Plot Summary: The Great Depression

DAISY: You think so? It’s true that the tastes are exquisite, but I rarely find myself full. I suppose my diet might be misaligned towards your’s.

“What, are you on some kind of a health kick?” Janine asks, as she plows her way through a cheeseburger and a basket of fries. “First jogging every morning, now rabbit food?”

“Actually, Grandfather said that no one was having Christmas today.” At Sarah’s blank stare she elaborated. “Grandfather said that no one was happy and that we couldn’t have Christmas until everyone was happy and at home… including Little Sparrow.”

Lionel held up his hand. “We’ve had enough, thank you. But if you’d be so kind, please pack that up and the extras. I’ll stop by the kitchens later to retrieve the leftovers. However, I will accept that pitcher of mead.”

Carol: (to cordelia) Do you think your mom will mind us staying over until the rain has stopped? It looks like it’s really coming down hard out there. (points to the window)

The Great Depression is probably one of the most misunderstood events in American history. It is routinely cited, as proof that unregulated capitalism is not the best in the world, and that only a massive welfare state, huge amounts of economic regulation, and other Interventions can save capitalism from itself. Among the many myths surrounding the Great Depression are that Herbert Hoover was a laissez faire president and that FDR brought us out of the depression. What caused the Great Depression? To get a handle on that, it's necessary to look at previous depressions and compare. The Great Depression was by no means the first depression this country ever had, but it was clearly the worst. What made it different than the rest? At the time

The French Revolution lasted about 10 years before ending. French citizens razed and redesigned their political land, uprooting centuries-old institutions such as absolute

As “prosperity 's decade” came to a symbolically harsh and sudden end on Thursday, October 24, 1929, the United States government, led by President Herbert Hoover, was thrown into the unknown. No such downturn had ever presented itself before, which compounded itself with the lack of economic understanding present at the time. Yet it had seemed that the economy was healthy before the crash. Employment was high and inflation was low. Yet these conditions only served as a mirage for many Americans. As industrialists became wealthy using new age technology and selfish business methods, 70 million people lived below the poverty line. Many of these men and women lived in

The Great Depression was a terrible time for people in the United States. With the stock market crash, there were many people without jobs, homes, or they didn’t have anything. Many Americans were left with nothing more than the clothes on their back and their family. Many banks and businesses had to close because on the stock market crash. Even though these times in the thirties seemed to be hard for most people, the American people did not just sit around and do nothing. Many new fads and activities were made up in this time and many of these fads are around today. The times were hard, but not everything was bad for the American people and, in the end, everything would be better than it was before the Great Depression happened. The Great Depression was and is a huge part of history and a great one to learn about. This paper will talk about what the Great Depression is and how it happened, how life was for people of the Great Depression including in the dust bowl, and life after the Great Depression.

If one asks most Americans their opinion about when our nations’ economy crashed the most severely, they would most likely say the period between October 1929, until 1930 when the United States went through the great depression. The great depression was a time where people lost nearly everything, from houses and farms, to families and children. People were starving and left out in the cold. The worst part about this was that once people lost their belongings, they were gone forever. In the 1900’s there weren’t many programs to help the public such as health insurance, welfare programs, or unemployment. All the money that individuals had saved throughout the course of their lives, and deposited in to banks was gone.

The Great Depression in the United States triggered when the American stock market crashed, causing America’s economy to have a downturn. The two long-term causes of the Great Depression were the stock market and consumer spending. When the prices were rising and wages became stagnant, people started to buy with credit and slowly reduced the amount they spent. The stock market was one of the long-term causes of the Great Depression because of speculation and abusing the stock market. Speculation is when the stock prices began to rise and it inflated a company’s worth. People also began to buy on a margin, which led to copious amounts of debt. Hoover was elected in 1928, before the Great Depression started. Hoover believed in voluntary cooperation, rugged individualism, and that the economy has cycles of up and down. Voluntary cooperation was a belief that the government should not force or control the people. Rugged individualism was the belief that people should only succeed through their own efforts. Since Hoover believed that the economy has cycles of up and down, his main approach was to wait and see. FDR was elected in 1932, during the time the Great Depression was in action. FDR was the kind of president who had a “try anything” philosophy. Because of this, he created the New Deal, which was when lots of laws and programs were passed in order to help reform, relief, and recover from the Depression. The New Deal in America was a success because of FDR’s efforts..

Imagine a time in the history of our nation where the hospitals within were the envy of the world. In the 1960’s the medical facilities in the United States employed more people than the auto industry that served a population where one out of eight would be admitted annually (Stevens, 1996). These marvelous facilities contained air condition, artificial lighting, electric beds, carpeted private rooms, sterile supply services, advanced laboratories, and pneumatic tube systems. The infrastructure was great and it supported a population where more than 70 percent had hospital insurance (Stevens, 1996). In addition to, medical insurance was gaining popularity and major medical insurance companies started to grow.

The Great Depression is one of the most iconic time periods in United States and World history. The images of famished farmers in the country and unemployment lines in the cities are thoroughly taught. Decades later these memories teach Americans how far an economy can fall and what Americans can accomplish when faced with adversity. However, the reasons for The Great Depression are not as thoroughly taught, as historians and economists still fiercely debate them to this day. Having said that, there are conclusions that can be drawn from events that preceded The Great Depression, obviously. Studying the electric decade that preceded the Depression, the appropriately named “Roaring 20’s”, gives us a look into the factors, in addition to the

“personal assertion of existential meaning in a universe of potential cosmic meaninglessness” (Mast, 246). In the adventure films and Westerns, heroes are willing to challenge authority for their personal beliefs and feelings. They take actions based on individual beliefs, definitions of right and wrong, and the urge to complete their personal goals and dreams. The helpless antiheroes in screwball comedies present the situation during the Great Depression from another aspect. They cannot make choices themselves because of others’ intervention, and unfortunate things just happen to them. The denial of humanness is one feature of antiheroes. Powerlessness of antiheroes in the ridiculous world definitely reflects the desperate situation faced by the Americans during the Great Depression.