN

In Friedrich Engels The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, he discusses the problems that arise in a growing industrial world. People sacrifice so much of their identity in order to create an ideal. They have to let go of their true selves to fit into this urban world. This loss of uniqueness for conformity distances people from one another.

Engles says that "this isolation of the individual - this narrow-minded egotism - is everywhere the fundamental principle of modern society" (124). The more separate and same you are, the better chance you have of succeeding. The reality is that people have created "the war of all against all" (124). No more are your neighbors your friends, but they are your competition. Those who may still share commonalities have become strangers. This is the way the world works. The city only makes this selfishness worse.

Cruikshank's etching shows commoners at a gathering area, all looking similar and participating in a bland activity. Not only does this show progressing industrialization, but supports Engles observation of sameness as the answer. It shows the wealthier side, the people who have followed the same path. This is the result of how the strong has trampled the weak, a result Engles wrote about. As the world industrializes, the separateness between the rich and poor continues to grow.

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