Imagine that you are working hard all day, but can’t get a job. You have sweat dripping from your face from turning over fields, because it hasn't rained. You are trying to support other family members to do their best, but it does no good. This is how most people were during the Great Depression. The Great Depression hurt the men, women, and children of the time. During the Great Depression, men had to provide, have hope, and try to get employed. For example, in the excerpt “Digging In” the men had to provide money and food for the family, “At one point in the Depression, the cupboard was literally bare of money. We weren’t hungry, but we were penniless. Then Dad went back in the pantry and came out with a jar in which he had saved a few
Many consider the Great Depression a tragedy but few actually know the ways in which it actually affected the people who lived through it. One way it affected the people of the time is the hopelessness it brought. During the early 1920's many men returned from the "Great War" jaded and angry. The same effect was seen in most people during the depression. It was this hopelessness that spawned modernist literature and thought. Another way the depression affected the everyday man was the loss of homes. Many homes were foreclosed during the depression and this left many homeless. In fact the "Okies" were people left homeless after farm foreclosures. The last way the depression affected people was the broken homes it caused. The number of father's leaving their families rose dramatically during
The Great Depression was an economic downturn in America that lasted from 1929 until about 1939, making it the longest lasting depression ever experienced by the industrialized world. The stock market crash caused a chain reaction that involved problems such as unemployment, deflation, an increase in debt, and general poverty for lower class citizens. Attempts at escaping the depression weren’t altogether successful. In fact, most of the efforts resulted in high consumer debt as well as over optimistic loans given to the public by banks and business investors. The Depression caused severe political changes in the US as well as its obvious economic failures. After three years of the depression, Herbert Hoover lost the presidential election
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 Great Depression affected everyone and everything in America. It affected families, friends, businesses, jobs, cities, states, the entire country! But everyone, no matter whether they were a man, a woman, or an african american, was affected in different ways, some ways worst than others. Everyone who lived through the Great Depression had a different experience for themselves. The women had a tougher time surviving than the men. The white men got jobs faster than the african americans. The african americans were the first fired and the last hired.
The Great Depression transformed American society and the way people thought about themselves and their relationship to the country. During this horrendous time period, many people lost many important pieces in their lives like money and jobs. Millions of families lost their savings as many banks collapsed in the early 1930s. They were unable to make rent payments or mortgage and many were removed from their apartments. The Great Depression challenged American families in vital ways, placing great economic demands upon families and their members.
Throughout, the history of the United States, there has been many different events that helped change and shape the America known today. One particular event that has had a great significance was the Second World War. The war came as a salvation to the United States because it helped liberate it from the Great Depression. However, one gender population, during this time, had the opportunity to demonstrate their potential. This gender population was women. WWII was not only a life changing event for all men in America, but also for women because it would become the first time in history when they begin to break the stereotypes between gender roles.
The Great Depression has to one of the most “Depressing” time that America has ever been through thus far. I say that because that specific event hit directly at home and pretty much everyone was affected. At the end of this event many changes in organization of government and relief/recovery efforts for unemployed people. President Roosevelt sought out to help this people, creating new organizations made specifically for a certain help. Under his rule the entire government had went through a type of renovation through his efforts.
To what extent did white women’s social roles change from the 1920s to the Great Depression when employment and income decreased nationwide?
During the 1920’s business was booming, many Americans were using credit cards to buy materials that they knew they could not pay back, businesses were producing products in an efficient manner, the cycle of debt was inevitable and electricity was being used in every American home. However, years later disaster strikes, on October 29 1929 Americas once healthy economy with a 4% unemployment rate suddenly spiraled out of control due to the stock market crash where billions of dollars were lost since many Americans wanted wealth and would go to any measure to achieve it which lead to careless investments and many investors raced to take their money out of the stock market as soon as it crashed. This unstable economy did
Digging In also demonstrates the desperation for jobs displayed during the Great Depression. In the second paragraph, Hastings states that “We weathered the storm because of Dad’s willingness to take any job and Mom’s ability to stretch every dollar. It was not so much a matter of finding a job as of filling in with odd jobs wherever and whenever you could, and most of the “jobs” were those you made for yourself.” Jobs were scarce during the great depression. Many people migrated west for job opportunity, only to find there was nothing there
In the early years of the Great Depression, before 1932, President Herbert Hoover was faced with a terrible problem. The entire country, and to a large degree the entire world, was in the midst of one of the worst economic recessions in current history. All around the country, people were out of work, down on their luck, and starving. One in every six American males was unemployed, and the future outlook was not much better.
The Great Depression can be a tough subject for most people, but still inspiring to others. The Great Depression was a very difficult time for America as well as women. The women of the Great Depression struggled through many trials, as did many others in the United States, but they were able to get through it all. The women of the Great Depression worked their hardest to stay true to themselves, and their family, as well as, to keep a job, a stable household, and for some, a strong marriage.
During the Great Depression, things were hard for women. Many people had different opinions about what women should do. Many thought they shouldn’t work because they are taking men’s jobs and they thought that wasn’t right to the men. Many other people thought they should stay at home and just be a stay at home mom and clean the house and to make sure food is on the table when men came home from work. Women believed they should do there own thing, many women wanted to work during this time to help. The Great Depression made it hard for women because people had many different ideas on what they should do, White and African American women struggled differently, but in the end it became better for both groups.
Change and hardship go hand in hand, because when hard times emerge society is forced to change. During the Great Depression the idea of gender roles stirred up a great deal of controversy but it also opened the door for change. It gave society a push into a new direction. In order to survive, a number of people had to move away from their traditional way of living in order to take care of their household (Goutour, November 5, 2013). It was now more acceptable and easier for women to find work, while men on the other hand had feelings of emasculation and hostility due to not being able to fulfill their role as the breadwinner (Hollingsworth & Tyyska,
Do you know exactly what the Great Depression was or how many people were affected by it? Well, depression is defined as a severe and long recession,but the Great Depression was slightly different because it was the worst economic downturn in the industrial economy and part of the market economy that lasted from about October 29, 1929 to 1939. During the Great Depression, millions of investors were wiped out which in turn lead to about 13 million people losing their jobs as well as houses for many different reasons. After getting fired,chances are that many people couldn’t afford to buy the bare necessities that their families need such as; food to keep them from starving, clothing to keep them warm, along with water to keep them from getting dehydrated. My thesis for this essay is that the Great depression was a terrible tragedy that caused many people to have to leave the comforts of home to find better opportunities for themselves or their families, but the Depression just seemed