Images of the Great Depression

1
Men who have created new fruits in the world
cannot create a system whereby their fruits may
be eaten. And the failure hangs over the State
like a great sorrow . . . . And in the eyes of
the people there is the failure and in the eyes
of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the
souls of the people the grapes of wrath are
filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the
vintage. (Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath). 1.
Translate the above quote using your own words.
2
1930 The Great Depression
3
Write I notice Then, write down five
significant, concrete details you notice in this
image. Write I wonder Explain what you think
each I notice shows/means. What kind of
observations can you make based on the details
you notice? For instance I notice her eyebrows
are pushed together as if she is worried, I
wonder what she is worried about, maybe her
childrens future?
4
I saw and approached the hungry and desperate
mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not
remember how I explained my presence or my camera
to her, but I do remember she asked me no
questions. I made five exposures, working closer
and closer from the same direction. I did not ask
her name or her history. She told me her age,
that she was thirty-two. She said that they had
been living on frozen vegetables from the
surrounding fields, and birds that the children
killed. She had just sold the tires from her car
to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent
with her children huddled around her, and seemed
to know that my pictures might help her, and so
she helped me. There was a sort of equality about
it. --Dorthea Lange
5
Dorthea Lange gained her fame as a photographer
in the 1930s. During the depression, the WPA or
Works Progress Association was funded by FDRs
New Deal. The New Deal was an economic stimulus
plan that was enacted in the great depression in
the 1930s.
6
One element of the New Deal was to fund job
growth. Jobs were created by creating public
works such as the Hoover Dam, creation of the
National Parks system and the building of the
Golden Gate Bridge.
7
Additionally, the New Deal funded visual
artists, writers, anthropologists and
musicologists to document the era. Dorthea Lange
documented rural poverty. Most famously she
documented the plight of the sharecropper and
the migrant worker.
8
Describe this mans facial expression. Based on
how this man looks overall, how does he speak,
and what is this man thinking/feeling? Write down
his thoughts (using first person, and recreating
his voice through diction/syntax).
9
I notice.. List a few significant, concrete
details you observe. I wonder Explain what
you think each detail shows/means.
10
(No Transcript)
11
What do the details you notice in this picture
tell you about the people who are traveling,
where they are going, why they are traveling, and
what their life on the road is like?
12
(No Transcript)
13
Describe the Great Depression based on the images
you have just seen. How would you characterize
the situation? How would you characterize the
people and their lives?