2. Author Background  Born in Catalonia, Spain  In 1921, Dali’s mother died of breast cancer, which was devastating to him at age 17  As a child, he went to art school, and later on attended school at Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernardo, but was actually suspended for a year due to his style of clothes and painting  Started to be influenced by surrealism and married Gala Eluard and had a huge argument with his father, being expelled from his paternal home  Moved to the United States when World War II began  Had a career in painting, sculpture, theatre, film, fashion, photography, architecture and literature.

3.  Includes a barren skull, with a horrified expression. Inside the skull’s eyes and mouth are more and more skulls, representing infinite death.  The smaller skulls within the eyes and mouth look as if they are screaming, and the painting is horrific to look at, displaying the terrifying outcomes of war. Character

4. Setting  The skull is placed in a barren landscape with seemingly eroded trails on the bottom right and left, the path war has took  A hand print is on the bottom right that is not complete, palm is missing perhaps representing war makes incompletion, destroys wholeness.  Cliff overhanging, like doom, war protruding over everything else

5. Light  Judging by the shadow, the source of light is from the left of the skull, however, the smaller skull in the right eye is more lit up then the others and does not look as horrendous  This suggests that when we focus on the horror of war, we can lessen the tragic results  Despite the light, there is still darkness all over the skull

6. Proportion  The skull is taking up more than three quarters of the painting, leaving the message that war can block many things and is a big problem  The hand on the bottom looks very insignificant as it is easily unnoticed, perhaps the results aren’t as noticed  The snakes could represent the fall of humanity in the Bible, stating a serpent tricking mankind into sin

7. Author’s Purpose  Dali lived during the Second Spanish Civil War and World War II, greatly impacting his paintings. The Face of War demonstrates the horrors of war and the infinite death and decay cause by it.  Dali painted the Face of War right before the beginning of World War II. The Face of War is considered to be the premonition of the second world war.