Taking place during WW2, Hopper paints a scene with four patrons in a diner that becomes one of his most famous works. To dissect this piece, you must first understand that America sees a large amount of death take place on the battle fields across the sea. The death and destruction that America sees is equally, if not less than, the amount that they watch other countries also lose people on both sides of the war. It is a harrowing time for people, one that is hard to both wrap your head around and see a future that is without what is currently happening within the world. It is the same way that we had trouble seeing past our noses at COVID-19 ever being able to scale down to a point where mask mandates would be lifted, and we would cease to live in complete fear. America during the early 1940's lives the same way, and here Hopper takes this experience of random people who all are so lost within themselves, possibly thinking about the war that rages around them and the reality that follows for them that they fail to see past their noses that they are not the only ones going through the rough time. Hopper plays on this frequently, sourcing this idea of inherent loneliness that we feel when adverse life events play out. He uses this tie of loneliness throughout many of his pieces to come, including the Woman in the Sun, where this woman also exemplifies this loneliness that can never be solved as she cannot connect to the people that may be in her life. His subjects reflect maybe what he may feel himself; an inability to connect with those around them in a meaningful way that leads down the road of loneliness and complete isolation.