Category: Dust Bowl

Have you ever been through a difficult time that resulted in you growing as a person and your relationships with others changing? John Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ follows the Joad family on their journey to California in hopes of finding work after being evicted from their farm. In these desperate times, each character grows to adapt to their ever-changing environment, which causes shifts in one’s personality and the relationship between characters to strengthen. Such character developments and changes in relationships can be understood through five different layers, with each layer having an association between Steinbeck’s writing and ecologist Ed Ricketts’ ideas.

Inspired by Rickett’s system of observing, describing, dissecting, and cataloging members of species, layer one studies the depiction of individual characters and plot. Steinbeck creates every character to be unique, with their own set of strengths and weaknesses. For example, when Jim Casy is first introduced, we learn that he is no longer a preacher and is more absorbed in his own thinkings. He explains to Tom Joad, “Once a fella gets use’ to a way a thinking’, it’s hard to leave” (Steinbeck, 69). Since he has spent much of his life spreading the ideas of the church, Casy continues to theorize about God in his own time to have a deeper meaning of life. He is portrayed by Steinbeck as a diligent thinker who enjoys teaching his ideas to others and is not afraid to share with those who may disagree.

As the family travels west, the migrant workers unite to help each other. Layer two explores the bonding of individuals and communities in a progression from “I” to “we” based on Rickett’s study of interactions between clusters of several species or associations between species. Ma Joad provides the strongest example of the progression from “I” to “we”. When the Joads ask the Wilsons to join them on their journey to California, Ma tells them, “You won’t be no burden. Each’ll help each, an’ we’ll all git to California” (202). She tends to use the term “we” when describing situations because they are all facing the same struggles and can work together to overcome or lessen their challenges. Ma also repeatedly proves her strength and caringness to others by helping those less fortunate.

Through the novel, we learn about the Dust Bowl and its impacts on individuals. Layer three examines the historical context of the novel, which relates to Rickett’s study of the history of a species. One of the major effects of the Dust Bowl was families heading west in search of work. Migrant workers would travel from all over the Midwest on Route 66, which is described as “the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land, from the thunder of tractors and shrinking ownership, from the desert’s slow northward invasion, from the twisting winds that howl up out of Texas, from the floods that bring no richness to the land and steal what little richness is there” (160). Steinbeck uses a negative tone to describe the situation, which causes the reader to feel sympathetic towards the Joad family and other migrant workers during this time. This helps to create a negative association between the Dust Bowl and the quality of life.

As the family dynamics change, different members grow to have more or less power. Layer four studies Steinbeck’s theory of “universal plight and power struggle”, an idea connected to Ricketts’ theory of organizing animals by ecological niches. Since the beginning of the novel, Ma has been a prominent leader figure. When the family was having a meeting prior to leaving for California and Ma left the group to go into the house, the others waited until “she walked back to the brooding council” to continue their meeting (158). The family does not make decisions without her and relies heavily on her at times. During their journey to California, while Pa Joad becomes less and less of a head figure and Ma also takes on a more authoritative role, oftentimes directing family members on what they should do.

Layer five combines all of the previous four layers and creates the emergence of Steinbeck’s argument for social awareness and activism using Rickett’s theory of organizing species by ecological niches. Within this layer, we uncover the expansion from “I” to “we” to “all, the whole thing, or one soul.”

By the end of the novel, certain characters, such as Tom, have become enlightened while others are still considered shallow. When he was first released from jail, Tom’s main goal was to return to his family and work on the farm for his father. As the novel progresses, he learns to think of others and prioritize things as a whole. After Tom needed to go into hiding due to a fight, he told Ma, “Soon’s my face gets a little better, why I’ll come out an’ go to picking” (552). He understands that he is at risk of being sent back into jail and doesn’t want to jeopardize the family.

“The Dust Bowl was the name given to the drought-stricken Southern Plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a dry period in the 1930s” (Editors, 1). This came about when farmers were not educated about the land. The farmers would plow and plant the same crops on the same fields year after year. They never gave the dirt a rest or used fertilisers. When they continued these habits it kicked all the dirt dust in the air and thus became the dust bowl.

The Dust Bowl began on April 14th 1935. It was a typical Sunday for everyone. People were headed to church and many probably had plans at the church after the service. When the people started to leave church they noticed something weird though. The sky had gotten dark and it was silent. No birds or any other animals making noise. Everyone thought it was going to rain so they rushed home. Very soon after, the air got cooler and the sky got even darker. Then the first wave of rolling black dust came through. One reporter wrote on the first day that “uncorked jug placed on the sidewalk for two hours was half filled with sand” (Roop, 4). In the weeks to come many more reports similar to the one about the jug came in. people reported roofs and attics falling in under the weight of the dust and windows being blacked out.

Life was hard during the Dust Bowl. The people that were hit the hardest where the farmers. Many farmers lost their farms and their work due to all the dust. People had started hearing that work was available in California. This is when people started to migrate towards the west coast. The farmers that stuck to the midwest had it even worse. They could hardly grow anything and when they did it was just enough for the family to eat. During all of this, kids still had to go to school. The average person didn’t have a car so the kids would walk to school. Making all the kids walk to school caused a whole new bunch of problems. The children would come home and report red irritated eyes and trouble breathing. Later down the road the parents where finding out that these symptoms were leading to bigger problems. The children were being diagnosed with dust pneumonia. This occurs when you spend so much time breathing in dust or other hazardous things that you then in turn struggle to breath and you cough a lot.

The damages from the Dust bowl was major. There was so much dust that it filled gas tanks. This caused people to not be able to work because there machines wouldn’t run. At the same time this also damaged businesses. People where not leaving home and taking the trains into the city to shop so this caused the trains to quit running and businesses to close down. A man named Bob Burke who has written over 127 articles and books about the 1930s, was asked to elaborate on the dust bowl and here is a bit of what he said: “ There was little food and school was closed for a week. Families who lived far from town were isolated by piles of sand on roads that were far from modern in the first place. Farmers could not grow crops to feed their animals or gardens to feed their families because of the drought, blowing sand, and blistering heat. People began to leave Oklahoma. They lost their property because they could not sell enough crops or cattle to pay mortgages. Families also believed they would die from inhaling dust if they stayed in the region affected by the dust storms. When a baby is born, a wet cloth was placed over its mouth and nose for the first few weeks to keep dust from clogging its airways” (Martins, 3).

