Donner Party Thesis

“The hope of a mill worker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a kid who believes that America is a place for him.” “The dropouts and hippies are not afraid of failure as their parents and grandparents.” There will always be difficulty, uncertainty, and audacity in the face of opportunities.

Barbara Ehrenreich conducts an experiment and documents it in her essay “Serving in Florida”. Ehrenreich attempts to answer the question: Is the American dream still alive? She places herself in a minimum wage job at a restaurant named Jerry’s and attempts to understand the working class. Adam Shepard also conducts an experiment, in his book Scratch Beginnings, where he begins with only twenty-five dollars, a sleeping bag, and the clothes on his back. He places himself in a homeless shelter and begins to reach his goal: $2,500, a house, and a car. Shepard and Ehrenreich attempt to seek the American Dream through a working class perspective. Ehrenreich implies working class employees are demeaned by sharing the stories of her coworkers to prove the American dream is dead. By exploring his co-workers and his own experiences, Shepard contrasts Ehrenreich’s argument and implies the American dream is still alive, as long as you have the right attitude.

The 19th century was a time where the idea of manifest destiny swept through the American nation. Filling the minds of men and women of the united states, fueling the ideas of moving west for land and prosperity. Americans sought to extend the United States territory from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast, seeing it as their god given right to obtain the land. Nearly seven million Americans embarked on that long and treacherous journey west. On this excursion, the travelers would face rugged terrain, harsh weather conditions, savage Indians, and robbers. Although millions of the travelers made it to their destinations unscathed, not all were so fortunate. One of the most tragic recorded incidences during this western expansion was that of the Donner Party. This group of pioneers, due to false information and bad judgment, became stranded on the Sierra Nevada mountain during the winter of 1846 and were forced to turn to cannibalism to survive.

On the other hand, they also had to hurry because they still had to walk through three mountain passes, the Sierra Nevada to California, and had only time from Spring to Fall. One of the travelers had 'The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California' with them. Since different people meet and had to live with different characters, Tamsen Donner wrote: “We have of the best people in our company and some, too, that are not so good.” Since it was Spring, rain and storm were pretty common and stopped the group on the Big Blue River. For a few people it was already too much of what they can withstand and the first death was by Reeds grandma, the loss of her was tragically written down by Virginia Reed: “..We made a neat coffin, and buried her under a tree... We miss her very much.” So far, there were no other major difficulties for the travelers, it was a pretty smooth trip. Arriving to Fort Bridger about just a week behind schedule, there James Reed meets James Clyman, an old friend who thought that the Hastings shortcut is unpractical, the old way would be more safer, but Reed did not take the advice, he wanted to take the shortcut, probably by the thought that a shortcut in our life also gets us to our target faster.

People that were inclined to look for gold were forced to make beds in the numbing cold of the snow, which made for unfortunate living conditions. The food had to be carefully looked after so that it was not eaten by animals, and when it turned dark it was mandatory to tie their food up in trees. Forgetfulness would not be tolerated when it came to looking after your food because if you forgot to tie it up, even once, you would face starvation or have to turn back and abandon your aspiration to locate gold. The journey felt like an extensively long time, and they had to make camp often because of the heavy luggage that was impossible to bear for excessive periods of time. These situations were bound to turn anybody weary and, from an outsider’s perspective, even be enough for a person to desert your ambition of finding riches completely, but people in the past managed to endure these problems, despite them being some of the hardest challenges ever

Behind the ideology of every person “proud to be an American” lies the major tenets of the quintessential American dream. The America seen today is not the same as it was 50 years prior, so how can one expect the central “dream” to be the same? In fact, each person has developed an opinion on what the American dream may mean for him/her. For one, the dream may still be the white picket fence still life from so many years ago, but for another, it may be the accumulation of riches and fame. In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, he shows us that Chris McCandless cared not for the quotidian rat-race that he had grown so accustomed to, but more about the intricacies that the natural world had to offer. I believe that although Chris McCandless may

Throughout their journey, the Donner Party faced many challenges that they had to overcome in order to continue on to California, and also to keep them alive. One problem the donner party faced was crossing mountains and deserts to get to California. It was hard for wagons to get passed.They fixed this problem by some taking an alternative route to California, but Mr. Reed and other friends did not listen to this idea and decided to face the mountain and desert with the wagons. Another problem they faced was thunderstorms occurring during the spring season. The road became muddy and was very difficult for cattle and wagons to get through it. Resulting in this, people had to walk and crawl to allow cattle to pull quicker and get through the

