Grapes Of Wrath: Escapism In Great Depression Children

1987 Words4 Pages

Escapism in Great Depression Children Lit.

During the 1930s the U.S. was facing the worst economic downturn in history:
Of the 13 recessions that the American public has endured since the Great Depression of 1929-33, none has presented a more punishing combination of length, breadth,and depth than this one.(The Great Depression1). This quote stated how hard the Great Depression hit Americans at this time. Spending money on entertainment such as movies, books,comics,or magazines was out of the question for most people. That helped Americans escape from troubles for a while. This is called escapism or a mental diversion by means of entertainment or as an" escape" from the unpleasant or banal aspects of daily life.
Many films were …show more content…

Common themes found in literature and film of the period are despair, poverty and corruption.The authors of these books have a similar past or early life. The author of Grapes Of Wrath and Of Mice and Men Steinbeck dropped out of college and worked as a manual laborer before he was a writer. He was born on Feb.27,1902 in Salmas, California. Over six years he drifted in and out of school due to financial issues. He eventually dropped out of college for good without a degree. In his later years he served as a war correspondent for the New York Heal Tribune during WWII. Sadly Steinbeck died of heart disease on Dec. 20 1968. The author of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, James Agee Street in 1999. When Agee and his younger sister, Emma, were educated in boarding schools. The most influential of these was located near his mother's summer cottage two miles from Sewanee, Tennessee. Saint Andrews School for Mountain Boys was run by Episcopal monks affiliated with the Order of the Holy Cross. During his lifetime, Agee enjoyed only modest public recognition. Since his death, his literary reputation had grown. In 1957, his novel, A Death In The Family that was based on the events surrounding his father's death, was published posthumously and in 1958 won the Pulitzer Prize fiction. In 2007, Dr. Michael Lofaro published a restored …show more content…

Roth was born in Tysmenitz near Stanislawow, Galicia, Austro-Hungary. Although his parents ever agreed on the exact date of his arrival in the United States, it is most likely that he landed at Ellis Island and began his life in New York in 1908. He briefly lived in Brooklyn, and then on the Lower East Side, in the slums where his classic novel, "Call It Sleep" is set. In 1914, the family moved to Harlem. Roth lived there until 1927, as a senior at City College of New York Times bestseller list, the novel was overlooked as a masterpiece and classic novel of immigration. Today, it is widely regarded as a masterpiece of Jewish American

Open Document