Parents wouldn’t allow their kids to go outside. If they did then they had to tie a cloth over their nose and mouth.parents made a new nightly chore for the kids, it was to sweep off everyones beds at night. Many parents quit sending their kids to school for health reasons. A quote from my past.com shows how bad the dust bowl was. “The effect was so bad that in the winter of 1934, red snow fell on New England” (findmypast, paragraph 8). Parents who lived close together would then gather at one house and bunker down for the day and try to teach the kids what little of reading and math they knew.

There where many ways farmers tried to save the soil. Most didn’t work. After seeing that most of the topsoil was gone, the usa knew we had to do something. The solution was to tell farmers to preserve the soil that was left. They added fertilizers to the dirt and decided to rotate crops planted in the fields. This saved the land and stopped another dust bowl from happening again. find my past has a quote that reports “In the fall of 1939, rain finally returned in significant amounts to many areas of the Great Plains, signaling the end of the Dust Bowl. But the damage remained’ (findmypast, paragraph16).

After the Dust Bowl around 75% of the topsoil was gone. Some land would never fully recover. Prices of land dropped dramatically. To try and get farmers back to their farms and so did the price of equipment to help them. In the states most affected, land value decreased by up to 30%. Even though these steps were taken to get farmers back to their farms, it didn’t really work. It took all through the 1940’s to get the number of farms back to what they were in the mid 1920’s.

In the end the Dust Bowl was one of the biggest events of the 1930’s for many reasons. It left lots of damage and hurt many families. As it is interesting to learn why it happened, it is also good to learn what the farmers did and can do to insure that another dust bowl doesn’t happen or start to happen again.

Cited sources

1. Dust bowl https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/dust-bowl October 5th 2019.
2. Dust bowl https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl#Aggregate_changes_in_agriculture_and_population_on_the_Plains October 5th 2019.
3. The Great depression https://www.ducksters.com/history/us_1900s/daily_life_farm_during_the_great_depression.php October 6th 2019.
4. Living in the dust bowl https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/rockyhillms/mediacenter/research/worldstudies/living_dustbowl.pdf October 6th 2019.
5. The year the dust settled https://www.findmypast.com/blog/history/1939-the-year-the-dust-bowl-settled October 5th 2019.
6. To prevent another dust bowl the usa must sow the right seeds. https://www.livescience.com/53574-if-wrong-seeds-planted-after-fires-us-could-face-modern-dust-bowl.html October 7th 2019.
7. What was it like being a kid during the dust bowl https://elizabethannemartins.com/2016/10/02/what-was-it-like-being-a-kid-during-the-dust-bowl-a-qa-with-author-bob-burke/ October 9th 2019

The name of the book I read is ‘The Worst Hard Time’ by Timothy Egan. Timothy Egan is an American author, journalist and op-ed columnist for The New York Times and has written a total of seven books. ‘The Worst Hard Time’ perfectly captures Americas worst environmental disaster through the eyes of those that experienced it first-hand, better known as the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl primarily affected southeastern Colorado, southwest Kansas and parts of Oklahoma and Texas from 1930-1936. The Dust Bowl was known for its catastrophic effects on American agriculture and the neighboring communities.

The story begins when we are introduced to Bam White, a ranch hand traveling from Las Animas, Colorado to Littlefield, Texas for a brand-new start as Texas was the place to be for a ranch hand such as Bam. However, little did Bam White know that the once legendary XIT ranch, was now in shambles, suffering from drought, and having no cattle to their name. Realtors who were in a desperate attempt to sell land, handed lies to clients while pan handle farmers told people to stay away at all costs. Unfortunately, while Bam White and his family were resting in Dalhart, a small town one-hundred-seventy-six miles from their destination, he came to realize one of his horses had passed away, meaning that they could travel no further and he would be forced to look for work in the town they had only been supposed to be passing through. Meanwhile, in the story we are introduced to a young woman named Hazel and her father Carlyle Lucas who were settled in Boise City, Oklahoma. With the onset of World War One, Carlyle Lucas turned towards the wheat boom, as the war had caused the price of wheat to nearly double and he looked to support his family in any way possible. Carlyle would make nearly eight thousand a year which was incredibly fortunate in 1917. The people of Boise City were thriving, being able to replace their horses with Model-T’s, and loans that were previously impossible to receive, were now being granted all around the region, but it all seemed to be happening too fast. Bam White in the meantime, was struggling to find a job as a ranch hand and turned to the wheat just as many others in farmland were for the time being. However, the overuse of land for farming caused a glut of wheat in the U.S, marking the beginning of the end as wheat prices entered a downward spiral, and farmers were forced to produce more to support their families. Soon after, the stock market crashed, causing the people of the southern high plains to lose their savings due to bank closures while president Hoover refused to purchase the mass supply of wheat the farmers had produced. To make matters worse, on September 14th, 1930, the first of hundreds of dust storms began to arise. Businesses were failing, crops cost more to grow than to purchase, America’s soil had lost its life, and drought ravaged the southern highlands.

As Bam wandered the countryside picking up odd jobs whenever he could, he stumbled across Hooverville’s, in which he realized people were suffering just as bad as he was. However, once Roosevelt was sworn into office in March 1933 with his predecessor leaving him the shell of a nation, he immediately swung into action. Roosevelt began buying up surplus, regulating the price and flow of food, and asked to reduce farmers crops and cattle in exchange for cash. While the droughts were still relentless, things began to look better for those in the heart of the Dust Bowl. Meanwhile in Boise City, rain had not fallen in nearly two years, and in March and April 1933, they saw a two-month block of dirt storms killing any plans that survived to spring, which left the animals with nothing to feed on. Dust storms in the region made it nearly impossibly to not inhale dust particles, and those in no-man’s land began to lose all their possessions and hope. However, Roosevelt began to give the people hope once again, as unemployment improved due to subsidies to farmers and the thousands of government jobs that had been created. Meanwhile the storms continued their havoc, bringing wind, dust, and static electricity every time they arose making the people of Dalhart so desperate as to shoot TNT into the air in an attempt to have it rain.

Hazel, the daughter of Charles had just had her first baby, and although doctors advised to not return to Boise City in regards to the baby’s health, they did so any way. Soon after, a funeral was planned for their one-year old daughter who succumbed to dust pneumonia. Word eventually began to the rest of the nation about the dire conditions of the southern plains. The Roosevelt administration hired a photography team to record the destruction of the region, using Bam White’s frail body as the symbol of the Dust Bowl. Hazel soon welcomed her second child into the world, a baby boy who they made sure would be able to live a long life by leaving Boise City, and the dust bowl behind them.

