Children Of The Great Depression Essay

The Great Depression was a worldwide economic slump that affected people of all sorts. In the United States, the unemployment rose to an all time high of 25% in 1933. These were desperate times, and desperate measures were taken just so you could get by. Because of these desperate measures, the culture of the country changed. As Lawrence Friedman put it, “Poverty and social disorganization were eating away at the country’s social fabric.”.

Has anyone ever learned about The Great Depression? There are so many details about the Great Depression that we may not know of yet. Everyone learns about this topic in their history class because it had just such a huge impact on the United States today. There is so much to explore about The Great Depression such as, what was the Great Depression, how did it start, what was the Dust Bowl, and what did Franklin Roosevelt do to help end the Great depression?

Would you agree that avarice is defined as an excessive or insatiable desire for wealth or gain and is directly related to the severe recession in economy during the 1930s. Well, the Great Depression was a time of great economic crisis that began in the United States but later went across much of the world. The event that traced a path for it was the crash of the stock market in October of 1929. President Hoover was the president during this time and there were nearly 2,080,000 people unemployed in US as well. Later on, Franklin D. Roosevelt takes the lead after promising a “New Deal” hoping to improve the situation.

The Great Depression had a very negative effect on young children scarring them for life. Ninety-nine percent of children in coal mining areas were underweight. Children were starved, forced to move a lot, or had to live with complete strangers just to get by. However, this insane lifestyle hurt these people into adulthood with some of them becoming pack rats or even drug addicts. While some children were unaffected by the Depression, others were starving, working to support their families, and missing an early education during the most important times of their lives.

Imagine that one day you’re living a life of average or good wealth, good job, and, great homes. Then just imagine that all of a sudden all of that is taken away from you in an instant. You are then left with nothing now roaming these poor American streets in desperate hope of jobs. Unfortunately, events like this did happen in real life and many real Americans had to live with this economic nightmare. The United States suffered one of it’s biggest economic depression from 1929 to 1939 which was known as the Great Depression.

On October 29, 1929 the Stock Market crashed in the United States. The years to follow were full of desperation and despair. Most Americans suffered greatly but two groups that were hit in similar and very different ways were African Americans and white people in America. Although the Great Depression may have brought some people together that was not the case for these two groups. African Americans and white people experienced the Great Depression in similar ways but also in different ways because of racial inequalities partly to do with everyone’s desperation to find work, this caused a divide in America.

The Great Depression started with the stock market crash of 1929. “In 1925, the total value of the NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE was $27 billion. By September 1929, that figure skyrocketed to $87 billion” (The Market Crashes 1). Stocks were being sold for way more than their reasonable value and that couldn’t go on indefinitely. Although more people in the U.S.owned stock than ever before, “90% of American households owned precisely zero shares of stock” (Sinking Deeper and Deeper 1).

“The Great Depression” was the word that everyone was too afraid to acknowledge but still came lurking in minds as stomachs growled and bills came along. The great depression affected millions of families but one family in specific caught my eye, the Grondowskis. You would assume that as times got harder, a family’s bond would get stronger, this was not the case with this family. Mary(the mother) works hard ironing clothes all day so her family can eat, meanwhile Stefan(the father) stands in the endless unemployment lines attempting to get a job. Joey and Josh are the sons of Mary and Stefan, Josh is fifth teen and Joey is ten.

Justina Hardin Ms. Rueger English 11-3 04 April 2023 Overcoming the Great Depression The Great Depression was the beginning of a new beginning for the United States and FDR. FDR created the New Deal that used the Three R’s and created the “alphabet agencies”, how statistics changed before, during, and after the New Deal was established, and FDR brought Frances Perkins, who worked on the New Deal, into his Cabinet. FDR combated the Great Depression using the New Deal.

In 2015, the Pew Research Center had found that while over fifty percent of White, Asian, and Latinos are residing in households with two married parents, only thirty-one percent of blacks are living with two married parents. Compared to other races, a majority of Blacks don’t have the same stability, and this can negatively impact them in many ways including financially. But at some point in their lives will also come negligence because of the lack of their other parent. In addition to the fact that they have already lost one parent already, they will also lose the emotional support from their remaining parent, who is more likely to be more focused on earning enough money. Parenting drastically influences who we become as people; and when they are not present or responsible, this takes a toll on students and affects not only their education, but

I viewed Frontline a documentary series, which episode was entitled Poor Kids. The frontline personnel spent time with three children Kailey, Johnny, and Britany along with their families as they all struggle financially. We perceive a glimpse of what it is like to live below the poverty line in America through a child’s eyes. While observing the documentary, I became consciously aware that children who are considered poor or living below the poverty line were more mindful of the responsibilities of life. The children were worrisome of the lack of employment for their parents, bills, and in Britney’s case; how they would accommodate their way of living to support a new addition to the family.

Facing this severe amount of loss is not an easy task for the public to face, and many could not bear it all together. Going from having a very decent life to basically fighting tooth and nail to keep your home is a tough concept to fathom for most of America today, but it was the reality. An essay by Robert J. Hastings, “Digging In”, perfectly paints the mindset of his family and most of public in regards to what they had to give up. In this dissertation, Hastings writes about how the state of the economy was and that they gave up whatever possible: “With no dependable income, we cut back on everything possible… turned off city water… sold our Model T Ford…”. Perhaps his feelings toward cutting back are a little softer in retrospect, but picturing what was then lacking in homes completes the perspective on the Great Depression itself.

Could you imagine living in a world with limited electricity, food, water, and other daily necessities? This is the kind of world people had to live in during the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a dark period of time in which the economy collapsed. Many people lost their jobs and money, but the government tried to give hope. To lead off, the Great Depression put millions out of work.

In the late 1920s, a culmination of factors, both foreign and domestic, led many American families into unemployment and poverty. The Great Depression was a time of widespread poverty and forced migration, as it was common for young children to beg for money and search trash cans for food. Accordingly, different geographical regions were impacted more than others, which divided Americans. The economy experienced a greater wealth imbalance than ever before, as a small portion of Americans controlled an disproportionate percentage of the nation’s wealth. Additionally, the unemployment rate reached an all time high, with a quarter of Americans unable to find employment, further establishing socioeconomic divide.

Who Is Poor, Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division, US Census Bureau, Volume 16, Number 3S46-3S51 Boivin, M., Booij, L, Cote, S., Lambert, J., Mazza, J., Pingault, J-B., Tremblay, R., & Zunzunegui, M. (2017). Poverty and behavior problems during early childhood: The mediating role of maternal depression symptoms and parenting, Vol 41 (6) pages 670-680 Kaplan, S., Madden, V., Mijanovich, T., & Purcaro, E. (2013). The Perception of Stress and its Impact on Health in Poor Communities 38: pages 142-149. DOI1 Burke, L. (2013). Head Start’s sad and costly secret---what Washington doesn’t want you to know, http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/14/head-start-sad-and-costlu-secret-what-washington-doesnt-want-to-know.print.html