Analysis Of Dorothea Lang's 'Migrant Mother'

Imagine this. You wake up one morning in the year 1929, in your luxurious, pricey mansion. You then make your way downstairs to eat that nice big breakfast. Then you kiss your family good bye and head off to your fancy job. You come home that evening and suddenly you’re flat broke. Meaning all your money and life’s savings vanished. Unreal right? Well it was real for hundreds of families on October 29, 1929. The day the stock market crashed and when America’s confidence was challenged greatly.

I hope you had a nice, relaxing summer. This summer, I read The Boys in the Boat, and i enjoyed the author’s details about The Great Depression. As I was reading, I thought about our US History class and how Daniel James Brown’s description of Hoovervilles (hoovervilles are the main ideas in the first few chapters) related to our classes discussions about the great depression.

The Great Depression was a very influential era in American history, affecting many future generations. One of the most prevalent impacts it had on society was the extreme poverty that swept across the nation, affecting both people in cities and in the country. The main cause for this poverty was the mass loss of jobs among the middle class. Millions lost their jobs and consequently their homes. Families lived out of tents and cars in shanty towns or Hoovervilles. In these camps, many people didn’t have their basic human needs met, children and adults alike starved. They lived in clothes that were caked in dirt and tattered, too small for growing children and too cold for the frail elderly. Government relief programs attempted to help but offered little support to the now impoverished families of the millions that lost everything.

The Depression changed social structure in America forever. “The real story of the 1930’s is how individual families endured and survived, whether battling the despair of hunger and unemployment in the city of the fear of unending drought and forced migration in the dust bowl of the Great plains.” (Press, Petra pg 6)

The limitations in education meant pursuing high-skilled careers such as teachers, lawyers or doctors, required migration. According to this article, no one was “immune” to the hardships brought upon by the Great Depression. The word immune in this context in a sense compares the Great Depression to a virus or disease that eliminates all in its path with no one possessing an immunity. Education is usually the key to escaping poverty and provides hope for the future. Seeing that even education could not provide a sense of economic security demonstrates how truly desperate times were during the Great

For my project, my topic that I will plan on developing into an educational lesson on will be about the key events and figures of the Great Depression. I will specifically focus my lessons on how the Great Depression affected the state of North Carolina. As an education major, I want my students’ to understand that it was not only just our whole country that suffered this devastating economically poor period of time, but each individual state faced both similar and different hardships of the Great Depression. I will be focusing my lesson on teaching eighth grade students. The North Carolina State Essential Standards and objectives that my lesson will focus on are: 8.E.1 “Understand the economic activities of North

Compare and contrast Hoover and Roosevelt’s actions in the aftermath of the Crash of 1929. How did both administrations attempt to deal with the economic stagnation, social hardship and psychological impact of the depression? What needed to be fixed and which approach proved more successful? In your essay you should address not only the underlying economic and social problems that both administrations had to deal with and the various corrective measures they adopted, but also the underlying philosophical approaches of Hoover and Roosevelt and their supporters.

5. How did the depression affect ordinary Americans, both economically and physiologically? How do the stories of Gordon Parks and Odie Stallings illustrate the personal tragedies that people and families faced during these economic hard times?

Next, think of all the details about your character and how they might influence his or her opinions. Fill out a RAFTS chart to identify your character’s point of view when telling about his or her experiences during the Great Depression. In doing this, you will need to decide who your character is going to communicate with in this assignment because you will be writing a letter reflecting on your situation and your opinions about it.

In the year 1929, after a century of Americans being filled with a great sense of being alive and chasing after the American dream with new opportunities in front of them, everything Americans had worked so hard to establish came crashing down. On one fateful day the stock market crashed, leaving Americans all over the nation scared, penny less, and uncertain feelings about what the future would hold for them. The days leading up to years following this crash became known as the Great Depression a time where Americans struggled to get by or even had to leave the only home they’ve ever had when it comes to the dust bowl. The Great Depression posed a great hold on American economy leaving people unemployed and immigrants

McElvaine book reveals a collection of letters of the forgotten men, women, and children who suffered through the Great Depression. McElvaine puts the reader in direct contact with Depression victims, showing a feeling of what it was like to live through this dilemma. The writers of the letters came from different kinds of people:middle-class people, blacks, rural residents, the elderly, and children. By looking at the Great Depression from the perspectives of its victims of diverse backgrounds and McElvaine gives the reader a better understanding of their struggles on a more personal level.

The Great Depression broke down security and belief in American society during the early 20th century and brought out hidden prejudices. The once optimistic mood during the Roaring 20’s turned to pain. The dire economic situation caused Americans to return to past social stigmas where certain groups of people were seen as inferior; as a result, the American Dream, where everyone could seek their ideal of success, was reduced to merely a dream. John Steinbeck observed these changes in social behavior and witnessed the plight of many Americans during the Great Depression. Like in his later work, The Grapes of Wrath, he was inspired by his environment to expose the lives of people during the Great Depression using Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck observed these changes in social behavior and witnessed the plight of many Americans during the Great Depression. Steinbeck demonstrates in Of Mice and Men through the characters that the American Dream was naturally discriminatory towards certain groups of people because of common perceptions held during that period.

American life prior to World War II may have not been the best from 1931-1939. Already in the Great Depression that started in 1929 people were left very discouraged and hopeless. In 1932 the economy was the worst it had ever been, it had hit rock bottom (p. 850). Many had lost their jobs and over 11 million Americans could not find work (p. 850). America was at its worst and people were hungry, suicide rates had risen and people were having less children than ever before. People’s reaction to the

The 1920s seemed to promise a future of a new and wonderful way of life for America and its citizens . Modern science, evolving cultural norms, industrialization, and even jazz music heralded exciting opportunities and a future that only pointed up toward a better life. However, cracks in the facade started to show, and beginning with the stock market crash of 1929 the wealth of the country, and with it the hopes and expectations of its people, began to slip away. The Great Depression left a quarter of the population unemployed and much of the rest destitute and uncertain of what the future held. Wealth vanished, people took their money out of banks, and plans were put on hold. The most significant way in which the Great Depression affected Americans’ everyday lives was through poverty because it tore relationships apart and damaged the spirit of society while unexpectedly bringing families together in unity.

Dorothea Lange is an experienced photographer, born on the 26th day of March 1895. Her works have been a source of insight for many people and this has proved very effective to contemporary photographers. There are many works that this woman did during her time and it is important to acknowledge them. Migrant Mother is one of these works and the applause that it has gotten from the viewers clearly portrays expertness at its best. The photo revolves around the life and family of one Florence Owens Williams and was taken in 1936 in California Florida. Going through the various elements of this photograph is effective in ensuring that one understands the deep concepts that revolve around it.