Established painter Edward Hopper acted as a pioneer of the modern realism movement in the United States and often drew his personal vision of modern American life. Perhaps his most popular painting "Nighthawks  depicts a late night scene at a diner. Despite it being painted in one his most productive and successful periods of his life, it is a piece that showcases loneliness and alienation. The background of "Nighthawks  illustrates the feeling of isolation with a row of closed stores, with dark interiors, with nothing to speak of on the inside besides an old style cash register, which could be suggesting an unstable family business of sorts. Given that the background is dark and inactive all attention than is immediately given to the diner, the sole source of light in the entire painting, giving the dark streets and shops a sort of coldness to the painting, and establishes the diner as a sort of refuge for the night. Its huge glass windows imitate that of a fishbowl the viewer can glimpse into. With its curved, pure glass shape however, the diner attracts people with its light, and repels with its shape, and the fact that no door is visible in the painting further underlines how detatched these diners really are from society. Ironic, given that this seems to be in bigger city, yet still, in its golden lit heart, the viewer finds loneliness. As for the patrons themselves looking upon their faces it can be seen how the name "Nighthawks  was derived. With very hawk like features on all the visible faces it can be derived that they are all nighthawks, each one seeming uneasy however, as indicated by everyones tense shoulders, showcasing individual insecurities, and a fear of intimacy from the couple. For a late night on the town and wearing such a bold red dress the woman and her date, as their hands suggest, seem awfully tame and sedated. As if they have nothing more to say or give to one another. The woman being more i