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Social effect of the great depression on the American society essay
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The Great Depression, which occurred during the 1920s and 1930s, was a time period of extreme economic crisis affecting all American citizens in some sort of way. During the Great Depression, Americans questioned their future, the government’s role in containing the economic turmoil, and the president at the time Herbert Hoover. Woody Guthrie’s song “This Land Was Made for You and Me” expresses some of the feelings many Americans experienced during this time period. Folk singer and victim of the Great Depression Woody Guthrie, wrote the song “This Land was Made for You and Me” to express how U.S. citizens once viewed the nation as prosperous, now viewed the nation as desperate. In the song, Guthrie explains that the beauty and bounty of America’s land belongs to everyone. Poignantly, the song ends with “As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if [God blessed America for me.]” This line stressed how confused citizens felt about their country during this time. Citizens did not know what to think about living in America anymore. Should they leave? Where would they go? What about the …show more content…
Citizens lost all hope and looked to President Hoover to do something about the climbing poverty and unemployment rates. Author of Give Me Liberty, Eric Foner, mentions that people were evicted from their homes and, “moved into ramshackle shantytowns, dubbed Hoovervilles” because the president’s policy on fighting the Depression, which consisted of Americans helping each other and the government having no part in assisting its citizens. They doubted the president’s ability to get the nation out of poverty. The song emphasizes the changing definition of freedom for citizens as meaning economic security, which comes with employment and government regulation of labor, companies, and the stock market. Citizens did not have these things during the Depression, and it perpetuated their
Grant Wood was a Regionalist artist who continually endeavored to capture the idyllic beauty of America’s farmlands. In 1930 he had been roaming through his hometown in Iowa searching for inspiration when he stumbled upon a house that left him spellbound. From this encounter came America’s iconic American Gothic. Not long after Wood’s masterpiece was complete the once ideal countryside and the people who tended to it were overcome by despair and suffering as the Great Depression came to be. It was a time of economic distress that affected nearly every nation. America’s stock market crashed in 1929 and by 1933 millions of Americans were found without work and consequently without adequate food, shelter, and other necessities. In 1935, things took a turn for the worst as severe winds and dust storms destroyed the southern Great Plains in the event that became known as the Dust Bowl. Farmers, who had been able to fall back on their crops during past depressions, were hit especially hard. With no work or way or other source of income, many farms were foreclosed, leaving countless families hungry and homeless. Ben Shahn, a Lithuanian-born man who had a deep passion for social injustice, captures the well-known hopelessness of the Great Depression through his photograph Rural Rehabilitation Client. Shahn and Wood use their art to depict the desperation of everyday farmers in America due to the terrors and adverse repercussions that the Great Depression incited.
Dubbed as “The Greatest Country in the World” by god knows who, America is not as awesome and free as some may see. In doing a close reading of Heather Christle’s “Five Poems for America”, we can see how the author uses metaphors to portray a flawed American, specifically within its political system, religion, obsession with technology and basic human rights. Americans have been living with the oppression of these everyday issues, completely oblivious thus creating the America we infamously know today.
The 1930’s were a time of poverty in America. The Great Depression hit the United States hard and it would take years to recover, but presidents like Franklin D. Roosevelt, although he did not solve everyone’s problem, would help a lot. Roosevelt brought America back from the brink and helped a lot of people, but so many others were left without jobs or money or food. 1930 to 1941 were difficult years for America and it was not until World War II that we started to make some progress.
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. Fourth ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 247-316. Print.
The United States of America is known as the land of opportunity and dreams. People dream of migrating to this nation for a chance of a better a life. This belief has been around for many years, ever since the birth of the United States; therefore it’s a factor in which motivate many people migrate to the United States. Upton Sinclair, author of the Jungle, narrates the life of a Lithuanian family and there struggles with work, crime, family loss, and survival in the city of Packingtown. Sinclair expresses her disgust as well as the unbelievable truth of life in the United States involving politics, corruption, and daily struggle that many suffered through in the 19th and 20th century.
America has always been a land of opportunity ever since the pilgrims first arrived. During the infancy of America’s history, the country was under developed and would be considered a third world country today. Even though America was under developed compared to the previous motherland of Great Britain it always had the potential to exceed the many limits set upon by others. For example, Andrew Jackson, also known as the man of the people, was raised by a single mother who struggled to raise two other children and struggled with economic hardships. Regardless of his upbringings, Andrew Jackson became the seventh president of the United States in which he invited the public to his inaugural ball. Some people who migrated from other countries to America, such as Frances Trollope, failed to recognize the potential that America had. Instead of Mrs. Trollope acknowledging the promises the newly found country had, she decided to critically compare it to her homeland.
