The Importance Of Life In Tillie Olsen's Yonnondio

In the novel Yonnondio by Tillie Olsen, which took place in 1920s, the Holbrook Family, Jim, Anna, Mazie, Will, Ben, and Jimmie, leaves a small Wyoming mining town and heads East to start a new life, as well as the birth of their fifth child, Baby Bess. When the Holbrook Family left the mines, even though the plot takes place before The Great Depression, which was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, the themes of The Great Depression are still very visible in the family’s struggles and tribulations: “The Holbrooks spoke for the majority of Americans whose lives did not fit the story of westward progress” (Jameson 141). When they finally made it to South Dakota, they realized the East had a new set of problems.

South Dakota was very different from Wyoming in many ways, but one of the major ways was the illusion that Americans could live a better life. At first the Holbrooks were unaware of this deception. Farm life seemed to be a great improvement over the mines. Even though their neighbor warned the Holbrooks about tenant farming, they still were hopeful because had food on the table and the children were growing healthily. Mazie and Will were finally able to go to school for the first time. Not long after, the tenant farming lifestyle showed its true colors and Jim once again packed up the family headed to Nebraska. They set up their household in an urban slum near a slaughterhouse. The stench of the slaughterhouse pervades their home and basically every aspect of their lives. Although Mazie and Will returned to school, their new school was demoralizing and they aren’t welcomed

The Holbrooks’ condition hardly resulted from their own actions or inactions. They were clearly the victims of a capitalist system that exploited its workers for profit without concern for their safety. At its worst, the system poisoned even the social and domestic relations among the family. Thus, in this protest novel, Olsen depicts the main themes of poverty, labor exploitation, and visible and underlying hardships throughout the Holbrooks’ journey to avoid the suffering from increased deprivation and mental anguish: “For example, Yonnondio demonstrates how economic status has a direct effect on behavior. When times are good— such as when the Holbrooks begin their life on the farm— Jim and Anna are happier together and kinder to their children. When moneys tight, Jim cuffs them all around, and Anna strikes the children” (Orr 220). The Holbrooks are so poor that it influences everything in their lives, and they can never forget it. Undergoing such awful situations, the Holbrooks’ lives were forever affected, from losing a sense of oneself to mental illness to never being able to escape poverty. The family continued to find a way to navigate through the mental and physical deterioration that they are suffering from: “[T]he last sounds we hear from the Holbrooks are ones of laughter and hope”