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
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made around the time of The Great Depression. Patrick Price stated that "During The Great Depression, Hollywood performed a valuable psychological and ideological role,providing reassurance and hope to demoralized nation".(The impact of Hollywood" 1). This quote stated that entertainment at the time played a big part of cheering people up. People like Walt Disney were getting a name for themselves. Comedies were popular around this time. A good laugh eased the mind and brought joy to most people. Radios played a big part of entertainment around this time. It was so popular because it was free to millions of Americans. There were also a number of board games that families would play at home for a cheap cost. Morris Dickstein stated that"As our troubles worsen, as stress morphs into anxiety and depression, we may desperately need the mixture of real and the the fantastic, the sober and the silly, that only the arts can bring us." (How song, dance and movies bailed us out of the depression" 3). This quote stated the feelings the people had during The Great Depression. Also how it affects people psychologically. It was tonight still for some Americans to get quality entertainment during The Great Depression. Thousands of unemployment residents who could not pay their rent or mortgages were evicted to the world of charity and breadlines. Americans unable to find jobs were stressing and wondering how they could feed their families during this rough time. The novel The Green Mile relates to this topic vaguely. It was two young girls in the story. One night they wanted to sleep outside of the house. Stephen King stated that the young girls were missing. "They're gone,'he said. Marjorie went out on to the porch at first more annoyed than alarmed. She said later that she had supposed anything. That the girls had decided to take a walk and pick flowers by the dawn's early light.(King 28). Children at the time of The Great Depression used escapism to change their views of cruel reality and base them off of fantasies. Children's comics, magazines,and books influenced their views dramatically. It was one of the best forms of entertainment.(Golden Age of Comics 2). The paraphrase stated when comic books became popular and how they affected entertainment during the Great Depression. Jerry Siegel created the very first superheroes. They have become well known as Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman, and Captain American. They traveled around the world fighting evil and lived for justice. Comics provided an escapist form of entertainment that allowed the American public to go into fantasy world where everything in the world was peaceful, soothing, and exciting at the end of every comic. When problems arrive people all look for a hero to save them. Even now in current times we still look for heroes to save the day and escape into the exciting fantasy world Jerry created. The creator of comics, Jerry Siegal came up with the first superheroes. His date of birth is October 17, 1914 and he died in 1996. His place of birth is Cleveland, Ohio. Jerry loved science fiction from a young age. Jerry worked for DC Comics, Marvel, Charlton Comics, and British publisher IPC Siegal wrote many Superman stories in the 1930s. Including any about Superman's home planet Krioton. Comics related to real world problems: Siegal and Shuster were virtually free of creative shackles, and they used the real world problems of The Great Depression as inspiration to give Superman a purpose. As the real world of the Depression turned in a blind eye to domestic abuse, drunk driving, unsafe working conditions and corrupt government officials Superma nused his powers to fight them head on. (Batman vs. Superman 3). Magazines and newspapers in the 1930s always showed adults and children having fun. Magazines at the time always showed the American Dream families having a great time with fake smiles. This form of escapism motivated people to try to be like the happy family they would see in magazines and newspapers. Due to the lack of men in the country a lot of women were employed. Most of the women who had jobs worked in factories and other low paying jobs. Women could do the same jobs as men and worked in factories and other low paying jobs. Women could do the same job as a man and work just as hard, but would still not get paid as much as a man would. If the man of the household had a high paying job the woman would just stay home and take care of the children. Even after a long day of work women had to make sure that dinner was made for the family, the house looked presentable, and had to comfort the man of the household. Woman during The Great Depression are different from women today. Today woman can be Independent, can live as a single parent, and can get paid just as much as a man. Children during The Great Depression matured faster than teens today. During The Great Depression children couldn't really live a normal life. For holidays very few children received gift of any kind. Parents couldn't afford it. (The Affect of The Great Depression on Children 1). This paraphrase emphasizes the struggle for the kids around that time it gave them a reason to "escape". It was common for children to leave school at fourteen to go work and provide for their families. The number of people that attended high school and college was much smaller than it is now. Some children even joined the army after high school to fight for the U.S. Social expectations at the time for men was to support for the household. They were expected to get jobs or put food on the table. Typically many men were seen as railroad workers or construction workers due to the insufficient quantity of employer positions. American males could also have a position of teachers, coal miners, factory workers, and repair workers. Men usually had higher paying jobs the. Women. The men at the time casually wore suit and ties to look professional. Men often had to take longer pay cuts in order to support their families. During the start of WWII many Americans males were drafted or signed up due to the lack of soldiers in the U.S. army. Many believed it was their duty as a male citizen to the country and their family. The large absence of American males in the job market created many openings for women that could use jobs. On the other hand, magazines at the time were filled with stories of people becoming rich overnight by investing in the stock market. Thousands of Americans rushed to buy stock hoping to become millionaires. Sadly, reality hit them in the face. At the end no one became millionaires everyone just took two steps back then forward financially. Many magazines were published after the market crashed in 1929. It shows how's people thinks about the economy, politics, and society.