Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks

A Glimpse of Life at the Beginning of World War II

Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, painted in January 1942, is a striking example of modern American realism, striking viewers with a sense of loneliness. It depicts a lone diner nestled in a city street, inspired by Hopper’s neighborhood of Greenwich Village in New York City. The bright light of the restaurant spills onto the dark, nighttime street, creating a visual paradox. The contrast between the two spaces is made starker by the emptiness of the street compared to the small group of people inside the diner. The group, however, is divided: a couple sit at an angle in front of the viewer; a man sits with his back turned to the viewer across from the couple; a server bends over behind the bar and appears to be conversing in some way with the couple (although it is unclear whether he is speaking with them or merely glancing at them). The patrons of the establishment are well-dressed and hunch over cups of coffee while smoking cigarettes. That the men have not removed their hats is a sign that they hope to be left to their own devices. It is this fatigued, stilted body language that elicits the sense of loneliness felt by so many viewers. However, I read it a bit differently: I see a group of people seeking out some sense of camaraderie. Indeed, they have ventured out to an all-night diner in the middle of the night, clearly unable to sleep. I read this as a collective reaction to the anxiety surrounding the US’s entrance into World War II.

Societal trauma caused by a collective tragedy triggers an interesting phenomenon. It creates a sense of lonely isolation but a simultaneous need to connect. Paradoxically, there is a sense of an inescapable bond sparked by the collective experience. There is also an acute anxiety waiting for the shoe to drop and for the next traumatic event to take place. Many of us have experienced the level of devastation needed to cause such tension. The September 11 terrorist attacks created an international sense of grief, mourning, and fear. At the same time, it was, for a brief moment, one of the most unified moments felt by the people of the United States. John F Kennedy’s assassination also triggered this phenomenon all the way back in 1963.

Another time this was experienced was through the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and the US declaration of war on Japan the following day. This attack resulted in the deaths of 2,403 Americans, eliciting patriotic outrage and fury. However, the war they were entering was not new: Japan invaded Manchuria in September 1931, launching its full-scale invasion in July 1937 (Iris Chang’s Rape of Nanking (1997) recounts Japan’s horrifying invasion of Nanking in 1937); the Third Reich invaded Poland in September 1939. The US, still recovering from the Great Depression and with painful memories of the Great War, was very resistant to joining. This changed overnight after Pearl Harbor. But still, there was uncertainty and uneasiness over what was to come with this new war. And anxiety over whether there would be more foreign attacks to come.

This is the context in which Edward Hopper painted this surrealistic painting. However, it is not surrealistic in the same sense of Salvador Dalí’s Persistence of Memory (1931) or Giorgio de Chirico’s Mystery and Melancholy of a Street (1914). Filled with unsettling imagery, these are explicitly inspired by the concept of the subconscious and dreams. Hopper’s painting is not nearly as enigmatic: it very explicitly depicts a late-night diner. This does not appear to be an overly complex composition at first glance. However, they are clearly the only four people awake in the pitch dark of night; the streets outside are bare and empty. And yet, it is this stark contrast that lends the composition an unsettling, dreamlike quality. The figures only vaguely interact with each other, evidently occupied by their coffee and smokes. There is visual and social tension in this painting. Hopper himself said that there is a lonely quality to big cities in that while there are many people, they paradoxically keep to themselves. 

At the same time, these figures sought out company in the middle of the night—they evidently did not want to be alone with their thoughts and, given the time of night, their dreams. They still wanted the company of people even if they were strangers and even if they did not interact with them. The bright diner provided a sense of refuge in and amongst the darkness. Again, Hopper painted this composition in the weeks following Pearl Harbor; the event was still fresh and in the forefronts of the country’s collective psyche. The wartime reality settling in once again was also settling. This painting does more than depict urban loneliness: it embodies the anxiety and trauma felt by the American public. However, Hopper does not do it dramatically. Instead, he chooses to capture a moment of quiet camaraderie; though the figures keep to themselves, they did not want to be fully alone. One last key element of this painting is that the perspective of the humble diner reads as if we the viewer are also walking down the street alone in the middle of the night and have just stumbled upon the restaurant. This makes the viewer part of the scene, part of the lonely, late-night city. Will we seek the same comfort as the strangers inside? Or will we continue on our way?

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