Bam White was being shunned by his neighbors for appearing in the Roosevelt documentary as the symbol for the dust bowl. However, Bam White did not care as he knew the farmers were the one to blame for the disaster. Despite the improvements made by the federal government, there were still one-hundred-thirty-four clusters in 1937, making it the worst year known to date. Franklin D. Roosevelt eventually visits Amarillo, Texas in which many city officials believed that there could be a dust storm, ruining the presidents stay. However, to the people’s surprise, there was actually rain, and Roosevelt took it as a good omen. The people of Amarillo gave equal thanks to both Roosevelt and god for the end of the drought. While Roosevelt lauded the people for their strength and resiliency, he knew that the Dust Bowl could have been prevented, and the reason it did happen was because of human failure.

The reason I chose to read ‘The Worst Hard Time’ by Timothy Egan was because of its unique perspective on life during the Dust Bowl, and my interest in knowing what life would be like in the heart of Americas worst environmental disaster. Overall, the book was a very interesting read and exposed me to information that I wouldn’t have had without this book. While the book was overall a very interesting and good read, it could also be quite boring and slow at times, making it hard for me to want to continue reading at times. However, I would still recommend this book to another student if they were interested in learning more about the causes of both the Dust Bowl and Great Depression along with the impacts of both historical events on the people of the southern highlands.

The Great Depression was caused by the stock market crashing it was the worst economic event in the history of the economic world the market crashed in 1929 and ended in 1939. So ten years of riots fights and homelessness. 12.9 million shares were traded on october 29th or black tuesday then another 16 million shares were traded after another wave of panic swept Wall Street. Over the next few years the consumer spending and investment declined failing companies laid off workers and in 1933 when the Great Depression was at its lowest point more than 15 million people were unemployed and nearly half the banks in the country was failing and closed down. Most americans forced to buy on credit fell into debt and the number of foreclosures and repossessions grew exponentially at an alarming rate.

On June 5th, 1933 the United States went off of something called the gold standard which is a monetary system in which currency is backed by gold, which made creditors able to demand payment in gold. The United States has been on the gold standard since 1879, except for an embargo on the gold exports due to World War I. Bank failures in the Great Depression sent panic threw most americans and made it to where they started hoarding the gold. On April 5th, 1933 president Roosevelt ordered that all gold coins and certificates worth more than $100 dollars be traded in for a different form of currency. This required all the people of the United States turn in gold products to the federal reserve by May 1st for an amount of $20.67 per ounce. By may 10th the U.S government had collected over $300 million dollars worth of gold coins and and $470 million worth of gold certificates. The government then placed gold at $35 dollars per ounce. This increased the federal reserve’s balance sheets by 69% and allowed the federal reserve to further inflate the supply of the currency. The government held the price for the gold at $35 dollars an ounce until August 15th 1971, this is when president Richard Nixon announced that the United States would no longer convert dollars to gold at a set value. This made it to where the united states completely abandoned the gold standard. In 1974, President Gerald Ford signed papers to make people able to own gold bullion again.

The Dust Bowl also known as the Dirty 30s started in the 1930s and ended about a decade later but the damage to the economy lasted a lot longer. Severe drought blew threw the Midwestern and Southern in 1930, then in 1931 dust storms began and a series of droughts followed for years further damaging crop production and making the environmental disaster last longer by 1934. Aproximentlly 35 million acres of farmland was said to be useless for farming, while another 125 million acres of land started losing their topsoil, which would also make them useless for farming. During the Dust Bowl severe dust storms, often called the black blizzards, swept the plains and would often carry the dust as far east as Washington D.C and New York city and would often cover ships in the Atlantic ocean with a layer of dust. Large clouds of dust would darken the sky often and leave them darkened sometimes for days. At a time in many places the dust would fall like snow and people would have to use shovels to clear walkways, streets and just about everywhere else dust would make its way through cracks, even if the house was tightly sealed, and would make layers of dust on food, skin and furniture. Most but not all people developed dust pneumonia, which is an illness that people often would get by inhaling the dust particles over time, which would eventually cause difficulty breathing chest pain and death. The number of deaths are unknown but it is estimated to be in the hundreds or even thousands of deaths.

On May 11, 1934 a massive dust storm two miles high traveled 2,000 miles to the East Coast and made monuments visibility very low and hard to see even if you were close to them. But the worst dust storm happened on April 14, 1935. News reports called the event Black Sunday. A big thick wall of sand and dust started in Oklahoma somewhere and spread east. About 3 million tons of topsoil was estimated to have blown away from the Great Plains during Black Sunday. Rainfall returned to the area by the end of 1939 ending the Dust Bowl years.

The economy is affected and population declined in the most damaged areas, where the agricultural value of the land failed to. Recover this lasted well into the 1950s. At this time it was a period of protests and hunger marches, poverty spread drastically, most people suffered quietly ashamed of their poverty. No matter how bad their situation were the Great Depression changed those in the generation that lived in it and survived to tell stories about it.

About 2.5 million people left the Dust Bowl states this includes Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma during the 1930s. This was labeled the largest migration in American history. Oklahoma lost about 440,000 people to migration most of them poor. Due to poverty traveled west looking for some sort of employment. 1935 to 1940 approximately 250,000 Oklahoma migrants moved to California and only a third of them lived in the state. The refugees of the dust bowl okies and the okies faced descrimanation hard labour and low wages, when the reached California. Some of them lived in shanty towns and or tents, that ran alongside irrigation ditches. Okie soon became a term meant to discourage someone and used to refer to all poor Dust Bowl migrants regardless of the state they originate from.

During the Great Depression with the U.S dealing with poverty and unemployment there was multiple opportunities for people to commit crimes. In the 1920s in Chicago alone there were over 1,300 gangs documented and Americans found more opportunities to commit crimes such as bootlegging, lonesharking robing banks and even murder. The crime bosses growing rich from the profit of bootlegged alcohol and other illegal things. They were aided by paying off corrupt police officers and politicians. This allowed them free rome of the city to do as they please with no repercussions from the police, and if people would say anything they didn’t like or agree with, they would kill them or beat them.

Along with crime rates rising the number of schools closing also rose and the education and intelligence of the people decreased because the schools were closing.