(How the Great Recession Has Changed Life in America 1). This paraphrase stated American's way of thinking during the Great Depression. Magazines during the time via Google Books it provided every LIFE magazine through 1936 to 1939. Every magazine was like a newspaper. It briefly told the reader what was going on outside of the U.S. It has advertisements for young people to join the military in a lot of them. Most of the articles displayed a person smiling as if everything was perfect, and nothing was troubling them. The escapism of magazines of magazines at the time was to make it seem like everyone is happy and loved life. Of people only see good news on magazines they would think things would get better soon. The difficulties faced by most Americans during The Great Depression can seem foreign to kids today. Children's books during The Great Depression put them in in a fantasy world that made it distant toward the cruel reality they faced in the real world. None of the books focus entirely on the hardship, and none of the books will leave the reader with a sense of despair and hopelessness. Instead, the books at the time show the reality of life during The Great Depression. One of the best selling children's book is called, "Alice in The Wonderland". The whole book is about Alice escaping from the real world to enter a wonderland with no rules. This shows escapism from society and the cruel hardships in life. The most 5 popular books of The Great Depression are Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, Miss Lonelyhearts, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and Call It Sleep.
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…
edition of the novel using Agee's original manuscripts. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men had grown to be considered Agee's masterpiece. Ignored on its original publication in 1941, the book has since been placed among the greatest literary works of The Great Depression by the New York School of Journalism and the New York Public Library. The author of "Call It Sleep" Henry Roth was a Jewish American novelist and a short story writer.
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
Literature.
The Great Depression is one of the worst time for America. Books, cartoons, and articles have been written about the people during the Depression and how they survived in that miserable period. For example, the book Bud not Buddy takes place in the time of the Great Depression. Bud is a ten year old orphan, who was on the run trying to find his dad. There are many feelings throughout the book like sadness and scarceness. There are many diverse tones in the book about what people were feeling at the time.
The arts played a significant role in the Great Depression- not only as a means of escapism for some people, but also a psychological and ideological role that provided inspiration and optimism in a time of severe doubt and fear. For example, film provided an escape for a couple of hours, but also portrayed success during this time period. Many films focused on social realities of the time period, so that people could relate to these films. Films gave images of hope and success because they portrayed ordinary people, such as a girl winning a role in a play, or a man and a woman randomly meeting and falling in love. Andrew Bergman explains the effect of these films in his article Hollywood and the Great Depressi...
The Great Depression is seen as one of the most sorrowful and desolate times in the history of the United States. This time was the longest period of recession ever seen by this nation so far. It lasted from 1929 to 1939, over ten years of complete confusion and despondency within the people. Many Americans were affected greatly by this tragic time and sacrificed much of their lives so that they and their families may have the chance to live. This act of desperation can be seen throughout the movie, The Cinderella Man, where a professional boxer, Jim Braddock, becomes crippled by the depression, both economically and spiritually. The observer can see this through the explicit cinematography of the movie and depiction of the Great Depression made by the director. However the director left out a key aspect of the happenings of the depression, the stock market crash. Perhaps, this catastrophic event was irrelevant to the plot and message of the movie, but it is important to the actual Great Depression of the United States. Furthermore, the nation of 2010 is well on its way to repeating history. There are frightening similarities between that dreadful time of the 1930’s and the present that should not be overlooked, or the United States might condemn itself back into that horrific state it has so long tried to avoid.
The Great Depression often seems very distant to people of the 21st century. This article is a good reminder of potential problems that may reoccur. The article showed in a very literal way the idea that a depression can bring a growing country to its knees. The overall ramifications of the event were never discussed in detail, but the historical significance is that people's lives were put on hold while they tried to struggle through an extremely difficult time.
