Term Paper Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation prevented the nation from slipping into an inevitable revolution in the United States during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. The Civil Works Administration or CWA, Works Progress Administration or WPA, and the Civilian Conservation Corps or CCC were the programs that started the recovery process during the Great Depression. President Franklin Roosevelt put all the programs into action in the following days he took office as the 32nd President of the United States on March 4th, 1933. He took office at the height of the Great Depression when, 13 million Americans unemployed and most if not all banks in the United States were closed. Which was …show more content…
FERA was not nearly as successful as the CWA mainly in part due to the fact that FERA was limited to giving handouts to people who rated them, Dorothea Lange worked for State Emergency Relief Administration SERA which was California’s version of FERA. The CWA was a more proactive program that focused on creating jobs for the 13 million and rising unemployed Americans. Americans across the country were already very discourage about the current condition of the United States and most very hopeless. Dorothea Lange captured the hopelessness of the millions Americans that were jobless living in migrant farming communities. What influenced Dorothea Lange the most was how active the United States government was working to fix the unemployment issue that plagued the country (pg122). Maynard Dixon whom was very depressed at the state of the union even said, “Inauguration of Roosevelt. Hope.” Which during this time was not a popular feeling among the common …show more content…
This hit home to Dorothea Lange mainly due to the fact that a good portion of her friends were Jewish (pg.124). Also that in many cities around the country some people participated in pro-Nazism, totalitarian, and anti-Semitic rallies. Which is possibly due to the lack of direction and jobs that these people would turn to anything that could give them purpose or hope. Many people took many different approaches to the depression and supported or sat back depending on what issue was on the table at the time. Dorothea Lange took a hands on approach to life in general, and she had an urge or desire to do something about the suffering going on in the this country, specifically the migrant farm workers of the west(pg.126). The people she took photos of were the targets of all the government programs that the New Deal was going to help. Plate 4 in Dorothea Lange is a perfect example of who the New Deal was helping, plate 4 depicts a person with their wheel-barrel upside down. This image is very powerful due to the fact that this person is more than likely unemployed and the wheel-barrel, a tool of work is not being of use. Another very powerful detail about this photo is the posture this person has. To me and too many others this shows a person who has lost all hope. I even thought that this person is tired from being