In the 1930s, the Great Plains region, were given the name The Dust Bowl due to the droughts in the 1930s, as America was going into the Great depression. The droughts, dust storms and people doing the method of dryland farming caused the destruction of the environment, agriculture, and the people life’s living there. Timothy Egan in book, “The Worst Hard Time,” emphasizes on the stories of the people who chose to stay and survived the environmental disasters, destruction of their towns, battling through starvation and diseases by dust storms in America’s High Plains. Hazel Lucas Shaw is a particular individual highlighted by Timothy Egan throughout the book. Egan analyzes her journey as she arrived in the Great Plains and throughout the dirty …show more content…
thirties by demonstrating how the government policies and social structure impacted her life before, during and after the dustbowl by presenting events that challenged her hopes in the land.
The promise time period is known during 1901 through 1930. Many settlers, including families migrated to the Great Plains. The Great Plains were the southern half of the Louisiana Purchase in 1806. The settlers and families migrated due to advertisement sent from companies’, giving false description how the land looked, stating the land had tress, fresh water, and a place where you can grow crops. The Government also promoted expansion towards west by passing the Homestead Acts, by providing 160 acres of lands to settlers. Including the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909, which increased the number of acres to 320. The Enlarged Homestead Act drew Hazel family in No Man’s Land, a place in the northwest Texas Panhandle which include the entire Oklahoma Panhandle in 1914. They decided to settle at No Man’s Land due to the federal …show more content…
government eager advertisement with the slogan, “Health, Wealth and Opportunity.” (Egan, 37) Hazel Lucas was just a little girl when they arrived and already did not liked since it was not what she imagined the promise land would be. According to Egan, “she did not want to live in a hole in the ground, with the snakes and tarantulas, and sleeping so near to the stink of burning cow manure. Nor did she want to live in a sod house, the prairie grass stacked like ice blocks of an igloo.” (Egan, 38-37) The land was wild, flat and empty. It did not seem like a land full of opportunities or a place to stay. Although Hazel fear the strange land, she knew this land had possibility according to Egan, “she was thrilled to be at the beginning of a grand adventure, the first wave of humans to try to mate with this land.” (Egan, 35) Hazel had hope this land will bring good things to her by expanding her experiences and giving her new opportunities. For Hazel, the No Man’s Land was giving her and her family opportunities.
According to Egan, “The Lucas family stayed through fires, the floods and the peculiar social life because the land was starting to pay.” (Egan, 39) Hazel Lucas had her first job at age seventeen, she taught thirty-nine students in eight grades. She also married Charles Shaw and decided to move to Cincinnati to start something but they were low in money. Thus Hazel went back to her land and got a job as teacher that paid enough money to save money. The land was also paying off for her family, her father was advised to grow dryland wheat as fast you could as the Great War started in 1914. The farmers who grew wheat had a great drastic improvement in life because the government guaranteed the price, at two dollars a bushel during war, causing over seventy-five million acres of wheat. According to Hazel, “the country was in a fever of fast money-making.” (Egan,
44) Money was being made fast, especially for the farmers who grew wheat in the Great Plains, at a short period of time. The Great Plains were finally improving people life’s and it seemed as if it could only get better due to money being made, people not worrying expenses, government demand on wheat, and providing jobs. However, everything changed when the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929 because of share prices fell faster than they had risen. This caused the banks to crash as well due to banks calling in international loans and the American people took their savings out causing banks to close. When Hazel arrived back to her land she was motivated, they were about to find new house when her husband returned and were about to start over. However, when Charles arrived home, he told her, “everything thing had changed. The country was sick. You could see it in people face.” (Egan, 77) In only three months, two million Americans lost their and the stock market lost up to fifty billion dollars. Hazel was working as teacher at New Hope school n though the school could not pay her at even when they tried giving her warrants since the banks refused to cash them out. According to Egan, “Farmers were drowning in debt and had stopped