One group of people, who actually gained jobs during the Great Depression, were women. From 1930 to 1940 the number of employed women in the United States rose about 24% from 10.5 million to 13 million. 25% of the National Recovery Administration’s wages code set lower wages for women. Jobs available to women paid less but were more stable during the Great Depression. Some of the jobs included nursing, teaching and domestic work. In order to prevent women from going by other names to sidestep and lose their jobs the federal government also began making women with federal jobs to use their husbands names in 1933. Some women even went as far as marrying men without federal jobs in secret so that they wouldn’t lose their jobs. In the start of 1940 26 states had placed restrictions known as marriage bars on women’s employment. Women were doing the same jobs men could do for less pay and who would pay the men to work, when women do the same amount of work for less money. The other people they would hire were the african americans for the same reason they hired women: they could do the same amount of work for less money, and why pay more money, when you can have the job done exactly the same for a much lower price than you would have to pay the white men to do the job. And still today females make less than males. For most women they make 81.4% of what men make doing the same job and it’s worse for men and women of a different race.

In the 1930’s a chain of events occurred in the United States. These events were the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. The Great Depression was the largest money-making decrease history had ever seen. The Dust Bowl was a series of large dust storms, which caused many to become sick. Both of those events as well as the environment affected migrant workers. So you will need to know about the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl and the effects they had towards migrant workers in the area of Salinas, California.

From 1929 to 1939, the biggest economic downturn in history occurred, this was known as the Great Depression. Americas banks and companies were failing. This led to millions being fired from their job. Since everything was failing and many could not afford things, this put the farmers in a financial crisis. The crops were ready to harvest and the farmers couldn’t afford them. Instead of harvesting them they had to leave them in the fields to rot. The farmers could not provide for their families and were out of farms. The only positive outcome of all of this, helped females. During these years women were treated better. As companies and banks were failing, females were being hired. “The financial pressure, caused more women to seek jobs, while the males were losing their jobs. The amount of employed women, increased twenty-four percent and this led to less females getting married. The Great Depression not only affected farmers, migrant workers, and women, it also sped up the process of the economic crisis’ (“Great Depression History”, 1).

The Dust Bowl occurred in the 1930s, roughly around the time of the Great Depression. This was a period in which dust storms and drought were spread across North American prairies. It is called the Dust Bowl because there was this huge dust storm and no one could see anything (“Dust Bowl”, Gale, 1). Even if it was right in front of them that they wouldn’t be able to see it. Many people became sick because they were breathing in dust. Thus the name “Dust Bowl” was used for this storm. This storm not only brought many getting sick, it had a bad effect on the people who owned land. Considering it was much hotter and dry it made it difficult to farm. Farmers were used to soil with much more water in it, like European-style agriculture. The Dust Bowl not only affected farmers, it left an impact on Migrant Workers (“Dust Bowl”, Gale, 1).

A migrant worker is a person who moves around looking for work. This leads them to be open to being attacked or damaged. “A migrant worker will experience discrimination, social exculsion, and not being able to have access to health care. This person will also be open to atrocious living and working conditions” (Loganathan, 1). Migrant workers moved during these years because they were in search for a better life. Where they were staying there were not many jobs and living conditions were awful. Okies and Arkies had joined the migrant workers when they had started traveling the nation. Okies were workers from Oklahoma and Arkies were workers from Arizona” (Mapes, 1). The Great Depression put farming in a distressed state and this made the migrant workers chances of finding jobs very low. There were so many and there weren’t enough jobs for them all. This led to the migrant workers life not being so good. During this time period, life for migrant workers was very bad. They were always working for a low salary, and were in constant horrific living conditions. “Farmers would shelter the workers in shacks, chicken coops, barns, even portable wagons. The other workers would find shelter in small cabins or abandoned farm houses. These houses or cabins would not be in the best condition either. Some would have broken windows, or missing doors. Many migrant workers whether they lived by themselves or in camps always tended to be alone from everyone else. The local communities would see them as outcasts’ (Mapes, 2). These workers would be shunned by these communities. When the Great Depression started to take effect, it only made it worse for the migrant workers. All these events affected migrant workers, but so did the area where they were located.

The Salinas Valley in California is a flat wet piece of land that is set between two mountain ranges. The Salinas River runs down the center until it lets out into the Monterey Bay (“Steinbeck in the Schools”). A benefit of this land is that it is a great area for farming (Saavedra, 1). The crops would be known as row crops, which are crops that are planted and grown in rows. This business is a multi-billion dollar one. As well as it is mostly dependent on water. A drawback from this is that if there were ever a drought, the land would be ruined. Considering the land is so heavily dependent on water if there were to be no more water the crops would die (Saavedra, 1).

Throughout the 1930’s there were horrifically large dust storms, this became known as The Dust Bowl. While these horrific storms were occurring, America took another hit from the Great Depression. More importantly known as the money-making fall in all of history. This left millions out of money and jobs, affecting migrant workers the greatest. While the Dust Bowl made it so farming was impossible, the Great Depression led farmers to be unable to own land. This caused the migrant workers to not have work, and not be able to provide for there family. These migrant workers would go to Salinas, California because it was the agriculture jackpot. These events not only caused an awful period in American History, but they let American be prepared to ensure that something like this would never happen again.

John Steinbeck, one of the most popular authors still known today, has written one of the most popular books ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ since 1939 when it was published. Selling about 150,000 annually, Steinbeck had left his mark on the world with his creative and skillful use of literary elements. His novel consists of the Joad family, the main focus for the idea of Dust Bowl farmers. As the book progresses, the author captures the family’s adventure as they make their way to California for work.

In the beginning part of the book, Steinbeck uses detailed imagery to describe the earth’s completion during the time of the Dust Bowl. From the small ruptures in the earth to the slightest heat wave descended from the sun, the description sets a tone on the landscape that the characters attempt to strive on. Steinbeck uses the quote “The air was thin and the sky more pale; and every day the earth paled” (Steinbeck, 1), as the introduction to one of the driest moments in history. He furthers his statement by detailing out the masks and handkerchiefs around their faces they used to keep dust from entering their lungs to signify the horrid living styles the victims of the Dust Bowl had to endure. The devil’s breath reeked havoc on the land and suffocated everything last living thing, leaving the earth nothing more than a sand box. Steinbeck creates this imagery to use at the motivation for his characters as they migrate to the left of the panhandle.

