Analysis of The Dead Goldfinch by George Elgar Hicks in Relation to Social Work

The Highly decorative professional way of expressing something which can be understood by large group of people without specific knowledge is an art. Through the art civilization, happiness, sadness can be expressed. Social work is an academic discipline and profession which is concerned with the individuals, families, communities to enhance the social functioning and overall wellbeing. Everything which is in the society can be easily related with the Social work. The art piece which I have chosen is also from the same society so it definitely relates with the Social work.

The art piece that I have chosen is a painting by George Elgar Hicks (1824-1914) with the title, “The dead goldfinch”. In this art piece we can see a melancholic environment where a young girl is in deep sadness holding a dead bird in her hand. The art piece clearly shows the sorrow and deep sadness a girl going through. The goldfinch in painting often reflects the concept of love being something that has unfortunately been lost. We see this through the dead goldfinch. The girl in the painting seems to be more attached with the bird. We can explain the art in two ways. Firstly, Children are the kind hearted creature. They are easily influenced and affected by emotional things. Here in this art the girl in the picture is also deeply affected by the death of the bird. She may have never seen the bird before but also she is highly affected by the death of the bird. This type of incident helps us to make us more humane and think about animal rights too. Secondly, the bird might be the pet of the girl in the picture and the sadness shows intimate relation between the bird and a girl. In the present practical world parents does not have enough time for their children and in such cases pets become the best friends of children. The intimate relation between the bird and a girl may lead a girl to depression too so she needs a proper social worker so that she can share her emotions. Social worker can play some role to bring her out from such situations and make her friendly with the external world so that she can excel herself as a competent member in this world.

The art can shows the sadness and the sorrow environment due to the death of a bird in the girls face but at the same time we can’t see the tear’s and pity feel of a girl towards the bird. She seems to be in a phase of making some decision to fight against such situations of killing the birds by humans. The silence behind the sadness may be because of the impact and it may lead for some revolutionary step by the girl towards the protection and conservation of birds.

The art also illustrates the experience of a specific population as understood by social work. Here in this case, children’s are the specific population group. The behavior shown by the girl is just the representation of the behavior of young children’s towards the death of the animal which they like. The matured people may be satisfied with the logic or anything else but in the case of young people they are easily affected by small incidents too. They can’t distinguish the loss of different things and the difference between living and non-living things are also sometime forgotten. They are only concerned about the loss or the sadness behind it so due to this type of behavior social worker can easily understand the specific population.

Does the piece illustrate an aspect of human experience, which concerns social work? Every piece of art has a remarkable ability of affecting its observer in various ways and the effect is possible because of the idea which is known as human experience. The human experience of sadness and Loss can be seen in this art as the picture shows the depressing child. The art clearly shows the attachment of a child with a bird. The child is alone facing the sadness as her family is not concerned about the situation that their child is having. The loneliness in the child may result in some negative impacts in the child. She may go through various depressing situations so to bring her out and provide some good feeling socil worker are needed. Social workers are the agent of change. Social worker plays important role in case of children as they take children’s problem very seriously. The need of social worker for the child mental well being is portrayed in this painting as the affection of a child towards the bird is deep. Connection to pets has a vital role in children’s social, emotional and cognitive development, well being and quality of life. Social worker should be engaged in building professional relationship with the child. Relationship is the fundamental tool which is used to help client to be open to the possibility of change and actively take part in change process.

There are various principles for child center practice in social work. First principle is to provide services support and strengthen to the children’s physical, mental and social functioning. Every opportunity to connect the child with their family should be given special attention. Second principle is the most important one which is the developmental level of the children should be assessed including their health, education, social relationship, emotional and behavioral development and self care as this piece of art shows the emotional part. Thirdly, children should be provided with an opportunity to express elucidate and convey about their inclination and wishes. To facilitate this, they should be provided with the assistance of an adult whom they trust and can provide enthusiastic and practical support being continuously involved with them which cannot be seen in this painting. For this, social worker should be aware of the impact to the children during any intervention which is very important. All the intervention should seek to create and strengthen the positive networks which surround the children. Lastly, relevant knowledge and information should be effectively shared with other social workers who are actively involved with the children. While working with the children social worker should be focused in various elements. They should place the best interest of a child in the center of any decision and also ensuring that a positive and trusting relationship is created among the child and the worker.

While picking this piece of art the first thing that comes in mind in child. For effective outcomes social worker can apply different theory and among them child center attachment theory is one of the important theory which focuses on family program for children with attachment and related social difficulties. This incorporates children who are without therapeutic intervention remains in danger of significant mischief or family break down with different moves. Child center attachment theory is based on a commence that a child who feels safely connected to her family or a loved one’s liable to compensate tend to and hence well parented the issues of connection assurance, detachment and misfortune for both children and parents are exceptionally crucial to work. It addresses these issues through discussion, play therapy, family and inner healing program adjusted to every family needs. Child center attachment theory is a family program focused to the children attached with the family having some behavioral defects. These are done with the children who are at greater risk of significant harm without the program due to the family breakdown, loss of loved one’s or multiple moves. As per the experience, family attachment plays an important role in helping the troubled children. These program is effective in fulfilling the needs of babies and their development in step families too where families are committed towards the children and clients during adoption. It is a cost-effective and sympathetic service as it works with family and helps encouraging the family to find their own solution perceiving the child problem in their own way. The Success of the program depends upon the commitment of the parents or care taker towards their children. Parenting style, family relationship and the family background from where the parents were evolved sometimes plays a difficult role in its success. If a child is securely attached with the family then they are satisfied for taking care of and well parented but if it is the opposite case then the major focus of program is to develop the mutual attachment between career family and children identifying the problem between two. The attachment, separation, protection for both child and family are important for this program. As a major point, Child center attachment theory combines importance and treatment in a single program offering secured base to the families who are in problem and need support for finding the right path and changing their mentality.

I felt heartbroken after seeing this piece of art. The attachment of a human, especially children with the animal is really amazing. The bonding in the art shows the intimacy between the two hearts. Children are very sensitive and they should be handled with care, seeing this piece of art I can relate how hard is the situation she is facing. Children are more attached to their pet; they always think them as a part of their family so this kind of incident really breaks them. An artist has worked tremendously hard to make this painting realistic. The emotions of a child can be clearly seen in her eyes. I have seen various kinds of paintings but this piece is much appreciable.