Waitress

1. There is a clear cultural difference presented between the contrasting arts. The poem, an American perspective of contemporary waitressing and the painting, a French experience. Beginning with the painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the visual art displays very dull colors and boring and apathetic stare by the waitress. Her smile seems very insincere and I believe that is the reflection of the culture in historic France. Being a waitress is a less then satisfactory job in many cultures and it is often reflected in their performance or service. For example, living in Hong Kong where service charge is applied in every restaurant, the service is often quite poor. The servers are often distant, cold and apathetic. In contrast, the servers here shows warmth, a false sense of interest and wonderful smiles and laughter. It really goes a long way. The poem by Billy Collins called "The Waitress" describes a specific server and the protagonist's fondness for her. The recurring motif is the smiling. Throughout the poem, the poet/narrator describes the intrinsic kindness the server shows.

Ultimately, these two pieces of art, literary and visually, contains contrasting perspectives on the same subject. From the two background, one can understand that it is in fact a cultural distinction. It's interesting to observe the dull, unsatisfied/apathetic waitress on one hand and reading of a kind and caring waitress on the other.