As the book carries on, the author uses an emotional technique to appeal to his readers by using one of his main characters. Still closer in the beginning of the book, Tom Joad, the main character, has admitted to the crime that landed him in jail for four years, homicide. Once he is released, he finds himself hitching a ride from a truck driver and once his ride was over, stumbles along his old preacher, Jim Casy. After a long chat, Casy admits to partaking in sexual intercourse with young females after prayer meetings. Tom replies with “there ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue” (Steinbeck, 23). He goes on to explain that life is life no matter what you do. The style used in the chapter is to reveal the brutal honestly Tom possess. Steinbeck shares this information in a way to appeal to his readers that Tom is an upright man who is truthful even when it hurts. There is no “sin” and there isn’t any virtue but that is because he admits to his crime and believes strongly in his actions. Another emotional appeal to the audience is demonstrated towards the end of the book as well. Along with part of the theme, the dignity of wrath, Steinbeck displays a scene where his readers can sympathize with the characters’ moral decision. In the last chapter of the book, the Joad family has gone through some dramatic changes in their life that left them stranded with no home, a lifeless baby, and very little food. However, the author uses this situation to set up a scene where he can emphasize the importance of dignity and respect for others. On their way to find shelter, the family stumbles along a barn with a dying man and a small child in it. After the boy explains that his father has not had enough to eat and is to the point where solid foods cannot help, Ma addresses the situation and looks towards Rose of Sharon to be the answer. Due to her recent pregnancy, she is still producing milk which can help the dying man at this point in type. Although the man does refuses at first, he eventually takes hold and begins to nurse. Steinbeck writes, “you got to”, she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close. “There!” she said. “There. Her hand moved behind his head and supported it. Her fingers moved gently in his hair. She looked up across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously’ (Steinbeck, 445). This proves to the readers that the Joad family, despite losing almost everything, they have not lost their scene of dignity and respect for others. Her body language and the way Rose of Sharon approaches the situation without hesitation and in such a motherly way, also connects to the audience through emotions by understanding the value of human life. In this moment, she gave him milk and gave him life. This image also allowed for a moral conclusive ending to show that those who wrath for motivation while never losing putting their pride first, will always remain dignified.

Throughout the novel, the writer often shifts between different points of view for the purpose of describing certain events in more detail. By using a third person omniscient point of view, he is able to address certain situations more specifically based upon the given experience of his characters. The descriptions about the Dust Bowl time period throughout the novel help to split up Tom Joad’s point of view. The Dust Bowl intermissions allow for more of a historical aspect explaining the time period in more of a non-biased stand point. Joad’s point of view seems to put the family’s perspective on their life in a way that makes it easier to relate to. The opening quote for chapter 12, “Highway 66 is the main migrant road. 66-the long concrete path across…across the desert to the mountains again, and into the rich California valleys” (Steinbeck, 118), provides the viewers with a set up to the scene that will later impact the Joad family. Then by using Tom’s point of view, the readers will have a more personal view as to what is taking place. In that same chapter, Tom explains that the they have gotten a flat tire and they are addressing how far the drive will be if they continue in their current state. “Might get five hundred more miles. Let’s go till she blows’ (Steinbeck 120). The relationship of the detailed set up from the beginning of the chapter to the situation the family is facing is connected. The audience has just realized how big and broad this road really is and now they are interpreting the predicament the Joads are in with their flat tire. Both points of views are significant because one provides solid background information and history, crucial to fully understanding what is going on at all times and keeping the readers’ minds in the time period in which the story is being told from. The second point of view aids its viewers to keep in mind the emotional aspect of family as well.

Throughout this bitter sweet, emotional and everlasting journey, the Joad family has learned and endured many events that were ultimate life changing. With the author’s help the ideas of love, unity, and perseverance have all shrined through with the use of rhetorical devices to help skillfully aid this imagery from his thoughts to his audience. It was point of view that guide the readers to make connections and draw conclusions from historical background information to personal feelings and emotion. It was the theme of dignity that brought together the family towards the end of the book and it was detailed imagery that intensified the quality of the novel as a whole.

‘Of Mice and Men’ is a 1939 American drama film based on the 1937 novel and play of the same name by John Steinbeck. The film was produced by Hal Roach Studios, and directed by Lewis Milestone. This film took place when the great depression was happening, which means it deals with issues such as loneliness, poverty and unfulfilled dreams. Issues that illustrate particular social or political situations in the United States. The film’s score also introduced the audience to a modernist american expression.

The Great Depression was an economic slump that originated in the United States of America after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. This stock market crash initiated one of the longest and hardest economic declines in history. The crash had a worldwide impact. The Great Depression started big changes in the United States. It caused big unemployment, which grew rapidly as people kept losing their jobs. The situation was very serious in agriculture. Farmers suffered from low prices for their products even before the stock market crashed, and the depression affected them significantly. Many Americans started losing their homes and had to live on the streets. Herbert Hoover who was the president at the time tried to expand the role of the federal government in order to manage the Depression by taking several measures, such as the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Its aim was to stimulate the nation’s economy, with the help of the federal government by lending money to banks and other businesses. However, the legislation ended up affecting the economy and was making things worse. The crisis influenced the political situation. The Great Depression changed the lives of all people in the United States.

The economic crisis raised people’s opinions on families’ lives. Since there were no jobs for all the people, many Americans believed that the man should go to work. And that If a woman was married she should not accept any job and should stay at home and take care of children. In the 1930s, people who owned property and were able to keep it and considered wealthy. In the film, a conflict between classes appears. Poverty and the lower class were represented by Lennie, George and other workers. While power and higher class is portrayed at Curley and his wife since they owned land.

During the Depression economic exploitation happened on ranches in the United States. At the ranch in the film, the situation was the same. There is a great amount of agricultural wealth and to make this wealth, farms needed workers. But the workers were paid low wages. Agriculture was already in crisis. In the 1930s, the situation worsened because the Mississippi valley suffered from record heat waves and below average rainfall, and the drought spread to the South and Midwest. The region of Great Plains became known as the “Dust Bowl”, as wind eroded millions of acres of cropland. The Dust Bowl lasted from 1931 to 1939 and it was a great natural and economic disaster. The Depression created poor people who ended up suffering from economic exploitation. Also, these workers did not have a place of their own and they were dependent on seasonal jobs. Which meant that they often had to drift to ranches to pick some fieldwork and to be able to support themselves as it was shown in the film. Which is what George and Lennie were doing.

