Life — April 14, 1921 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Crossing the Atlantic" Analysis This satirical piece by E.V. Lucas (illustrated by Bernard Partridge) depicts two gentlemen engaged in a peculiar transatlantic ritual: they meet annually to dine together while suspended over the ocean. The joke centers on Anglo-American relations and stereotypical dining habits. One character travels yearly from America to England to eat soft-shell crabs; the other journeys from England to America to eat whitebait. Rather than recognizing their shared cultural bonds, they treat the Atlantic crossing as merely an opportunity for specific culinary experiences—reducing the vast continent to a restaurant. The satire gently mocks how both nations view each other: through narrow, materialistic lenses rather than genuine cultural understanding, despite their growing interdependence and need for mutual respect.