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Great Depression Literature Review

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Literature Review
Great Depression and Americans

After the Wall Street Crash in 1929, affected by the direct influences of the stock market and the entangled relations between European countries, Americans were facing a severe economic broke down in their country. People were living a hard time, for instance high unemployment, which led to lack of money, furthermore starvation and illnesses and so on. On the other hand, arts or literature were always the media that people used to express their views, feelings, comments and hope towards issues, therefore, during the Depression, arts and literature ironically "blossomed". This essay reviews two sources, Dancing in the Dark by Morris Dickstein, a book with fruitful examples of how literature …show more content…

Dickstein's research aims to understand the emotions of the people's inner self, their hope for a better life, their desperation of poverty, unemployment and the worthlessness of their money and their expectation to the government and others, which could not be found from simply facts of their way of living or statistics. Therefore, Dickstein focus on the literature illustration of the Depression, how the characters can reflect the writer's political stance and feeling, how characters responded to the situation in the society, at the same time showing the live and feeling of the specific group in the …show more content…

Watkins contains factual materials about the reality of the society of the USA during the Depression period, of the individuals who lived through it, like as Watkins mentioned in the book, "it is the people in whom I find the heart of the depression story." The author divided the book into three sections. The first section is a description from the crash in 1929 towards the eve of the New Deal. Followed by the second section which is about the life of people living in the urban area during the depression and the New Deal. The section is to examine the effect of the New Deal on the citizens, how their lives were changed and their response, such as the labor movements. The final section of the book is the look closer to the rural areas, because during the Depression, not only the economy was defeated but also the rural areas were facing serious destruction in agriculture from dust storm called Dust Bowl and the sharecroppers how they struggle through the difficult times. (Watkins,

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The economy of the United States expanded greatly through the 1920 's reaching its climax in August 1929. By this point, production had already declined and unemployment was at an all-time high, leaving stocks to imitate their real value. During the stock market crash of 1929, better known as Black Tuesday, investors traded vast numbers of shares in a single day, causing billions of dollars to be lost and millions of investors to be eliminated. This "crash" signaled the beginning of a decade long Great Depression that would affect all Western industrialized nations; a crash that would later become known as one of the darkest, longest lasting, economic downturns in American history. People all around the world suffered greatly as personal income,

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The longest and most dreadful downturn in economic history tossed millions of the hardworking people of America into poverty, for more than a decade neither the federal government or the free market were able to restore themselves from prosperity. Due to the Great Depression, an impetus was provided for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, this deal would forever change the relationship between the government and the American people. The New Deal was considered to be one of the most remarkable times of political reform in American history. In hindsight, it began to become easier to view the New Deal as the essential response to the Depression. However, the New Deal at the time was only one of the countless possible responses to an American capitalist system that had professedly lost its way.

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From our textbook we are able to learn the base information of the depression and migrant workers. The document provides a deeper insight with first hand views on the mistreatment of workers by wealthy landowners. First hand photographs allow a real view of how the impoverished migrant camps actually looked. The photos, along with Steinbeck's firsthand observations and genuine concern for the human suffering that was taking place allows for students to be further engaged into the topic. Our Texbook, Give Me Liberty, describes how the depression transformed American life.

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The Great Depression was a time of economic crisis around the world from the time period 1929 to World War II. To help capture the feeling in this period, John Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath. The main plot of of the story is about the Joads, a farming family forced from their home sent to search for work in California. Steinbeck includes a series of intercalary chapters to help paint a picture of migrant workers and the challenges they faced. In chapter 9, Steinbeck explores the emotional trials the tenants forced to endure when they are required to leave their homes and their lives, this chapter is an appeal to pathos.

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