Created by artist Wallace Morgan in 1918 for the United States Food Administration, the poster urging the viewer to “Feed a Fighter” depicts the realities of trench warfare during the First World War.(1) To duplicate the dark and claustro- phobic atmosphere of the trenches, the artist focuses on the form of a large, seated soldier, who stares pensively out of the frame. Morgan intensifies the crowded feeling within the frame by including two crouched figures in the background and a third who lumbers heavily through a puddle into the picture. Because of the close proximity of the man to the foreground, the viewer feels as if he or she is seated in the trench, at eye level with the man. The few short lines of text, “Feed a Fighter: Eat only what you need- waste nothing- That he and his family may have enough,” elicit empathy for the soldiers and implore Americans to conserve their resources. “As we will see, propaganda [during the First World War] relies heavily on family relationships,” explains historian Celia Kingsbury, “and the family as a social unit varies little across cultural boundaries, especially in the Western cultures.”(2) The poster adheres to an Expressionist style, which can be identified as a subjective distortion of the subject in order to evoke a heightened sense of emotion or mood; through dark shadows and gestural lines, the artist conveys the cold and dampness of the man’s surroundings as he looks out at the viewer holding a cup, his feet sinking into the mud of the trench. The soldier looks directly at the viewer, as if patiently waiting for an expla- nation, with the lip of his helmet obscuring the majority of his face.

In World War I hand-drawn illustrations such as Morgan’s were commonly seen on propaganda posters, and the United States government maintained strict censorship and endorsed resolutely patriotic messages. Photographs were also used in World War I propaganda, though they were less frequent and carefully picked through to decide which were suitable for the public and which were destined for the “Chamber of Horrors.”(3) Due to the obscured features of the faces in Morgan’s poster, the soldier staring blindly out of the frame could be any man; he could be a brother, father, husband, or neighbor. Most of the posters were directed toward women at home, and the anonymity of the figures was intended to appeal to the women’s sympathy for their husbands, brothers, fathers, sons, or neighbors at war.(4) Therefore, the American women who viewed the poster would feel more obligated to “feed a fighter” and conserve their resources at home for the war effort.(5) According to Kinsbury, however, one must question “the suggestion that food alone could be the source of victory.” She explains, “Such an oversimplification ignores questions of weapons, manpower, strategy, and even weather.”(6) Of course, propaganda ultimately is defined by such oversimplification, as the message must be distilled to its simplest form to appeal widely. 

1 Posters like Feed a Fighter were critical to the United States war effort due to their ability to create public support for the war. According to historian Charles Mills, this meant targeting women in propaganda, “Propaganda used images of women and children as a motivator for men to enlist. Conversely, men of fighting age who were not in uniform were often viewed with suspicion or were the subject of public derision.” See Charles Albert Mills, American Domestic Propaganda in World War I (United States: University of Missouri Press, 2000) 10. Similarly, Celia Kingsbury states, “Using the language of domestic science, U.S. Food Administration propaganda brought women into direct contact with the war by urging them to enlist in that “‘American army of housewives.’” See Celia Malone Kingsbury, For Home and Country: World War I Propaganda on the Home Front (University of Nebraska Press, 2010) 35.

2 Kingsbury writes, “When women and children were not the target of propaganda, they were often used in propaganda to remind red-blooded men just what the war was all about.” Kingsbury, 8-9.

3 Mills, 11.

4 Kingsburg furthers this point by stating, “Everyone is made to feel a sibling, wife, or mother to every soldier.” Celia Malone Kingsbury, For Home and Country: World War I Propaganda on the Home Front (University of Nebraska Press, 2010), 26

5 Kingsbury explains “[M]uch war propaganda focuses on the responsibilities of women to civilize their men and to feed and educate their children,” 27. 6 Ibid.,41.