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Edward Hopper is best known for his paintings depicting city life during the first half of the century. Some of his works, such as Night Hawks, would go on to become pop culture references. One of his paintings, Office in a Small City, at first glance simply depicts a man looking out of his office window, almost as if he is daydreaming but there’s more to it. Office in a Small City is not just a painting of an office worker, it is a critique of Urban living in America. It's a reflection of Hopper's ambivalence towards America's rapid march into modern urbanism, the isolation and loneliness he felt in the face of such changes. A theme that appears in many of Hopper's other paintings and reflects his views on urban living.

In Office in a Small city, the viewer is looking through a side window of a plain utilitarian building of a solitary man in a corner office. The highrise the man currently occupies is unassuming. Its color a soft white. The only decorative feature of this highrise is the front. Two other buildings can be seen. Another highrise, with apparently no windows, is similar to the one that the man occupies. The other building that occupies the rest of the space, is reminiscent of a time before the rise of skyscrapers. It stands out as unique and more human when compared with the other structures in this painting. The office that man sits in is bare, nothing hangs on the walls and the interior is the same drab color of the outside building. The windows of this office aren't framed. The few things that occupy this corner office is a couple dull brown colored desks and chairs and the solitary man. The man, dressed in a white shirt and black vest, sits at one of the desks and looks across the way to another building, with o...

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...d. This is a man who was against this rapid change in the city but unable to stop it. He had his paintings though and was able to put his views into them. The paintings are a reflection of the emotions and fears that Hopper felt in the face of New York’s rapid march into modernity.

Even though many of the scenes in Hopper's paintings take place during the first half of the century, the situations and the emotions displayed in those painting are no less relevant today. For each of us can reflect on a time in our lives where we found ourselves alone and bewildered by a situation we cannot flee from or a rapid in our lives For Hopper those paintings were a reflection of his ambivalence towards the encroachment of modernity into his world, the isolation and loneliness he felt in the face of change. Something most of us may feel or have felt at one point in our lives.