paying for taxes, the schools could not pay the teachers’ salaries.” (Egan, 78) The hailstorm that hit in June ruined the wheat crops, destroying everything and the prices were falling also causing farmers to destroy the land to have wheat planted in hope the prices will rise. President Herbert Hoover argued, “Let the system cull out the losers.” According to Egan he was not about to interfere with the market. He refused to give relief because he did not believe the government should go in debt, which limited what he could do without getting the government involved. Around the time period of 1931-1933, this was known as the betrayal because the Great Plains were beginning to go against the people living there. On 1930, windstorm that kicked dust up across the southern Plains, that brought darkness to the sky, destroying land, and carrying static electricity. This changed and impacted the people lives living in the Great Plains negatively. People were starving in the areas of droughts and the people had ripped out the native prairie grass for wheat that had the lowest price ever yet it was laid in piles outside. The rain did not came back for eight years causing swarms of insects to invade, including tarantula, grasshoppers consuming the crops, and centipedes. Rain caused animals to die since there was no food. Although these bad events were occurring, Hazel did not loosed hope especially since she wanted to start a family. “That’s why you had to banish the negative thoughts, she could will a positive day.”(Egan 121) She believed that thing could get better, that this couldn’t last forever and the water will return. Hazel hold on to the memories before these tragic event happened by looking at what they have accomplished and what they already put up with. Although the dust dominated the land, covering everything and making it hard for people to get out without the fear of sicken with dust pneumonia. Hazel decided to quit her job so she can have a child. Hazel gave birth to Ruth Nell on April 7, 1934. The doctors were concern with the baby health and recommend them to move out of No Man’s land. However, Hazel refuse to let go of all the hard work they built in the land of No Man’s land . Hazel argued, “The baby had to be savored and given a proper start in the place called home.” (Egan 157) Hazel refused to leave because this was her home and she still had hope that she can rise her child here. People were believing that God was punishing them but she believed God that God was hope. However things changed when her baby was diagnosed with whooping cough and the doctor advised her to leave for the life of the baby. Hazel and her husband decided to flee the town for her baby’s health. However, the baby was diagnosed with dust pneumonia. Hazel tried to stay positive but her child died and within a few hours later her grandmother died also. During the funeral she tried to still have hope and control her emotions. According to Egan, “she tried not to given in to the despair that owned No Man’s land.” (Egan, 207) This was the turning point where she was losing the hope she had for her land. This condition that the land had took away her only child and grandmother. To add to the despair as they were burying her grandmother, the black Sunday hit, which was the last major dust storm of the year. After the black Sunday, President began offering relief to farmers through his New Deal. Bills were passed to help with poverty, unemployment and speed economy recovery. Also Hugh Bennett helped passed the Soil Conservation Act of 1935, helped improvement of farming techniques. Even though the government began helping, after Hazel lost her child and grandmother the No Man’s Land lost her meaning to her and gave up to the hope she was holding one that the land could get better. “Could she have done something to save Ruth Nell? (Egan, 233) Hazel question this since she knew that this land was dangerous for everyone living here yet she decided to stay putting her child in risk. Thus, she decided she was ready to get out. Hazel towards the land was that there was, “no pride, no options, no future.” (Egan, 235) As years passed she had another child and decided to leave No Man’s Land for good to the center of Oklahoma. After surviving the dustbowl era, Hazel Shaw died 2003 at the age of ninety-nine. According to Egan, “Although she never returned to live there, she told her grandchildren she always missed No Man’s Land.” The thirties and the Great Plain was huge event in her life that impacted her throughout her years. Egan, highlighted Hazel Lucas Shaw story, before, during and after 1930s leading to the Great depression and the dust bowl because she demonstrates how the government policies and the social structure impacted all kinds of individuals not just the farmers or business. Egan demonstrated her throughout the book because she fought so long to have hope for her land and not giving up on it, even when the land was destroyed.
