No Promises In The Wind Analysis

The Divine Wind, written by Garry Disher, is a novel in which not only shows and describes the struggle of characters during World War II in Broome, Australia, but also the many aspects of prejudice which affect namingly Ida Penrose, Mitsy Sennosuke, and Magistrate Killian.

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

Usually children have the role of just playing, studying, and maybe some chores to help around the house. While this is the case of many households, during this time of stock crash, children had the equal role of an adult. Infact there were cases where, “the male figure in the family lost his job, and other family members such as the wife or children often attempted to obtain work” (Stull) Although working at a child’s age may not surprise many as it may already be a custom to others, the reversed roles of the children nonetheless affected the way children viewed their life. It is said that,“during the Great Depression an estimated 250,000 youths left home to search for work”(Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information) Children that started off with a no money life, may have not even had a childhood filled with games and laughter, but instead filled with cries and pleads for jobs. Typically, “they often began washing dishes and doing other chores around the house and/or on the farm by the age of five and were able to do most jobs like adults by the time they were teens.. they often worked alongside their parents, helping with gardening, canning, cleaning, ironing, cooking, chopping wood, farming and performing many other different jobs. It was a natural way of life as they grew older.” (Stull). Like cause and effect, the strain from child labor, causes the children to have bad health, and poor health prevents them to have time for education. Within the strict schedule the children have, the word play or rest, hardly exists. The child labor they go through does not provide any time for rest, therefore impacting the childhood as it creates only

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.

This forced children in urban areas to work street jobs, like newsies and shoeshiners. This work greatly increased by 74,000 more newsies and 415,000 newspaper carriers between the years of 1928 and 1934. This increase was the product on the lack of jobs, they did it to earn money to support themselves and/or their families. Like many people, the children adapted to the change in order to survive. The change was not just a political one based in laws by banning child labor, but also a social change in that it became more of a common sight to see children work certain jobs. With the change, not all kids went to the street, many went to and stayed in school during the depression.

“The great war proved how confused the world is, the depression is proving it again.” When reading John Updike’s short story “Son” (2) pg.1070 I can see the affects the great depression had on his family. When reading through it I found out the affects it had on his parent’s confidence. An example of how his father were affected is “His father’s old sorrow bore him down into depression, into a hatred of life.” (2) pg. 1072 As a result of his father not enjoying life his health began to decline as if on que. John held a job as a paper boy at a very young age in order to help provide for his family during the hard times. In Johns past, he was surrounded by the gloom of his father and it has shaped his style of writing into

The depression affected Jim Braddock and his family in many ways. One way was he could not get work do to his hand been broken from boxing. Jim was not able to afford the essentials to survive (i.e. food, electricity and medical). This was a

Disher demonstrates isolation of the ethnic groups and the regional and urban divide present in The Divine Wind through the beliefs, experiences, and values of the Killian family and Hartley Penrose. Both culturally and geographically isolated from the rest of Australia, the people of Northern and Central Australia, specifically Broome felt ignored, misunderstood, and misconstrued by the urban South. This is an ongoing theme in Australia. They resented interference from the federal government. The North feared invasion from Japanese and argued that Australia would perish if the North and the Centre were not populated and developed. Racism was intrinsic, with the Aborigines seen either as treacherous or lazy or as childlike and in need of protection. White Australians were the minority and their high statuses were a scant consolation when they were vastly outnumbered by a diverse range of cultures, the Japanese, Malays, and other South East Asians. Although, the minority, the white residents felt as if they had a power of the other ethnicities. Therefore, opening segregated cinemas, a Register of Aliens, and a clear but unofficial racial hierarchy. Their geographical isolation led to specific cultures, views, and beliefs on race. The regional and urban divide was evident when Jaimie Kilian’s wealthy urban family arrived in Broome. Jaimie felt entitled as his father was the new magistrate in town, he was arrogant and opinionated towards the regional community. When Hart offered his friendship, Kilian responded by saying “I don’t need any friends. “He walked as if he had owned the town.” Jamie enjoyed having an edge over Hart, he felt entitled as he was an urban elite. “Jamie was competitive. In almost everything you could name, Jamie was better than me…We were opposites.” Hart displayed what many felt about the new family from the Urban South. “I envied him, I was jealous, I pitied myself.”

In No Promises in the Wind many people brought gifts to Josh and Joey, when they were on their journey. Some were actual gifts while others were not. Some were gifts that weren’t physical, they were figurative. Throughout the entire book, Josh and Joey made many friends, and with those friends came many gifts.

The decade of the 1920’s was a busy grouping of ten years in America. The power of women’s desire to vote won them suffrage while uncertainty sprouted from government actions such as prohibition and especially the Scopes Trial of 1925. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s play Inherit the Wind is a depiction of this unsettling event that took place in 1925. The four main characters of the play are Bertram Cates, Rachel Brown, Henry Drummond, and Matthew Harrison Brady. The friendships between these four main characters are used to show that friendship is a powerful bond, and how the bonds protected Bertram Cates from a larger punishment in court.

During the Great Depression roughly 25% of the workers were 15 years old or younger, 20% of the children were starving and didn’t have access to new clothes and other necessities and about 40% of the young adults 16-24 were either unemployed or not in school. This shows that a great majority of the youth living during this time were not able to experience a normal childhood where they went to school and came home to play with their friends, because they had to work and were not able to attend school and get a proper education. Most of the kids also went to bed starving because their families could not afford to pay for food. Living as a child during the Great Depression was incredibly challenging

The Great Depression had tremendous effects on people who lived during the depression. Franklin D Roosevelt once said “ We are stricken by no plague of locust” (Roosevelt , First Inaugural Address 12) . There were many problems like drought , the economy failed and many people went without food and had to be but on relief programs. But like the quote they did not let the depression tempt them to give up.

The Great Depression was a time of tragedy and despair. There are several factors, which have contributed to the health of the nation during the Great Depression. While there were setbacks, there were also improvements during this time. Disabling diseases were more common in low-income families. However, cures for diseases were also found. Studies have found that the life expectancy increased during and after the great depression.

The Great Depression broke people and their relationships apart. It strapped Americans of their money, way of life, and societal pattern. In Russell Baker’s memoir, Growing up, he talks about this and the experience his mother, Lucy Elizabeth, endured when giving up her youngest daughter Audrey. After the death of his father, George Baker, his mother was left with only “a few dollars of insurance money, a worthless Model T, several chairs, a table to eat from… no way to earn a living, and no prospects for the future” (Baker 84). She couldn’t care for her entire

"He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind." Proverbs 11:29 This sums up the life of Matthew Harrison Brady, a man who had big hopes and big dreams but was not able to accomplish any of them due to his stubbornness. He is a character in the play called Inherit the Wind (1955) by Jerome Lawrence (1915 - 2004) and Robert E. Lee (1918 - 1994). The play is based of  The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes where the state of Tennessee accused Scopes of violating Tennessee law by teaching the theory of evolution at a public school (Scopes Trial.) Obviously the characters in the play did not use the same name as their real life counterparts and their story could have been completely changed. In the play Bertram Cates is accused of violating the state law and it is Brady’s job to be the prosecutor representing the state. Cates lawyer is Henry Drummond, Brady's rival and former friend. Brady’s life in the play goes through burdensome times that eventually leave him to ruin his one precious thing, his belief in God and eventually his health. His character arch exemplifies the literary theory called Freudian, which is named after psychologist Sigmund Freud. Freudian theory is reflected upon the relationship between the ego, superego and id of a character. For Matthew Harrison Brady his mind kept playing tricks on him either caused by his rival Henry Drummond or by his bullheadedness.