When the United States were showing signs of economical growth, the unimaginable happen. When the 1929 stock market crash marked the day that the United States slowly crept into the Great Depression. The Great Depression caused nationwide panic. There was a decrease of production and the sale of goods. Many businesses started to collapse and close. Banks closed down since they took people’s money and invest in stocks. When the stocks crashed, banks went bankrupt and people lost their money and savings. Then there was a rise in unemployment and thousands of workers lost their jobs. Countless amount of people were homeless and they were trying their best to save their money. People were trying to figure out how to deal with their economic difficulties. During that time, people wanted to escape from their problems. They would watch movies and listen to music. At the time Jazz music was very popular. Jazz music had musical freedom and the songs show the way many people felt. It had the power to lift the gloomy spirits of the people affected. Jazz music has a style that appeal to many people, both young and old. One of the earlier Jazz
Having watched the movie "Grapes of Wrath", I have been given the opportunity to see the troubles that would have befell migrant workers during the Great Depression. Though the Joads were a fictitious family, I was able to identify with many signs of hope that they could hold onto. Some of these families who made the journey in real life carried on when all they had was hope. The three major signs of hope which I discovered were, overcoming adversity, finding jobs, and completing the journey.
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is a realistic novel that mimics life and offers social commentary too. It offers many windows on real life in midwest America in the 1930s. But it also offers a powerful social commentary, directly in the intercalary chapters and indirectly in the places and people it portrays. Typical of very many, the Joads are driven off the land by far away banks and set out on a journey to California to find a better life. However the journey breaks up the family, their dreams are not realized and their fortunes disappear. What promised to be the land of milk and honey turns to sour grapes. The hopes and dreams of a generation turned to wrath. Steinbeck opens up this catastrophe for public scrutiny.
drop their life and move to a different state. When they arrived in California they were not
The Great Depression was a time full of fear and uncertainty in the U.S. The unemployment rate was above 20% and hundreds of banks had failed resulting in a delicate and arduous economic situation. While many industries suffered greatly through this time, one industry seemed to do just fine: film. Film was a relatively new industry without many regulations which had become the most exciting and influential form of media that existed. During the Depression, this importance was identified by both private and government organizations, film technology advanced, and stories were tailored to the needs of a suffering population. As a result, film during The Great Depression was characterized by innovation, censorship, and escapism.
idea was that people soon found out that they couldn 't afford to make the
An effortless quote, just a few words put together in a sentence, can often perfectly explain the backbone of some stories. Oscar Wilde's simple, seven worded sentence, "Ambition is the last refuge of failure" perfectly articulates basic ideas of both The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (“Oscar wilde quotes”, 2010). The characters in both books are searching for the figurative Eden of the time, the American Dream. However, in both cases, the characters fall short at achieving the basic ideas of that dream; social development, wealth achievement, and endless opportunity. The Grapes of Wrath and The Great Gatsby imitate the same ideas in the way that all characters fail to obtain the American Dream, and in the process, they fail themselves.
The years berween 1929 and 1933 were trying years for people throughout the world. Inflation was often so high money became nearly worthless. America had lost the prosperity it had known during the 1920's. America was caught in a trap of a complete meltdown of economy, workers had no jobs simply because it cost too much to ship the abundance of goods being produced. This cycle was unbreakable, and produced what is nearly universally recognized as the greatest economic collapse of all times. These would be trying years for all, but not every American faced the same challenges and hardships. (Sliding 3)
Great Depression “No one can possibly have lived through the Great Depression without being scarred by it. No amount of experience since the depression can convince someone who has lived through it that the world is safe economically.” was once stated by Isaac Asimov. The Great Depression was one of the most horrific and troubling times in American history. Many homes were affected by this tragedy and many families were injured as a result of it. Man had the opportunity to prove himself by both continuing and struggling with his family leaving them.
The decaying state of the American economy and the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s brought about the necessity for the United States to reconsider its attitudes and examine the long term effects of its policies concerning wide-scale socioeconomic problems that were constantly growing bigger. The Great Depression led to the creation of many new and innovative government policies and programs, along with revisions to older economic systems. However, these cost the government billions of dollars in a country that had consistently been stretching the gap between the rich and poor. This continued as the Great Depression began to change everything people had grown old knowing, and it forced everyone to deal with dramatic alterations to their lives that left them with no options except acceptance. America then witnessed the mass migration of farmers from the Dust Bowl out to the west towards California and the required intervention by the federal government in stepping up and taking responsibility for the socioeconomic issues plaguing the disintegrating nation. This was profoundly illustrated throughout John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. The narrator of the story is a little girl named Scout Finch. Other important characters are Jem Finch, brother of Scout, Atticus Finch, father of Scout and Jem, and is a lawyer, and Boo Radley, the mysterious neighbor who disappears from his house. In the book, Boo Radley is made out to be a scary, monstrous, and a criminal. People claim he stabbed his father in the leg with a scissors. Curious of Boo Radley, Jem, Scout, and Dill, their friend, sneak up to Boo Radley’s house to see what he is all about. Boo Radley's brother, heard them outside the house, and shot a shotgun and scared the kids off. Shortly after this incident, the Finch children found a tree,