Depictions of the Great Depression

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Pause to recall a picture of the Great Depression. Was this image happy or sad? Maybe it was a scene of a family enjoying the radio, children reading comics, a group of young men playing baseball, the movie theatre, or even children playing Monopoly; however most people would picture a migrant mother with her children, an adult holding a sign asking for a job, a family living in a shack with barely any food, or starving, dirty children. “For those born after the 1930’s, the Great Depression is something that can be visualized only through photography and film (This Great Nation Will Endure)” and when asked “What picture do you think of when you hear the words the Great Depression Era?” all thirty high school students recalled a negative image. Today’s mass media’s selection of harsh extreme images of the 1930’s Great Depression Era fail to portray the positive aspects of American life during the time period. Many of the photographs exposed by today’s media and some of the most popular photographs of life during the Great Depression were produced by the FSA or Farm Security Administration. Founded by President Roosevelt the government agency’s goal was to provide loans benefiting tenant farmers and sharecroppers (pg. 772). The FSA launched a photography project whose mission was to demonstrate the hardships of families living on farms to the city residents (Ganzel). The agency hired many photographers and over eighty-thousand photographs were captured through the years 1935-1943; the majority portrayed American life in a negative way (This Great Nation Will Endure). Two of the most well-known photographs taken by the agency, also which are used in several American history textbooks are icons of the Depression Era. Both symboliz... ... middle of paper ... ...produced, radio shows and movies were being produced and several Americans were enjoying life during the 1930’s. These positive aspects of life and positive photographs of the time period are not well-known to the American public today and many people picture the Great Depression only in a negative way. “For those born after the 1930’s, the Great Depression is something that can be visualized only though photography and film. Certain images have come to define our view of that uncertain time: an anxious migrant mother with her three small children; a farmer and his sons struggling through a dust storm; a family of sharecroppers gathered outside their Spartan home” (This Great Nation Will Endure). Today’s mass media focuses on the harsh, extreme images of the Great Depression and fails to portray the happy, positive aspects of American life during the 1930’s.

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