Oral History of the Great Depression

Jane Yoder grew up in a middle class family in Evanston, Illinois as her family struggled to have success in the hard times of the Great Depression. Her father  was a very intelligent man, but struggled through the difficulties of schizophrenia. I found this story very interesting because Jane had a personality in which she did not really care about how others thought about her and the actions that she made. As many other kids had different clothes, Jane did not have the luxury that the other kids did and was sometimes judged because of the clothes that she wore. Her father did everything in his power to provide for his family, but in the times of the Great Depression it was very hard to make a living and Jane lived everyday with the uncertainty if she would get to eat food each day. Her Father went through a lot of physchological abuse in these hard times, however he was able to move past them as he was employed by the WPA. Once again kids judged Jane because her father was working for the WPA, but she didn't care what they thought because this was the best option for her family as it was able to get money to supply food for his family. Many other kids had parents who were doctors, nurses, and other successful jobs but it wasn't that way for Jane's family. Jane said, "Well, how nice. They had respectable employment, In my family, there was no respectable employment. I thought, you don't know what it's like"(129). This shows that her family was not able to get high class jobs like being a doctor, and shows that they would take any job possible that provided a good opportunity at provided enough money to supply for their families. This can relate to immigration that we learned about in the last unit because Jane and her family struggled to find ways to success as they were in a poor environment and like many immigrants they came to America with nothing and had difficulties getting a successful job and being able to provide food for their families every night. Her son Tom thought about the way that Jane lived in her life and described how he could not imagine having to live the difficulties everyday of not knowing if there will be food on the table. In the time that Tom grew up in many things have changed and the rate of poverty has decreased. As Tom described he would never be able to go through what his mother had to go through shows that today's society is more demanding than it was back then as not as many citizens have the food uncertainty that Jane had. After reading this it made me think about my life and how fortunate I am to be living in the house that I am with having food everyday throughout my whole life. I never have experienced this torture that some of these people suffered through the Great Depression and I applaud these people because they really showed that they had a high character of courage throughout their lives.

Peggy Terry was known as a spokeswomen for the southern whites and she lived in a time similar to Jane where the unemployment rate was very high. People did anything in their willpower to find shelter to live in and many citizens had to resort to areas such as: cardboard boxes, tents, and even holes in the ground. Many of these areas were destroyed by terrible dust storms that destroyed many of these homes and caused physical and mental damage to these people. This led to many suicides to the citizens and Peggy described it as she said, "They went flat broke and they committed suicide on the strength of it, nothing else"(139). This proves that many people could not handle to struggles no longer of this grueling life and figured they had nothing else to live for. Many people resorted to blaming President Hoover for all of the problems that led to the Great Depression, but this economic downfall cannot be blamed solely on one man because it was several other factors that led to this. This can relate to WWI that we just learned about because just as Hoover was the only person blamed for the Great Depression, Germany was the only country that was responsible for the war and they had to take sole responsibility for it. One place or person cannot be blamed for huge events like these because the other side had to have some participation in these events in order for them to occur. Peggy and her family struggled like Jane to have food everyday as the only thing that they had in their house was mustard. She had to go to the soup kitchen everyday looking for a meal for the day. Peggy got married at 15 and she and her husband traveled a lot by hitchhiking. Many people were generous and drove them to destinations and gave them food as they felt bad for the poverty that they were living in. I can connect to this story because a few years back I volunteered to serve food at the soup kitchen in the city. It was a great experience because being able to serve food to these people was great as they were very appreciative of us and was very nice to us. I now realize what these people have had to go through and these soup kitchens are a really nice piece of society to help out people in poverty.     

Struggles of Journey

Ed Paulsen was a freight train rider who struggled finding a good job because he went through many uncertain days where he would not know if he would even receive any money for his work. I find this story interesting because it was the way of life that many Americans had experienced in these harsh times. These jobs were very competitive as many of these men woke up very early in the morning in order to get ready for the day of work and prove to others that they should be chosen to work for these people. There were thousands of men competing to get a pay check for the day and Paulsen described the men who picked them as he said "They were the most vicious enemies of this drifting, reckless, hungry crowd of people"(95). This shows that as these owners of many of the companies looking for workers for them felt the need to be cruel to their customers because they believed that their power could make them do anything. They knew the crowd of these people were desperate for jobs in order to get food and money to help support them, but they felt the need to treat them horribly. Luckily for Paulsen as many were very negatively affected by the stock market crash, he was not because he working punching cattle and felt the market would not interfere with this job. This is very different from jobs in today's society because when getting a job most people know how much money they will be making for the amount of hours that they work. Many people questioned how the economy would be able to come back in a positive way after this stock market crash and many citizens questions if their jobs would be affected by this. This crash lead to the Great Depression and this reminds me of the recent fall of the economy in our recession. During the recession a few years ago the unemployment rate was very high and the market was in a very bad situation. This connects because in both situations many citizens were uncertain of their future in work.

