Life — May 31, 1929 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is an illustration titled "Life" showing children in a wooded setting. The caption presents dialogue between characters named Marjorie and Fili, with Marjorie saying: "She thinks she's got a right to snub us, Fili, just because her parents were divorced in Paris and mine in Renol." The satire mocks early 20th-century social pretension and snobbery among the wealthy. The joke turns on the absurd notion that a child would boast about—or another child would feel inferior about—the *location* of their parents' divorce proceedings. The implication is that Paris carries more sophisticated cachet than "Renol" (possibly Reno, Nevada, a divorce destination). This satirizes both class consciousness and the casual treatment of family dissolution among the wealthy.