The Day the Cowboys Quit Big shot ranchers are stepping on the toes of the hard working cowboy. The Author, Elmer Kelton, tells a story of a strike and the suspenseful events afterwards in The Day the Cowboys Quit. An honorable true to himself cowboy, Hugh Hitchcock, makes the reader fall for his integrity which ultimately leads him out of a job. By telling the story through Hitch, Kelton is capable of giving the reader a point of view from the little people’s perspective. Based on a true event in the late 1800’s, Kelton uses his characters to bring insight to when the people are pitted up against the big monopolizing outfits, the emotions of workers from the effect of oppression, and a dynamic change in an era that no one expected. From the beginning of the novel there is tension over the branding of a cow, where the protagonist, Hugh Hitchcock, is the one to resolve the situation. This endures throughout the novel as Hitch repeatedly stands up for the rights of the cowboys from start to finish. Even though trouble arises, Hitch isn’t directly jumping on the strike bandwagon, but is understandably upset that the situation has intensified against the other ranchers in the Texas Panhandle. He states to Charlie Waide, “I wish it has never come to this.” Before the strike, Hitch is the right hand man to Charlie Waide, an influential rancher who at first resists the enforcement of the rules but later is pressured to. Hitch’s devotion to Waide is conflicted when Waide was pushed
The dust bowl was a tragic time in America for so many families and John Steinbeck does a great job at getting up-close and personal with one family to show these tragedies. In the novel, “The Grapes of Wrath”, John Steinbeck employed a variety of rhetorical devices, such as asyndeton, personification and simile, in order to persuade his readers to enact positive change from the turmoil of the Great Depression. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck tells the fictional narrative of Tom Joad and his family, while exploring social issues and the hardships of families who had to endure the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Steinbeck’s purpose was to challenge readers to look at
The opening of the novel presents a prelude of how life for the 19th century cowboy was and how
Today, it is more evident than ever that there are deep divisions within modern society along the lines of race, class and gender. These divides are highlighted by recent protests, riots and movements. These issues are relevant in modern society as well as in two famous stories. Both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men use character development to make commentary toward these points. Fitzgerald’s novel covers the tumultuous journey of Nick Carraway through the swanky social elite of the 1920’s. Steinbeck’s text covers the opposite end of the spectrum, detailing the experiences of George and Lennie, ranchers during the great depression. While also providing a riveting and captivating plot, these seemingly antithetical tales both develop their respective characters to be normal, everyday people who face difficult problems because of their class.
Little Porter Osborne, Jr. grew up on a farm in Georgia where the people own the land and the land, in turn, owns the people. In the novel, Run with the Horsemen, Porter fights his way through adolescence and the depression, learning more about life every day from the big boys under the tree at lunch. Ferrol Sams is able to portray a realistic account of life on a farm during the depression by using humor, dialect, and vivid imagery.
John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, takes place during the Great Depression, a time when troubled and distressed American men and women lived; a time of poverty and an economic crisis. When change is thought upon, it is to be thought of new life and new experiences. The Great Depression is the kind of change that replaces a part of American living with “ Somepin’s happening. I went up an’ I looked, an’ the houses is all empty, an’ the lan’ is empty, an’ this whole country is empty” ( Steinbeck 94). In his work, Steinbeck presents the hardships that Americans had to go through by being mindful of particular aspects which makes the reader understand the characters’ distress. For example, the landscape of the farm lands. Even though the land has its brutality, it grows to be the scenery for humans to be able to recognize and consider their troubles about work and life in general. With these concerns, there are differences between the people who are accustomed to the landscape and admire it, and those who do not agree with it. In the novel, Steinbeck uses attributes of class conflict and injustice as a way of presenting and socially commenting that the Great Depression brought attention to more problems beyond the idea of poverty.
Many people are seen journeying to California because their homes were taken down. They all have hopes to make a living in the west while making good money and having a steady job. There are handbills all around, and Pa has one that says, “Pea Pickers Wanted in California. Good Wages All Season. 800 Pickers Wanted.” (147). Because of these claims, there are false hopes that arise. Wilson, a friend of the Joads, talks about how the journey to the west is worth it, for the jobs are easy and there are good wages, which means that with some luck, “a fella could have a place of his own” (147). The reality, however, is that with many people going to different farms, there are more workers, and therefore less wages distributed among those workers. Through these handbills, John Steinbeck shows how the maker of these – the upper class – makes sure that many people will be attracted to the falsified wages that will be earned, which manipulate everyone who is willing to work. Another instance of this deceit was shown when two cars drove into a camp where the Joads were staying. Men came out of the cars and asked if anyone wanted work, explaining that there were jobs in Tulare County and that they needed a lot of pickers. However, this was the only information given, and when asked about how much would be paid, the men would not give an answer because they did not want to pay the workers a lot of money. Steinbeck incorporates these secretive characters to show that the upper class tricks those of the lower by censoring important information that when found out, may stop the lower class from obeying the upper class’s commands, and an example of this rebelling is shown when the workers argued that “if [they] don’t know [how much they will pay], [they] got no right to hire men” (263). The upper class
The Worst Hard Times by Timothy Egan conveys the story of farmers who decided to prosper on the plains during the 1800s, in places such as Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. They decided to make living, and some stayed during the worst droughts in the United States in 1930s. High temperatures and dust storms destroyed the area, killing animals and humans. This competently book reveals the prosperity for many, later revealing the time of the skinny cows. The story is based on the testimonies of the survivors or through their diaries/journals and on historical research. The author describes the struggles of the nesters, in which Egan clearly blames these catastrophic events on the settler’s hubris.
