Step 1 : Introduction to the question "What is the man holding in the Grant Wood painting “American Gothic”?"
American Gothic is a painting by Grant Wood in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. It is one of the most familiar images in 20th-century American art, and has been widely parodied in American popular culture. The painting shows a farmer standing beside a woman that has been interpreted to be either his wife or his daughter. The figures were modeled by Wood's sister, Nan Wood Graham, and his dentist Dr. B.H. McKeeby. The man is holding a pitchfork, which symbolizes hard labor, and the flowers over the woman's right shoulder suggesting domesticity. Wood's inspiration came from what is now known as the American Gothic House, and his decision to paint the house along with "the kind of people I fancied should live in that house."