Life — August 9, 1917 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Savage" and Resinol Soap Advertisement This page combines Arthur Guiterman's poem "The Savage" (left) with a Resinol Soap advertisement (right). **The Poem:** Guiterman celebrates an idealized "savage" who is free from civilization's anxieties—unconcerned with business, vulgarity, or intellectual pursuits (Shaw, Dunsany). The savage simply enjoys food, laughter, and life without the burdens of societal pretense. **The Advertisement:** Three fashionable figures in 1920s attire advertise Resinol Soap as making you "proud of your complexion." The ad promises the soap clears skin conditions and maintains beauty despite "sticky and hot weather." **The Irony:** The juxtaposition is likely intentional satire—while the poem romanticizes freedom from civilization's trappings, the advertisement sells civilization's "necessity" (cosmetics/grooming products) to achieve social acceptability. The contrast highlights consumerism's role in modern anxiety.