Compare And Contrast The Great Depression And The Sharecroppers

In a New York Times article, “Too Poor to Make the News,” author Barbara Ehrenreich focuses on the impact the recession has caused to the lives of the working poor. She begins her article by describing how the newly group, known as Nouveau poor, have to give up valuables where as the working poor have to give up housing, food, and prescription medicines. Ehrenreich’s purpose is to inform her readers who are blessed enough not to suffer like the working poor. Barbara Ehrenreich’s article examines the impacts the recession has on the lives of the working poor, by demonstrating pathos, and makes readers aware of the sufferings the poor have to face. Barbara Ehrenreich examines the aspects that are impacting the working poor from the recession.

In both the pieces “Women on the Breadlines” and “Americans in the Great Depression” it has a similar belief of how people should act. They both know that pride and ego makes people starve just as much as starvation and sickness. In “Americans in the Great Depression” it says,” It becomes necessary for these people, who have never before been in want, to ask for assistance.” People who were rich with money in the bank, and a big house, and lots of food, and a good job suddenly find themselves homeless, starving, broke, and unemployed. The proud feeling those people had from their old life is now gone.

In the year of 1929, an estimated nine thousand banks failed and were shut down shortly after the stock market crash. Just a few months later, The Great Depression struck America. Everyone throughout the states were effected by this change in economy. Some, in different ways than others but none of which were effected in a positive way. Sharecroppers were forced out of their homes due to crops not being as worthy as they were before the stock market crash and struggled to produce food and supplies for there families.

The great depression had a negative impact on the lives of Americans. The great depression effected people all through out the nation, it was a global event. Many lives were greatly negatively affected. First off the great depression left many people homeless with no money or food. Family roles changed men struggled to find jobs.

Family Life in the Midst of the Great Depression The Great Depression has greatly changed the way the world works as a whole, but how did it affect family life? Numerous families were broken apart during this time because of the lack of money and resources, making it very hard to live. During the Great Depression, families were mainly affected by changes in family roles, differences in food and play, and issues with marriages and abandonment. From Bible times to the start of the Great Depression, men led the family by making money, while women kept the home tidy. This stereotype was greatly changed in 1929 when men lost their jobs and women stepped into a higher role, causing the number of married women to greatly increase.

Both, urban and rural Americans suffered during the Great Depression, but not in the same way. Many urban Americans had to deal with living in large communities of homes made out of cardboard boxes due to homelessness and lack of food in the cites (Schultz, 2013). At the same time, rural Americans were losing their farms due to the crops as a result of the drought. The Great Depression was a perfect time for the Communist Party of the United States to thrive, as a large portion of Americans believed that Capitalism was the cause of the whole thing.

The Great Depression was a time of struggle and adaptation. During the Great Depression society was willing to do anything possible to earn the slightest bit of money. Since most jobs had shut down people conceived jobs of their own. For example, some people would paint homes for the span of five dollars. Neighbors would cut one another's hair to earn money to pay for their necessities.

This week we started reading W.J.T. Mitchell’s A Photographic Essay: Four Case Studies. As I began reading this essay, I knew immediately that it would be a difficult one. I read carefully and searched the definitions of many terms in attempt to fully comprehend the ideas expressed by Mitchell. First, I would like to key in on the pages that were assigned to our individual groups for our group projects, and explain the process I went through to fully understand and comprehend the reading that was assigned.

The Great Depression was a time that stained the fabric of American history with dirt and mud and tears. Many did not understand, or care to understand the impact and consequences that came from the depression. In this particular photo, it utilizes emphasis and balance to get others, and more importantly, government agencies to understand the hopelessness that hung over thousands of American’s heads like a broken umbrella. From the moment the picture is seen, the eye is drawn to the first woman sitting in the foreground with a stove top behind her, it’s top cluttered with makeshift pots and and pans, most likely filled with scraps rather than whole foods. It is the first thing one sees, therefore creating the most impact.

Through photographs such as The Migrant Mother, The Great Depression is seen as a catastrophe on the lives of those who were affected by it. The characters shabby appearance reflect a life of poverty. The mother's look of anguish confirm such a poverty stricken life, and portray her sense of hopelessness, while contrastingly she is seen as the backbone of her family as all of her children linger upon her body. The use of photography such as this to document the Great Depression reveal it to be more than a disastrous economic event, but surprising as a path to highlight the perseverance of its victims. Not only does it help to portray the hard times, but it shows the everlasting stance of a mother’s love.

This photograph is tied to the Great Depression which hit Canada from 1929 – 1939. It shows a group of men lined up for a soup kitchen. Around 1933 a year before the photo was taken, around 30 percent of employable Torontonians were jobless. By 1934, when this photograph was taken, 120,000 unemployed Torontonians were on relief. The photographer might have been hired by the Canadian government to take this photo to promote soup kitchens for the people who couldn’t afford a meal on the table.

James Nachtwey was born on March 14, 1987 in Syracuse, New York. Nachtwey began his work as a photographer in 1976 because he was heavily influenced by the images depicting the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. He began as a newspaper photographer but in 1980 he moved back to New York from New Mexico to begin a career as a freelance magazine photographer. The first assignment he was given whilst working as a magazine photographer was to document the conflict which was occurring in Northern Ireland at which time the IRA members in the maze went on hunger strike. After covering the conflicts in Northern Ireland he was contracted by Time magazine and has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and major social issues in over 30 countries spanning all across the world even at his own

Dorothea Lange’s photograph “Damaged Child” depicts that children were greatly affected mentally and physically during the trying times of the great depression. The photograph shows a migrant workers child standing in front of what seems to be an old shack in Elm Grove, Oklahoma in 1936. The girl’s eyes are dark and lack the energy and playfulness that a child’s eyes should have. You can see a portion of her tattered and dirty shirt which appears to have been mended several times. Her body is weak and pale due to malnourishment.

Maynard Dixon painted Forgotten Man in 1934 displaying the loss of hope man had during the Great Depression. The painting is stripped down in terms of color and objects which gives a viewer the opportunity to truly divulge into the emotions. However, this tactic increases the chance of the piece being looked over without a second thought. A man is sitting, adjacent to a fire hydrant, on a street curb eyes down with only the legs of people passing by shown in the background. The tones of the piece are muted allowing despair to be the focus.

The conflict that brought the run on the bank alive was simply scared people taking money out of their bank. Specifically that when the stock market crashed everybody was scared that their money was going to be lost. Therefore people came and got all their money out of their banks. Banks nationally was completely out of money which made people go into a state of economical depression which as you might have guessed it’s called great depression. The stock market crash as previously mentioned caused most of the bank run.