‘Of Mice and Men’ focus on the labouring class in California. As illustrated in the characters in this film, it shows the devastating impact of the Great Depression on the nation’s society. Around this time the great depression made many americans experience poverty but as shown in the film some of the characters believed that they could still succeed economically and to fulfil their dreams. The film is set in Salinas Valley in California at the time of the Great Depression. It tells a story of two wage labourers and friends George Milton and Lennie Small, who travel around ranches in order to find a job. The characters are both different but they share the same dream. To have some land and farm of their own, where they will breed rabbits and other animals. Which many Americans at the time had similar dreams. Eventually, Lennie and George find work on a ranch in Salinas Valley. They are determined to work hard and stay there until they have earned enough money to make their dream come true. Lennie often got into trouble on previous ranches because of mental state. Migratory workers were usually isolated. They had no home or no property of their own. They would wander around ranches and they were dependent on the farm owners , as well as on the weather. If the weather was not good for agriculture, there were no jobs for these people. In some cases they would be homeless until the conditions changed. That is why it seemed so strange to Slim to see Lennie and George travel together. Around this time it was almost impossible to develop lasting friendship. The reason why George and Lennie stay together is their shared past. They were both born in the same town and had been friends since young. This friendship was beneficial for Lennie and George because they helped one another. George was the smarter one and takes care of Lennie and tries to keep him out of trouble. Lennie is mentally challenged and can be naive; but is extremely strong, so he works hard and carries heavy things on the fields. This friendship helps them to deal with their hard situation and aren’t as lonely as other migrant workers. Even when everything feels hopeless they do not give up, and still have hope that their dreams will come true. No matter how strong these friendships were, during the great depression society defeated them. Both Lennie and George’s, Candy and his dog’s friendship did not last and ended tragically which also meant that they didn’t get to fulfil their dream. These such as deals with issues such as loneliness, poverty, unfulfilled dreams, particular social or political situations in the US were the issues that I had mentioned that were happening at that time in history that impacted the film.

Writing movie music has been a full-time profession since the 1930s and is still a critical component in filmmaking. Composer Mark Isham created a score for ‘Of Mice and Men’ reminding of the music of Aaron Copeland in its distinctly American melodies composed largely of strings and woodwinds. In some sequences, “banjos lend the film a regional folk quality”. The score in the 1939 film Mice and men remains important because it introduced the audience to the modernist american expression that challenged the norm in Hollywood while inspiring it. The film was in B.W because it took place in 1939 and color film wasn’t introduced until later on in the 1940’s. The film created an interesting perspective for viewing cinematic realism. The editor used a juxtaposition of shots and a number of cuts to give each scene its own rhythm. The editor chose to quicken the action in other scenes of men working in the fields or playing horseshoes with quicker cutting the assembly of several shorter shots in rapid succession. Heighting the pace and reinforcing the action or emotion taking place on the screen.

Finally, this film is connected with a historical event. Through analysis, we were able not only to learn more about the history of cinema, but also about American history.

American journalist and writer, John Steinbeck wrote a series of short articles for TSF news identifying vital affairs concerning the migrant workers/“new gypsies” and their backgrounds in California. Recognized together, as “The Harvest Gypsies”, the seven articles were all gathered into a nonfiction book later on. These articles helped illustrate how California – more specifically the United States government – had left behind hundreds of thousands of workers whose lives had been ravaged by the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. These previously middle-class individuals were left with no other option, but to leave their previous homes in search of better opportunities elsewhere, and this was found in California. Even more, large-scale, corporate farms ill-treated these workers for their greatest profit. With the help of Tom Collins, a manager of a federal labor camp for migrant workers in California, these two men revealed the conditions not only in the federal labor camp that Collins managed, but also in the informal squatters’ settlement located throughout the Central Valley. They both had the same views regarding the rights of workers in their need for humane working conditions, need to support their family, and ultimately, to live with dignity.

Article 1 describes the continuous movement of migrants as they chased the crops ready all around the state. The migrants didn’t have anything, they were called names, and were excluded from everything, despite their services being called upon continuously by many industries. Steinbeck mentioned, ‘The migrants are needed, and they are hated. […] They are never received into a community nor into the life of a community. Wanderers in fact, they are never allowed to feel at home in the communities that demand their services”.

Article 2 was the most moving/heartfelt article written detailing the difficult life migrants have in places known as squatter’s camps and the atrocious working conditions they have to put up with. Steinbeck recalled on the fall of migrant life as poverty and hunger started winning. kept increasing. He emphasized how the longer they remain in their current state, the further they cave into inhumanity; which is the result of an absolute loss of their dignity. Three families that migrated, each getting worse than the last further amplified his argument.

Article 3 was about the connection between small farmers and the migrant workers. The small farmers sympathized with the migrants because they realize that could happen to them. They treated each other kindly and small farm owners wanted to rally behind on protests to defend them.

Article 4 brought up the experimental camps being stationed for these workers and how successful they turned out to be without outside supervision, just managers, and different department heads. Steinbeck argued for more camps being set up.

Article 5 examined the typical experience a migrant receives when attempting to receive any form of help from the current community or government. Because they move around the clock, migrants don’t have a permanent residency and therefore, lack benefits, and therefore suffer as a whole.

Article 6 mentioned the foreign migrants being brought in; being able to survive on small wages, which endangered white laborers causing the foreign migrants to be deported swiftly.

Article 7, the final article, Steinbeck gave feedback on ways people could carry out the affairs of migrant workers. They were here to stay and prosper.

Robin A. Fanslow wrote an article for the American Folklife Center that was made into a collection of voices from the dust bowl; The Migrant Experience. The article mentions the background of the migrant families and the way they lost their money/land. “Voices from the Dust Bowl illustrates certain universals of human experience: the trauma of dislocation from one’s roots and homeplace; the tenacity of a community’s shared culture; and the solidarity within and friction among folk groups”. As the world war carried on, many joined, and the rest soaked up the fresh farm opportunities made available.

In the larger scope of our course, the articles written, relate to the Great Depression because the Dust Bowl worsened it, and the Dust Bowl is the reason why there were migrant families which eventually led to the New Deal. The Dust bowl amplified the economic clash of the Great Depression and led many on an anguished migration in their search for humane conditions and work. .The drought-stricken plains swept the region, causing devastation for people and their livestock that was destroyed. The natural disaster along with great dust storms left people no choice, but to seek opportunities elsewhere. Steinbeck referred to banks as monsters because people were struggling to hang on to the very little they had and once the banks started failing, they started to take back the land they owned so that they could sell it and make a profit which evidently caused people to lose everything. The new deal was brought into play later with three goals: relief, recovery, and reform attempts. The New Deal helped people in the United States; it helped them flourish.