The Donner Party was a catastrophic event that happened in the late 1840's. It was a famous misfortune that had occurred in the spring of 1846. As a matter of fact, it was led by two wealthy brothers, Jacob and George Donner. As well as, nearly 90 emigrants left Springfield, Illinois and headed west. They attempted to take a shorter route to California, but were unsuccessful and as a result, they got trapped by heavy snowfall in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The Donners made a lot of poor decisions each one affected their outcome. For example, some of the biggest mistakes made in their journey was choosing poor guides, delaying their trip to stop and rest,and they did not pack enough supplies for their long journey. The Donner Party was a wagon party traveling westward. The Donner Party was a on a journey heading west in the spring of 1846 from Springfield, Illinois. The Party was led by Jacob and George Donner. The brothers decided to take the so called shortcut Hastings passage. The Party was forced to resort to cannibalism while they were trapped in the mountains snow all around them. They were forced to eat the dead bodies of their friends and family. The poor decisions made throughout the journey westward substantially contributed problems that occurred and what eventually led to the failure of the journey to the

The forty niners used their supplies like water and food too quickly which could have costed them their lives. Even tho they would find water on their way to California it would not be ok to drink. Because of this they would drink the dirty water or they would die from dehydration. So they would get sick from the dirty water. Also the forty niners were very unprepared for the journey. Most had to throw out all the junk that wasn’t important because they needed their animals to be able to pull the wagon. Since the forty niners packed so much they sometimes would throw out food because they thought it would be better to have supplies for their new home than to have food which they needed to survive. Finally the forty niners’ trip was difficult because they wouldn’t be able to find grass and water for their animals to eat. This was a big problem because without food or water for the animals they could die. Since the animals would die the forty niners would be forced to walk, which was a very dangerous and tiring thing to do. The forty niners also had to find a way to make a living since most of the time mining for gold didn’t work so

During the Great Depression, families lost everything as banks crashed and dust swirled over the barren landscape of the Midwest. Parents left their homes and bundled their children and worldly possessions into their cars and headed west to the land of hope in California. In this time, it is difficult to think of groups bonding together, especially as workers compete for limited agricultural jobs on ranches. However, while John Steinbeck’s characters in the novella Of Mice and Men isolate themselves in some ways from the world, they are also interconnected in webs of community throughout their ranch. Curley’s wife, Crooks, George Milton, and Lennie Small are all

On a journey to a better life in California, the infamous Donner party, met sorrow at every turn. Before their journey began, they encountered a shortcut discovered by Hastings. Like any other normal person, they decided to take the easier route that unfortunately led to tragedy. There were many key elements leading to the misfortune of this group.

In 1846 some people, led by George Donner, and James F. Reed moved west to California for a better life. On the way, they took a shorter way across the Great Salt Lake Desert called the “Hasting’s Cutoff”. This being a terrible idea, they were slowed down, and had to spend winter in the Mountains. Once they made it out of the desert, the group began crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains. A huge storm hit and the group decided to split into two camps, one at Donner Lake, and one at Alder Creek Valley. Another big mistake. Food began to run out, and they had already eaten most of their animals. 15 of the emigrants started over the mountains to bring help. They were called the “Forlorn Hope” group. Seven made it to California alive. Along the

It all started the day my group and I, the Donner party, packed up and headed to California. We began our journey West in the spring of 1846. It would be a very long trip traveling from Illinois to California. We left in search a better life and maybe even striking rich and finding gold. The Donner party was led by me, George Donner; my brother Jacob; and James Reed. Each and every one of us in the Donner Party had longed to begin a new, better chapter of our lives by reaching California.

Lansford Hastings’s shortcut sounded enticing and the Donner brothers planned to use it to save time traveling to California; however, the short cut was nonexistent and the advice cost the Donner’s both time and human lives. In April of 1846, the Donners packed up and headed west joining other pioneers on the westward trek to California. At first, the trail was smooth for the great wagon train. People gathered around the campfire at night to sing and tell stories, open-air church services were held, women formed sewing circles, and children had numerous new friends with whom to entertain themselves; however, times became treacherous as food became scarce. Well into their journey, the Donners met a scraggly looking man by the name of James