The 1930’s were a decade of great change politically, economically, and socially. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl wore raw the nerves of the people, and our true strength was shown. From it arose John Steinbeck, a storyteller of the Okies and their hardships. His books, especially The Grapes of Wrath, are reflections of what really went on in the 1930’s. John Steinbeck did not write about what he had previously read, he instead wrote what he experienced through his travels with the migrant workers. “His method was not to present himself notebook in hand and interview people. Instead he worked and traveled with the migrants as one of them, living as they did and arousing no suspicion from employers militantly alert against
The 1930s were a time of hardship for many across the United States. Not only was the Great Depression making it difficult for families to eat every day, but the Dust Bowl swept through the plains states making it nearly impossible to farm the land in which they relied. John Steinbeck saw how the Dust Bowl affected farmers, primarily the tenant farmers, and journeyed to California after droves of families. These families were dispossessed from the farms they had worked for years, if not generations (Mills 388). Steinbeck was guided by Tom Collins, the real-life model for the Weedpatch camp’s manager Jim Rawley, through one of the federal migrant worker camps. He was able to see for himself,
The unconventionally written intercalary chapters of Steinbeck's novel, “The Grapes of Wrath”, are designed to show the readers a view of economic depression and social aspects of America during this time period. Steinbeck tells the reader about the situation through a macroscopic point of view, when he writes the intercalary chapters. It is through these intercalary chapters that Steinbeck tells us about the struggle of many migrant farmers who are pushed out of their homes and start to live their lives on the road, while trying to find places for them to work. Between each of these intercalary chapters are narrative chapters where Steinbeck gives the readers a microscopic view of the situation, by giving us an example of one of the migrant
“They had no argument, no system, nothing but their numbers and their needs. When there was work for a man, ten men fought for it – fought with a low wage. If that fella’ll work for thirty cents, I’ll work for twenty-five”(Steinbeck). The renowned novel, The Grapes of Wrath, is a realistic portrayal of life and social conditions during the 30’s when the Dust Bowl swept across the nation, causing many to fall deeper into the depression. This caused many families to leave their homes in search of a safer and more hopeful land. The Grapes of Wrath follows Tom Joad, his family, and many other migrant farmers as they migrate from their Oklahoma farms into their new, hope filled life in California. The struggles that these characters endure
Its set in a little town called selinis and george and lennie are two outcast young adult men with a problem at every turn. The two find each other in quite a predicament while running away from the cops and a town known as weed. They end up drifting into a little spot with a creek and some trees. Towards the next morning they wander on over to a new workplace on a ranch and that's where it all begins. These boys work anywhere they can as most people did in the great depression. Migrant workers became a huge part of society. But lennie and george always saw it different. They wanted something of their own. To be there on boss. They desired their own ranch there own cows there own chickens and god help us all there own rabbits ( you'll get that one after the book). These guys were nothing more than dreamers and throughout the story the dreamer becomes less of a dream and more of a reality. Each day it becomes more realistic until an unintended murder appears and that's when everything goes down. I don't want to give to much away so i'll do yourself a favor and end right here. But befor i go remember this a john steinbeck classic everyone and there dad has read it i'm sure
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck uses numerous literary techniques to advocate for change in the social and political attitudes of the Dust Bowl era. Simile, personification, and imagery are among the many devices that add to the novel’s ability to influence the audience’s views. Moreover, through his use of detail, Steinbeck is able to develop a strong bond between the reader and the Joad clan. This bond that is created evokes empathy from the audience towards the Joads as they face numerous challenges along their journey. The chapters go between the Joad’s story and a broad perspective of the Dust Bowl’s effect on the lives of Mid-western farmers in which Steinbeck illustrates dust storms devastating the land, banks evicting tenant
Ford’s Stagecoach is an epic and revolutionary approach that displays the desert terrain and western inhabitant’s struggles. Stagecoach follows the lives of seven strangers in their attempt to arrive to Lordsburg, New Mexico. Each of these characters reflects the various types of people found in the western world. The film is laced with many American ideals of the time such as xenophobia, chivalry, the conventional standards of women, and much more. Stagecoach defies the conventional western film because it is no longer just men in a desert terrain with rifles.
Legendary composer Leonard Bernstein once said, “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before” (Leonard Bernstein Quotes). This statement describes the exact response of musicians to the assassination of the young American President, John F. Kennedy. Toward the end of his third year of presidency, Kennedy was shot and killed in a parade in Dallas, Texas. Americans were shocked to have lost such a promising young leader, and a somber silence swept across the nation as Americans lamented his death; this silence, however, was broken by the melancholy music of mourning (Baldacci). The assassination of President John F. Kennedy started a new movement of music that was inspired by the tragedy and differed in structure from previous music.