Chloe McHugh Mrs. Dowling English May 6, 2010 Women’s portrayal during the Great Depression During the Great Depression women were not very important or well identified characters. Most women during this time period were uneducated, under appreciated, and stayed in the home looking after the kids, while the men of the house were out working. The novels To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, both portray woman as inferior during the Great Depression. Curley’s wife and Mayella Ewell represent the lonely, lost, and broken-down woman of the Great Depression. Unlike the many other women that “lived on hope,” these two literary figures did not have the same grasp; …show more content…
Without even investigating, the police charge Tom with rape, while society labels Mayella as weak. Before the trial, Mayella and Tom have a good relationship; when Mayella would need help around the house whether it was chopping wood or opening the windows that were stuck, Tom would be sure to help, and Mayella would be sure to give him some nickels for his assistance. Based on his action, Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father, is clearly not happy with his daughter being friends with an African American. Since Mayella listens to her father and does what she is told, the reader can determine that Mayella fears her father and is too afraid to stand up to him. Instead, she allows him to take advantage of her. Mayella is the oldest of many brothers and sisters, so she is depended on to help take care of them. Since she is depended on greatly in the Ewell household, she is unable to finish school, and therefore she is not very intelligent. Similar to Curley’s wife, Mayella is not a well-respected character because she does not have a mind of her own to make decisions for herself …show more content…
Dorothea Lange’s famous photo is of Florence Owens Thompson, a 32-year-old mother of seven children (“Dorothea Lange’s ‘Migrant Mother’”). The Thompson family worked as pea pickers and just like the rest of the citizens of the United States of America they all went through the same hardships. According to the Library of Congress Article, “Thompson represents the backbone to the family as she supports her three children (literally) in the photo” (“Dorothea Lange’s ‘Migrant Mother’”). Since women were left in the house to care for the children, mothers also had to help “support” their family during times of difficulty. As one looks farther into Thompson’s struggles to keep her family alive and together, you can see her determination to sell anything to get food to feed her children. Thompson’s daughter, Katherine McIntosh, remembers her mother as a “very strong