New York, 2008, the divide between the richest and poorest people in the United States has been slowly escalating since the bursting of the dot com bubble in the late 1990s. The American public is slowly becoming more anti-establishment in the wake of George W. Bush’s presidency. Eight years of an economic plan that involved letting banks and big business run with little to no regulation. The housing market is propped up on defaulting loans and misrated bonds. One of the biggest wall street scandals since the inflation of Enron is about to unfold before the nation’s eyes. Anyone who can read their local paper knows that they are being toyed with by big business, but Banksy, an English street artist sets out to inform the American public in the simplest way of communication, art. He plasters a three story mural which has affectionately been named “Wall Street Rat: Let Them Eat Crack”. 

The mural looks simple at first glance. It’s a rat dressed like a banker and words that imply a disdain for the impoverished, but a viewer who cares enough to look a little longer can unlock so much more meaning. In this mural Banksy shows his derision of Wall street by using symbolism, historic context, and texture to represent cowardice, hate, and a lack of morals held by the higher ups in the trading and banking industries.

Symbolism is defined as “artistic imitation or invention that is a method of revealing or suggesting immaterial, ideal, or otherwise intangible truth or states” by the Merriam Webster online dictionary. In “Wall Street Rat” the symbolism is very evident in not only the form that the banker/trader takes as a rat, but also in the umbrella that he is holding. An umbrella is naturally a symbol for taking cover from the rain. Taking cover from the rain is a very normal thing to do, but in this image there is no rain and there is no visible reason to be carrying the protection. This leads the viewer to assume that Banksy is trying to say that these men cannot deal with the consequences of their actions without protection or something to hide behind. They are always prepared to have something to duck behind because they know that their actions are immoral. 

The form of the rat itself also invokes the feeling of cowardice. He is moving away from the scene of his crime and is slightly hunched rather than walking with his shoulders high. This shows a lack of pride in his actions. Finally to state the obvious, rats are culturally seen as cowards who live their lives hidden from confrontation and obligations outside of primal survival. Banksy is using symbolism to equate his targets to animals with nothing but their instincts to survive to rely on. He is saying they are too underdeveloped as humans to express anything beyond greed. 

Legend has it that in the midst of a famine during the French Revolution Marie Antoinette was approached by one of her councils asking what they should do about her starving subjects now that they had run out of bread. She replied with “Qu'ils mangent de la brioche” which is commonly translated to “let them eat cake”. ("Did Marie-Antoinette Really Say “Let Them Eat Cake”?") This was seen by some as an ultimate sign of disrespect because it either proved a total disconnection with her people or her absolute lack of care for her constituents. Banksy uses this commonly known anecdote and adds a sadistic twist. Through the changing of the word cake to crack he implies that not only do the bankers not care about their starving public, but they would actually prefer them to die. Crack is a drug more common amongst poorer populations, so this specific word choice not only sounds slightly like the word cake, but it also reinforces the divide between the richest of the rich and the poor of America.

After studying Banksy for a short while, one would notice it is rare that he uses lines like this one to fill an entire object. He usually would solidly shade or outline the main character rather than just use a collection of loose, disconnected lines to represent the rat. He does so in this specific image to show the emptiness and lack of morals of the rat. There is nothing outlining him or defining him as a man, just a collection of independent thoughts and lines with little to no connection. He is simply put not a “solid” man. Just a flimsy outer shell of what we can assume was once a morally strong person. 

Texture can also been seen in the rats writing of “LET THEM EAT CRACK”. It is written sloppily as seen in the paint drips, but also solidly as you can see by the strong, deliberate stroke marks that make up each individual letter. This shows that he is sure about what he is writing, but too incompetent to effectively communicate the message, which coming from an artist might be the worst insult of all. 

Banksy’s contempt for big banking and corrupt wall street trading is made very clear in this image through many different artistic devices. The shear size of the mural gives the viewer a better chance to see these different devices that he employed. The size grabs the viewer with the symbolism, but then also lets the viewer appreciate the texture from afar and read the text from a good distance. This piece was clearly all about community awareness and outreach and Banksy did a fantastic job of utilizing all of his different tricks to make his message very clear.  