General informantion

• Title: The Grapes of Wrath
• Significance: It shows the harshness of the Dust Bowl & Great Depression and trigger sympathy for the struggles of migrant farmworkers like the Joads family.
• Genre: Novel, Historical Fiction
• Date of Original Publication: 1939
• Author: John Steinbeck

Relevant Biographical Information:

John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, to a middle-class family in Salinas, California. His father, John Ernst, Sr., was a miller and local politician, and his mother, Olivia Hamilton, taught school. John Steinbeck was an American author who graduates from Salinas High School and enrolled at Stanford University but he left without a degree and traveled to New York City to start his life as a writer and then returned to California and settled there at Lake Tahoe. He then published his 1st book after a while, the great Depression occured, and then later he married Carol Henning (1st wife). 5 years later, the Dust Bowl occurred leading crops to die. John Steinbeck wrote another book called Tortilla Flat, it was Steinbeck’s first real critical and commercial success, earning him his first California Commonwealth Club medal for best novel by a Californian. He continued to publish books, later in 1936, he published Dubious Battle, and a San Francisco News series entitled ‘The Harvest Gypsies.’ Steinbeck is appalled by the living conditions of the workers he interviews, and later publishes the series as a book entitled “Their Blood Is Strong”. Later in 1937 Of Mice and Men was published earning him a New York Drama Critics Circle Award.In 1938 he published The Long Valley which is a collection of short stories. In 1939, Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath which was Steinbeck’s greatest critical success. The book is wildly popular with readers, but also attracts virulent critics who decry the book’s ‘vulgar’ language, several libraries even banned the book. In 1940, Steinbeck got to direct the film version of the Grapes of Wrath, starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. Steinbeck receives both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for the novel. In 1941, Steinbeck then separates from his first wife, and moves to New York with another woman named Gwyndolyn Conger. In 1942, Steinbeck publishes The Moon is Down. March 29, 1943, Steinbeck married to Gwyndolyn Conger (2nd wife). He later traveled to cover World War II as a correspondent for a newspaper company. Steinbeck is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story for his work on the Alfred Hitchcock picture Lifeboat but it went to someone else instead. In the same year, Steinbeck’s first child, son Thomas Steinbeck, was born and then in 1946, Steinbeck’s second child, John Steinbeck IV, was born. In 1948, Steinbeck’s close friend was killed in a car accident and a few months later, his second wife divorces Steinbeck. In 1950, Steinbeck married his third Elaine Anderson Scott (last wife). In 1952, Steinbeck published the book East of Eden and he considered it his finest work. In 1961, Steinbeck published his final novel “the winter of our discontent” and in 1962, Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1968, John Steinbeck died of a heart attack in New York City.

Setting: Late 1930s in the midst of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era; Oklahoma

Importance: knowing where and when it was happening helped the reader understand because if there was no great Depression or the Dust Bowl happening in the novel , we wouldn’t be able to know what happened with the Joads family and what they experienced , they wouldn’t have large debt to pay because of the Great Depression and dust everywhere making it hard for them to farm. if those things didn’t happen they wouldn’t have to move and try to survive out there to go to a better place which they believe that is california but if those things happened then we know why they wanted to leave and go to a better place, or a place that has no dust like in oklahoma because that is where the dust bowl happened and also to place where they can find jobs and farm again. This novel also tells a story that many people in real life experienced but not exactly the same as the Joads family.

Plot:

The novel started with Tom released from an Oklahoma state prison after serving four years for a manslaughter conviction, when Tom Joad makes his way back to his family’s farm in Oklahoma. On his way he meets Jim Casy, a former preacher who has given up his calling to preach. Jim accompanies Tom to his home, only to find that all the surrounding farms and homes were deserted and left. Muley Graves, an old neighbor, wanders by and tells them that everyone has been “tractored” off the land by the bank as they call them the bank monster. He said that most of the families, including his own, have headed to California to look for work. Then Tom and Jim set out for Tom’s Uncle John’s the next morning, where Muley assures them they will find the Joad family. When they arrived, Tom finds Ma and Pa Joad packing up the family’s few possessions. Because they saw handbills advertising fruit-picking jobs in California, they saw the trip to California as their only hope of getting their lives back on track, a way to get money and to get away from the dust.

The journey to California in an unsteady, unsafe, and crumbling used truck was long and difficult. Then Grampa Joad, who is feisty old man who complains bitterly all the time that he does not want to leave his land, tragically died on the road shortly after the family’s going away. Broken-down cars and trucks, loaded down with scrappy possessions, jam the Highway 66, it seems the entire country is going to California because they also saw the newspaper too. On their way, The Joads meet a couple, Ivy and Sairy Wilson, troubled with car trouble, and then invite them to travel with the family that way they both help each other and back up each. Unfortunately, Sairy Wilson got sick and almost near the California border, she becomes unable to continue the journey because her sickness got worse so they said goodbye and let the Joad family continue their journey as they don’t want to burden and slow them down. As the Joads were near California, they hear inauspicious rumors of a decrease job market. Then Pa found one migrant and ask him what is going on and so he tells Pa that about 20,000 people show up for every 800 jobs and because there were no job means it means no money so no food that caused his own children to starve to death, he said that he is depressed and misses his children so he is also going to starve to death. Although the Joads clutch on, their first days in California was tragic, because Granma Joad dies, she was Grampa’s wife. As the remaining family members move from one filthy and poor camp to the next, looking for work or at least anything that will help them but they couldn’t find anything. They were struggling to find food, and trying desperately to hold their family together because the harder it is, the more likely it will fall apart. An example would be Noah who is the oldest of the Joad children, soon abandons the family because he couldn’t take it anymore and as well as does Connie, who is a young dreamer who is married to Tom’s pregnant sister, Rose of Sharon. The Joads meet with much melovence and crudel in California. For example, the camps are overcrowded and is completely full of starving and poor migrants, who are often nasty and mean to each other. Then of course The locals were very fearful and angry at the flood of newcomers, whom they mocked them as “Okies.” Trying to find work is almost impossible and pays are very low and limited wage that a family’s full day’s work cannot even buy a decent meal to eat. Fearing a rebellion, the large landowners would try to do everything in their power to keep the migrants poor and dependent on things. While staying in a shacky camp known as a “Hooverville,” Tom and some other men get into a quarrel with a deputy sheriff over whether workers should organize into a union or not. Then when the argument got very violent, Jim Casy knocks the sheriff unconscious and so he was arrested. After a few minutes, some Police officers came and announce that they are going to burn the Hooverville to the ground intentionally. Luckfully the Joads were staying at a government-run camp which turns out to be more welcoming to the Joads, and other family too, they even were able to find friends and a bit of work. However, while working at a pipe-laying job one day, Tom overheard and learns that the police are planning to stage a rampage in the camps so it allows the police to shut down the facilities and get rid of the people. Tom was angry and disappointed when he heard so he alerted and organized the men in the camp, Tom helps to disarming the danger. Tom refuse to sit still and do nothing about it but still, life in the government camp is good and pleasant for them , they know that the Joads cannot survive without work, and they have to move on. Later they find employment picking fruit, but learned later that they are earning a good wage only because they have been hired to break a workers’ strike. When Jim Casy who after being released from jail run into Tom and talked about starting to organize workers, in the midst of the process, among the landowners, Casey has made many enemies. And When the police hunt him down and kill him in instead of Tom, Tom responded back by killing a police officer. Then Tom goes into hiding so they won’t be able to find because they know that Tom has killed a police officer, so while the family moves into a boxcar on a cotton farm. One day, Ruthie, who is the youngest Joad daughter, tells to a girl in the camp that her brother has killed two men and is hiding closely. When Ma found out, she send Tom away because of her fear for his safety, Ma loves him and wants him to be safe. So when Tom heads off , he went to fulfill Jim’s task of organizing migrant workers. When the end of the cotton season came which means the end of work, and word rake across the land that there are no more jobs to be had for three months. The nature strikes and there were rains set in and flood the land. At that time, Rose of Sharon was trying to give birth to a stillborn child and she did, so Ma was desperate to get her family to safety from the floods, which leads them to a dry barn not far away. In there, they find a young boy kneeling over his father, who is slowly starving to death because he hasn’t and wasn’t able to find food to eat, the father was instead giving whatever food he had to his son because he wanted his son to live rather than die. Realizing that Rose of Sharon is now producing milk since she gave birth to a child, Ma sends the others outside, so that her daughter can nurse the dying man so he can live. There is hope and humanity in this world.

