To Kill A Mockingbird: The Impact Of The Great Depression In America

The Great Depression was a dark time in American history that lasted from1929-1939. It began after the Stock Market crashed on October 19, 1929. According to A Biography of America: FDR- The Great Depression, “It was the deepest and longest lasting economic downturn in American History” (A Biography of America). As a result of the Great Depression one out of every four Americans was out of work. The Great Depression resulted in a life for Americans that was plagued by overproduction and under-consumption of products, starving families were forced into bread and soup lines, and thousands of agricultural workers became migratory workers in order to survive.

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 stock market crash of 1929 sent the nation spiraling into a state of economic paralysis that became known as the Great Depression. As industries shrank and businesses collapsed or cut back, up to 25% of Americans were left unemployed. At the same time, the financial crisis destroyed the life savings of countless Americans (Modern American Poetry). Food, housing and other consumable goods were in short supply for most people (Zinn 282). This widespread state of poverty had serious social repercussions for the country.

“Growing up in a time when all you worry about is if your family will be able to make it through to the next day is definitely a very scary and difficult time to live in” (Vonder Haar). My great-grandpa had this to say to my grandpa about growing up during the great depression. For many people in America from the 1930s to 1940s, life was a constant struggle. The people living in the Midwest, especially St. Louis, knew much too well how difficult it was to live through the great depression. When great-great grandpa first came to St. Louis from Germany he purchased a farm. From that point on, my family struggled to maintain the farm that would still exist today. Many people were affected by the great depression. Throughout the time period before

In conclusion, the Great Depression was a downside of America’s history. But, in the dark times, one of our nation’s best presidents came into light. Franklin D. Roosevelt once said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. This meant in those times that Americans were doing more harm than good. When they withdrew their stocks and money from the banks, they were causing more damage to the economy. With shutting down the banks and getting congress together, they were able to solve the dilemmas of the Great Depression through actions taken by federal and state

The stock market crash signaled the beginning of the great depression, the crash alone did not cause the great depression but it quickened it arrival. The source of income for this family living in Kansas was difficult because they have a Farm and due to the dust bowl, it ruined that which means no income for the family. The family is affected by the following factors of the great depression because now they can not afford to feed their children and themselves as well, have a clean environment for their children so they don't get sick, be able to promise their children that everything will be okay when in fact everything wasn't in that given time period because anything could've happened. The fact that their is a big amount of children in the family makes it far more difficult to get things done, and possibly travel to a better

The Great Depression in the U.S history was a time where there was very little jobs and some money. Banks had very little money so most people couldn’t get money out. It was a hard time in U.S history for people when this was going on. The stock market crash a horrible time for people when they had some money and very little jobs. Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to help by creating The New Deal. The great dustbowl affected farmers and the change in farming affected the economy. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee illustrates The Great Depression was a worldwide economic slump of the 1930’s.

Cecchetti, Stephen G. "Understanding the Great Depression: Lessons for Current Policy ." Monetary Economics (1997): 1-26.

One of the reasons young kids had to get jobs is because they were young and small. Smaller children could do work in factories that adults couldn’t because they could fit in tight spaces. They could also be paid less because they were children. Common jobs among unmarried boy’s ages 18-25 was going and working for the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps where they made about $30 a month and $25 of that money was sent back to help their families. Some other jobs popular among boys were newspaper delivery, working in markets and stores, and factory jobs. During the great depression, employment rates went down but malnutrition rates went

According to Foner the Great Depression was “the greatest economic disaster in modern history.” (Foner, 632) After the stock market crash in 1929, the people of America wound up in a massive amount of debt. The crash began due to a day called Black Tuesday, a day were almost all investors sold their stocks and the prices dropped to eventually become worth nothing. Since there were so many who could not afford to pay for objects, the value went down drastically and employees were eventually laid off from their work with no way of being able to find another one.

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is set in the time of The Great Depression, and shows several families that are faced with poverty. The Great Depression started with the stock market crash in 1929, between 1930 and 1934, one million farmers lost their homes and jobs. The Great Depression was making everyone poor and inflation was high. Many characters in the novel are extremely poor, such as the Cunninghams, so setting the the novel in the time of The Great Depression helps Lee to show differences between different classes.

     The Great Depression was a huge economic downfall in North America and involved many other industrialized countries of the world. The Depression began in 1929 and lasted for about ten years. Millions of people lost their jobs along with many businesses going bankrupt. The common misconception of the Great Depression is people think that the stock market crash was the main cause for it. There were many causes for the Depression; unequal distribution of money during the 1920’s was the main cause of the Depression. This unequal distribution happened on many different classes of people. The imbalance of money is what created such an unstable economy. The stock market was doing much worse than people thought

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee. The novel is about the experiences of two siblings growing up in Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930s. Scout and her brother, Jem Finch, over several years, learn valuable lessons about life and society. The main themes of the story are the loss of cherubic innocence and the rift of inequality in society. The novel is largely influenced when it was written by the author’s own experiences, Civil Rights, and the Great Depression. The Great Depression is referenced many times in the novel since the Great Depression plays an important part influencing the story’s setting, plot, and characters. In To Kill a Mockingbird there are signs that the Great Depression is present and that certain characters are affected more by it than others, and the Great Depression is shown in the story’s families and their lives.

“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.

There were many primary causes for The Great Depression, Unequal distribution of money to the economy,