Franklin D. Roosevelt once asserted “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people,” in belief for a change, for a better nation, and for guidance to those who have lost all faith in humanity. During the Great Depression, the United States faced many different scenarios in which it caused people to doubt and question the “American Dream.” The Great Depression began in 1929 and ended in 1939. In these ten years, people went through unemployment, poverty, banks failed and people lost hope. President Herbert Hoover thought it wasn’t his responsibility to try and fix such issues in the nation.
The tone of the short story “America and I” changed dramatically over the course of the narrative. The author, Anzia Yezierska, started the story with a hopeful and anxious tone. She was so enthusiastic about arriving in America and finding her dream. Yezierska felt her “heart and soul pregnant with the unlived lives of generations clamouring for expression.” Her dream was to be free from the monotonous work for living that she experienced back in her homeland. As a first step, she started to work for an “Americanized” family. She was well welcomed by the family she was working for. They provided the shelter Yezierska need. She has her own bed and provided her with three meals a day, but after a month of working, she didn’t receive the wage she was so
However, for the worst affected, the most difficult effect on morale must have been the lifelong memory of seeing their children and family suffer, and having no power to change this. For the lack of power to change the future is the exact opposite of the ‘American Dream’. References: Prosperity, Depression and The New Deal, Peter Clements, 2001, Hodder and Stoughton, London Letters To The Roosevelts, various authors, date and publisher unknown An Editor Loses His Job In The Great Depression, Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, Studs Terkel, 1978, Pantheon Books. Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? , Jay Gorney, 1932, Warner Bros. Music The Great Depression, Mc Elvaine R., 1984, Times Books, New York
During his experiment in the woods, Thoreau discovers that to become successful, “one [must advance] confidently in the direction of his dreams.” (Thoreau 3) During this time, America was seen as the ‘land of opportunity’ and Thoreau’s ideals conform to the belief everyone has a chance to succeed and live the life they wish to choose. All people had the chance to aspire for bigger and greater things and living in America would give them the opportunity to prosper. Furthermore, believing in individualism, Thoreau deemed it acceptable “if a man [did] not keep in pace with his companions, perhaps it [was] because he [heard] a different drummer.” (3) America gave people the freedom to follow the economic, religious and political ways of life they wished to follow. People finally had control of their life and did not have to conform to the practices they had to follow in their homeland. Although the American dream gave people the chance to succeed, in reality this was not the case for
During the 1920’s, America was a prosperous nation going through the “Big Boom” and loving every second of it. However, this fortune didn’t last long, because with the 1930’s came a period of serious economic recession, a period called the Great Depression. By 1933, a quarter of the nation’s workers (about 40 million) were without jobs. The weekly income rate dropped from $24.76 per week in 1929 to $16.65 per week in 1933 (McElvaine, 8). After President Hoover failed to rectify the recession situation, Franklin D. Roosevelt began his term with the hopeful New Deal. In two installments, Roosevelt hoped to relieve short term suffering with the first, and redistribution of money amongst the poor with the second. Throughout these years of the depression, many Americans spoke their minds through pen and paper. Many criticized Hoover’s policies of the early Depression and praised the Roosevelts’ efforts. Each opinion about the causes and solutions of the Great Depression are based upon economic, racial and social standing in America.
Foner, Eric. "Chapter 9." Give Me Liberty!: An American History. Brief Third ed. Vol. One. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. N. pag. Print.
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)
With the continually worsening conditions, and the stock market crash on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the United States was thrown into the biggest economical disaster of our history. Everyone, excluding the rich upper class, became poor and most unemployed. The majority of the American populace found themselves living in ‘shantytowns’ or ‘Hoovervilles’ as they later became to be known, which consisted of many cramped shacks constructed from whatever was available. This meant old burnt-out cars, cardboard boxes, random pieces of lumber, and anything else that people could find. Times truly were tough. It was a daily struggle for people to support their own lives, let alone those of their family on the meager amount of money they had. The lucky man in charge of bringing us out from the depths of this very great of depressions was none other than the thirty-first president of these United States.
When I think about the Great Depression, I think about the traditional American side that post-war, the economy failing because of the lack of trade and flow of money. The stock market crash and the failure of banks sparked the Great Depression, but what did not come to mind, until I analyzed the photo essay, was the effect it had on migrants and people in the farming industry to that extent. There were two large devastations during this time period: the stock market crash and the dust bowl drought. People had less faith in the bank and less faith in the ideology of saving through trusting a intermediary transaction system. After people were left without their savings in the bank, many farmers were kicked off their farms after an extreme drought. Crop failures went ramped and migrants from other countries were dealing with the devastation of not living long enough in the United States to become citizens. Animosity of immigrants grew—shown in an