First, Egan believes that the Chicago Syndicate, as well as the government, took part in causing the Dust Bowl. The Worst Hard Time began with an explanation of how the land was inhabited after the Comanche were kicked off. Texas wanted an extravagant state capitol building after the Civil War. In order to fund this building, Texas agreed to give land to whoever would take on the endeavor of building the structure. The Chicago Syndicate decided
The “Dust Bowl Odyssey” presented an initial perspective of why families migrated from drought-ridden, Dust Bowl, areas to California. Edward Carr cautions, “Interpretation plays a necessary part in establishing the facts of history, and because no existing interpretation is wholly objective, on interpretation is a good as another, and the facts of history are in principle not amendable to objective interpretation” (Carr, 1961, p. 31). Historians had to separate the prejudices, assumptions, and beliefs of the times in order to have a more objective reasoning of the migration. The migration had valid evidence that supported against the theory of the Dust Bowl being the only contributor. Rather there were other historical contributions to
Can you imagine living in harsh dust, losing your mother and brother, and barely recognizing the man, sitting in front of you, is your father? In the novel, Out of the Dust, the author, Karen Hesse, reveals the theme of the novel is loss and grief. Karen Hesse unfolds the theme by using messages throughout the book to emphasize the hardship and power of the Dust Bowl.
The Worst Hard Time is all about surviving the dust bowl days in the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, commonly referred to as no man’s land. The author, Timothy Egan, wrote this because he knew the sources for first hand accounts were dwindling as many people who were alive during that time are now growing old. Egan begins by describing breakup of the XIT ranch which covered most of the Texas panhandle. All this land was then sold in small sections to new homesteaders, or nesters, who then began to turn sod, till the land plant wheat, corn, and other crops on this newfound inexhaustible resource. Egan describes the forces that led to European settlement of the Great Plains. The U.S. government cleared the land of the Indians and bison by the
One of America’s most beloved books is John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. The book portrays a family, the Joads, who leave Oklahoma and move to California in search of a more prosperous life. Steinbeck’s book garnered acclaim both from critics and from the American public. The story struck a chord with the American people because Steinbeck truly captured the angst and heartbreak of those directly impacted by the Dust Bowl disaster. To truly comprehend the havoc the Dust Bowl wreaked, one must first understand how and why the Dust Bowl took place and who it affected the most. The Dust Bowl was the result of a conglomeration of weather, falling crop prices, and government policies.
Most of the southern farmers moved west to find new job opportunities and fertile farmland however they were faced with many problems such as living conditions and bugs. When moving west, most farmers decided to settle in Kansas or Nebraska. The Homestead Act was instituted in 1862, if gave 160-arce farms to settlers to improve to land and live on it (3). If the farmers felt this was still to small of a land they were able to buy more land or borrow money to buy the land. The problem with that was that there was very little amount of trees to make houses so farmers resorted to making housed from sod (11). “The Sod wall is about 2 feet thick at the ground and slopes off on the outside...
There were three acts implemented in 1862. The first was the Homestead Act which stated that 160 acres would be granted after five years of residence and upon making specific improvements. This act led to the rapid settlement of the Midwest. The next act was the Morrill Act which granted two townships (approximately 40,000 acres) to each state for
The availability of inexpensive land in the American West provided opportunity for many Americans to fulfill the American dream of individualism, economic opportunity and personal freedom. Immigrants, former slaves and other settlers moved across the country to become western farmers and ranchers to make a new life. One of the reasons why the west was a land of opportunity for the farmers and ranchers was the large quantity of cheap available land. This allowed for many Americans, both rich and poor, to buy land for farming and raising cattle. The Homestead Act of 1862 aided the process. The Homestead Act gave title to 160 acres of federal land to farmers who staked a claim and lived on the land for five years. Alternatively, a farmer could buy the land after six months for $1.25 an acre. Many blacks and immigrants joined the westward expansion, looking for a better life. Immigrants saw the land as opportunity because many could not own land in the countries where they were born. For example, in Nebraska, a fourth of the population was foreign born. These immigrants transformed...