Arthur Robertson was able to explain in his story the business he worked with in the stock market and how the crash impacted many Americans in these times. Robertson described how many people had trouble in controlling their money and did not know how to be smart in investing their money in the stock market. This relates directly to the article that we just read in class because it explained all of the different strategies in buying stocks and the different ways that the market trends in success and through downfalls. It explained the impacts of the Great Depression and how the stock market was a huge contribution to it. When investing money into the stock market the success is always uncertain because nobody really knows the exact direction of where the economy will go. Before the Great Depression many Americans thought the economy was headed into a pretty good direction and when the market crashed many questioned the reasons for it and questioned if it would ever be able to recover in the future. As many citizens expected success to continue Robertson explained their thoughts as he said "everybody in those days expected the sun to shine forever"(101). This shows that this stock market crash was very unexpected as many people thought the economy was headed in a good direction. This can relate to populism because in their movement they wanted to get rid of the debts on the farmers because it was very hard for these farmers to get out of their debts and in this stock market crash it was very hard to get out of all of the loss money in the market. This can relate to my life because I am actually very involved in the stock market. I set up an account online with my dad and I own 4 stocks. I check how the market is doing everyday and watch CNBC to see where the market will be going next. I love following the market and different stocks because it gives me a good idea of the future of the economy and allows me to learn more about different events happening around the world that are impacting the stock market.

Challenges of the American Dream

After reading the excerpt about Vine Deloria and her journey to America, i realized that it was very difficult for her culture because since she was of the Native American descent she was discriminated by others. They had to make changes to their lifestyle as they were forced to convert to religions like Christianity in order to be able to stay in their designated areas. The entire family of Deloria had to convert to this religion because if they did not change they could be in jeopardy if getting kicked out of their region and could risk losing their land. Vine's parents at first thought they would be able to incorporate Christianity into their lives, but over time they realize it was just not part of their culture and that they were better off having no religion at all. This Native American family just wanted to live the life of the American dream, but as they had to make several changes to their lifestyle they realized it was not as good as it was all hyped up to be. Vine described that the whites were clearly in power as they were able to take over the land of the Native Americans and demand many things. For example, in the excerpt she displayed the power of the white community as they demanded,  “you have ten thousand Indians living in an area with animals around.  You get two or three settlers there, and the animals and Indians leave”(37). This shows that the whites were completely superior to the minority's and were able to control the area that they lived in and how much land they got. One of the things that this can connect to from class is the Treat of Fort Laramie. This Treaty was when the United States government overtook the land of Native Americans along the Arkansas and Missouri Rivers. This shows that even though the Native Americans could have been living the dream for a moment it was shortly ruined when whites overpowered them and took their land. This can connect to many things in today's society in terms of things being overtaken by higher powers. For example, once I was waiting in a restaurant to get a table with my family and we were waiting for a long time. Even though we were first a celebrity walked in 40 minutes after us and was able to get a table right away. This shows that power in today's society is still used by others and that it does not really matter about the time of the arrival because the superior can always overpower others.

When reading the section about Andy Johnson it showed my that these immigrants had to go through a lot of difficulties in order to reach their dreams of making it to the United States. When he and his family had to emigrated to America from England they had to pass through Ellis Island which was one of the events that we discussed in class. They were forced to go through many procedure including literacy tests, paperwork, and were forced to wait several hours in order to pass through. For people like Johnson it was very hard to maintain any success in the states as he had come from a poor family. They had to make many changes to their lifestyles and Johnson explained it as he said "Coming to America was like being transferred from one century to another"(40). This shows that his family had to make several adjustments to this lifestyle. It shows that difficulties that they went through as his dad changed his job several times which forced his family to move a lot also.  His father was a miner, carpenter, farmer, and common laborer and he tried to do anything possible in order to supply for his family by getting higher paying jobs. Andy had to take part in this work at a young age as he was picked up by others to go and work with their companies. Many companies wanted young soles investing time in their work because they had better endurance in some areas compared to these older men. This can relate to today's society also because many companies are starting to hire more young citizens to work for their company because they feel that they are more durable compared to older men. This piece really helped me understand that many families had to go through several difficulties in order to make it to America and live a successful life.