Structure:

Point of View: The Characters:

(a) Protagonist:

Tom Joad is the protagonist. Tom is the first character that we meet, at the beginning of the novel, he killed a man by accident and has been away from his family for 4 years, so once he was released, he does not waste his time with regrets and went to his family so he lives fully in the present moment, which enables him to be a great source of energy for the Joad family. Tom turns out to be very knowledgeable, and he’s very responsible. He takes good care of his family, and he works tirelessly to help them everyday to survive and live. Reverend Casy also helps Tom to understand the world and to find a noble purpose he wishes to fulfill. Tom, who only been concerned about his family in the past, develops to care for all of the crushed families he sees around him. He gives his life to fighting for justice and equality among the community. Tom is so helpful and selfless. Tom is good-natured and thoughtful and do what he can with what life hands to him. Tom exhibits a moral certainty throughout the novel that inspires him with strength and determination, he earns the astonished respect of his family members as well as the workers he later organized into unions.

(b) Antagonist:

The antagonist is the poverty, the bank, the environment, and nature. The Joad family and all migrant workers had experienced being poverty because of the bank, the harsh environment they are in because of nature. And if you combine being homeless with no money or home and even facing the natural disaster that happened, it’s like the world is against them.There were a lot of people were helpless victims of a harsh environment.

Symbol or Allusions:

The symbol of this novel is the turtle trying to cross the road. On an old dirt road, as the turtle was trying to walk across the road, it is where a car begins to come near the turtle, thankfully the car swerves in order to miss the slow, helpless turtle. When the turtle ducks into its shell for safety, it realizes that it is safe inside of his protective shell , when the turtle peaks his head out of its protective shell and continues to cross the road. A few minutes later, a truck then comes down the road the other way, the driver made a turn to intentionally to hit the defenseless turtle and he hits the side of the turtles shell, flipping it over. The turtle struggles to get itself back on its underside, thrashing its arms and legs with his strength, it is able to turn itself over. After this near incident, the turtle got scared so it sits in the safety of its shell again, not knowing if it was going to make it across to the other side of the road, It started to walk again. Using the symbol of the turtle, Steinbeck seems to be suggesting that outside factors affect the fate of the turtle more than the turtle himself. This is closely related to human fate. We, too, are at the mercy of outside factors such as our surroundings.

What is the theme(s) and justification of theme(s): The theme is one’s journey to survive, many obstacles will interfere but one can work through them (Survival). This theme represents the Joad family in many ways. For example, while they were on the road, they encounter many challenges along the way: constant hunger, cheap money, harsh environments, car problems, police harassment, exploitation by employers, and hostility from locals but all those things didn’t stop them from going on or giving up because they have willpower and determination to survive because they want to.

The Dirty Thirties, or the 1930s. What is so special about this time period? During the 1930s, it was a challenge for people around the world. Everyone worked more than they had ever did before. Many people lost everything they owned and suffered from lack of money. One of the most affected people by this worldwide economic depression were farmers who owned ranches and farms. They had hard time growing their crops and ended up with no money left to feed their families. But what affected them so badly that they couldn’t make any money? What effects did the 1930s, or now known as The Great Depression, had on Farmers?

The Dust Bowl was simply a period of severe dust storms. Started from 1930 and ended in 1936, the Dust Bowl greatly damaged the America, especially the Southern Great Plains of North America. The Dust Bowl was caused by several economic and agricultural factors, including changes in regional weather and farm economics. The powerful winds that accompanied the drought of the 1930s eroded tons of topsoil. As the soils eroded, it affected the towns and people negatively.

In the Dust Bowl, about 7,000 people lost their lives because of the Dust Pneumonia. The Dust Pneumonia was a disease caused by the dusts from the Dust Bowl, which carried germs and illnesses along with it. Dust Pneumonia resulted when the lungs are filled with dust, creating symptoms like coughs and chest pains. Some of the dust storms caused farmers to lose and leave their towns and their homes. The dust storms degraded soil productivity and damaged air quality that the farmers had hard time managing their crops.

As said in the previous paragraph, the dust storms affected the growth of the crops and harmed the air quality. The dusts from the Dust Bowl blocked the sunlight and polluted the rain which crops needed in order to grow. The air was also polluted by the dusts and damaged the crop’s quality and safety. However, the Dust Bowl was not the only reason of why farmers had hard time with their agriculture business.

The summer of 1936 was one of the worst droughts ever recorded and crops dried up in the fields. Also, the winters of 1934 and 1936 were especially long and cold. In addition, unpredictable weather and natural disasters, such as tornadoes, blizzards, and floods, were common during the 1930s. Crops needed peaceful conditions to grow properly, and these harsh weathers during the 1930s was not suitable for the crops. Farmers who could no longer help themselves by the crops they grew moved to West in order to find better land and better opportunities.

Farmer’s job is basically to raise crops to market for purpose of eating and selling. In order to make money, farmers need produce crops which is the moneymaker. However, Because farmers could not grow as much as crops they usually produced in the past years, they were left with no money to buy groceries or make farm payments. During the Great Depression, many people lost their properties, such as jobs, houses, money, families, and farmers were no exception.