The Dust Bowl was a treacherous storm, which occurred in the 1930's, that affected the midwestern people, for example the farmers, and which taught us new technologies and methods of farming. As John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out. Carloads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land." The early thirties opened with prosperity and growth. At the time the Midwest was full of agricultural growth. The Panhandle of the Oklahoma and Texas region was marked contrast to the long soup lines of the Eastern United States.
White settlers started moving westward to settle the land gained by the victory over the Native Americans. A major factor that caused this major movement, other than by the victory of the war, was the homestead act. This act provided and granted 160 acres of free land to any citizen who was the head of a house or family. While moving, the settlers were challanged by the new enviornment of the plains and they had to start adapting to the new enviornment. While moving west, all farmers were supported by the government on technical aspects and on agricultural education.
Post Civil War, America was looking for new opportunities to become a stronger and more efficient nation. Though reconstruction collapsed, they took the opportunity of the Manifest Destiny to gain the territories of the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican-American War and settle the west. With this expansion, it provided numerous opportunities for the people to gain success alongside the nation. The gold rush caused an increase in immigration that brought more people to the newly flourishing nation, and allowed the west coast to become settled as well as help the economy from the new wealth. The land that was gained in the Louisiana Purchase provided the Great Plains, where pioneers settled and ranching operations were run. Though it sadly pushed away the native tribes who originally lived there, throughout the gilded age the government has tried to return to them their land and rights – and gives them reparations today. All of which provided a basis to the American dream that gave the opportunity for a better life to many people. Towns and economy was...
The Dust Bowl was "the darkest moment in the twentieth-century life of the southern plains," (pg. 4) as described by Donald Worster in his book "The Dust Bowl." It was a time of drought, famine, and poverty that existed in the 1930's. It's cause, as Worster presents in a very thorough manner, was a chain of events that was perpetuated by the basic capitalistic society's "need" for expansion and consumption. Considered by some as one of the worst ecological catastrophes in the history of man, Worster argues that the Dust Bowl was created not by nature's work, but by an American culture that was working exactly the way it was planned. In essence, the Dust Bowl was the effect of a society, which deliberately set out to take all it could from the earth while giving next to nothing back.
The opening chapter paints a vivid picture of the situation facing the drought-stricken farmers of Oklahoma. Dust is described a covering everything, smothering the life out of anything that wants to grow. The dust is symbolic of the erosion of the lives of the people. The dust is synonymous with "deadness". The land is ruined ^way of life (farming) gone, people ^uprooted and forced to leave. Secondly, the dust stands for ^profiteering banks in the background that squeeze the life out the land by forcing the people off the land. The soil, the people (farmers) have been drained of life and are exploited:
In his award-winning account of the devastating environmental and cultural effects of the Dust Bowl that enveloped America’s Midwest in the 1930’s, Timothy Egan attributes the disaster to the collective cause of reckless man-made agricultural practices, even as he surveys the tragic individual stories of the people who suffered from it. He argues that the combined effects of drought and a heat wave in the early 1930s, and man’s hubris and environmental ignorance and irresponsibility throughout the decade caused the Dust Bowl, and yet finds compassion for the small homestead farmer and the weak and powerless families who inhabited the region and lived through the disaster rather than picking up stakes and moving on. His story is a traumatic
Indians had been moved around much earlier than the nineteenth century, but The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was the first legal account. After this act many of the Indians that were east of the Mississippi river were repositioned to the west of the river. Tribes that refused to relocate ended up losing much of their land to European peoples (Sandefur, p.37). Before the Civil War in the U.S. many farmers and their families stayed away from the west due to a lack of rainfall (Nash et al., 2010). Propaganda in newspapers lured Americans and many other immigrants to the west to farm. The abundance of natural grasses in the west drew cattlemen and their families as well.