Life — March 23, 1922 — page 12: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Life Magazine Page This page contains literary content and one sketch illustration. The main cartoon depicts two people in what appears to be a living room—a woman standing and a man seated—with the caption: "Isn't this a photograph of the man you were engaged to last summer?" "I think he was the summer before, dear. The date's on the back." The humor targets the social custom of casual romantic engagements among the wealthy leisure class, suggesting the woman has had multiple engagements in successive summers that she can barely distinguish or remember. The reliance on photograph dates to establish which fiancé is pictured satirizes both her poor memory and the seemingly interchangeable nature of her romantic partners—a common theme mocking upper-class courtship practices of the era.