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Surviving the Great Depression: Challenges and Cultural Escapes

Learn about the devastating impacts of the Great Depression, including bank failures, unemployment, Hoovervilles, and the Dust Bowl. Discover how people coped through movies, radio, art, and literature, finding temporary relief amidst the harsh realities. Explore iconic works and cultural expressions that emerged during this challenging era.

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Surviving the Great Depression: Challenges and Cultural Escapes

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  1. 22-2 Notes Life During the Depression

  2. I. The Depression Worsens

  3. A. Bank/Business Failures & Unemployment • 9,000 banks close by 1933 • 30,000 businesses close in 1932 alone • 1933: 25% unemployment (12 million) • Family income drops from $2,500 in 1929 to $1,600 in 1932

  4. B. Bread Lines & Soup Kitchens

  5. C. Hoovervilles & Hobos • People can’t pay rent/mortgages • People evicted from apts. & homes • Shantytowns built in & around cities • Named Hoovervilles b/c they blame Hoover • Hobos rode trains illegally to search for work

  6. D. The Dust Bowl • Central Plains (TX to ND) • Farmers had plowed-under grassland to plant wheat, corn, etc. • Poor farming methods • Massive drought in early 1930s • Topsoil dries up and blows away • Farmers lose farms and move away (CA)

  7. II. Escaping the Depression

  8. A. Movies • 60-90 million go to the movies weekly • Comedies: Groucho Marx • Sex Symbols: Marlene Dietrich & Greta Garbo • Walt Disney: Snow White • Wizard of Oz • Gone with the Wind • Movies provide a temporary escape

  9. B. Radio • News • Comedy: Jack Benny, Burns & Allen • Lone Ranger • Soap Operas start on radio: Guiding Light • Everyone listened to the radio • Also provided a temporary escape from the harsh conditions of the Depression

  10. III. The Depression in Art

  11. A. Regionalist School of Art • Thomas Hart Benton • Grant Wood, “American Gothic” • Focused on the lives of people in the rural South and Midwest

  12. B. Writers • John Steinbeck: “Grapes of Wrath” • William Faulkner: “Sound and the Fury” a. Written in “stream of consciousness” b. Shows hidden attitudes of poor Southern whites and African Americans

  13. C. Photography • Dorothea Lange-showed life in America during the Depression, especially in the Dust Bowl (famous picture) • Margaret Bourke-White-showed harsh images of drought in the Depression • Life magazine created in 1936-pictures and stories of ordinary Americans

  14. “Making Supper” by Margaret Bourke-White

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