Hard-Knock Life: The Modern Era Struggles

“It’s a hard-knock life,” as so eloquently stated by little orphan Annie, is not only a catchy song, but a statement which has held true for decades. Throughout the Modern Era, life was indeed hard-knock, whether it be during the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, or World War I, and the era as a whole held the difficulty of human life on a wide scale, as well as the difficulty on an individual scale.

Although cities during the Modern Era were sometimes thought of as prosperous parts of the “American Dream,” that appearance was only superficial. When one actually took a step into the heart of a large city during this time, one realized how unpleasant some cities were. For example, Manhattan, albeit it held magnificently “shining towers,”

Amidst this time, people, whether rich or poor, had plethoras of reasons to be depressed. For example, some of the wealthy people, even though they were attractive both mentally and physically, were not happy with their lives, and in the worst case, they “went home and put a bullet through his head” (“Richard Cory” 882). Likewise, even some wealthy women who had multitudes of men tied around their fingers felt unhappy with their lives despite being “more beautiful than anybody else” (Fitzgerald 955). Such unhappiness directly resulted from the shallow lives that many of the affluent people maintained. Often some of these people cared more about their appearances than their personalities and placed their character second to their reputation; for example, Bernice in Bernice Bobs Her Hair learned her cousin’s pick-up lines to win over local teenage boys, and she bobbed her hair to earn validation from her peers. Correspondingly, some poor people also grew depressed during the Modern Era. For instance, some observed the wealthy and aspired to be them, but unfortunately they could not become wealthy, which led to cases of alcoholism: “Miniver loved the Medici, albeit he had never seen one… and kept on drinking” (“Miniver Cheevy” 884-885). This discontent from both