Tag: Great Depression

Liberal Superheroes by Alexander Matthew Cabrey

As we talked about Wonder Woman’s feminist roots, I began to think of the roots Liberal Hero stancesof superheroes in general. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are D.C. Comic’s major superheroes who emerged in late 1930s and early 1940s. At that same time, the U.S. is coming out of the Great Depression under the leadership of Democrat President Franklin Roosevelt. President Roosevelt enacted a number of different reforms to help relieve the economic depression in the New Deal. Living through this kind of drastic change to American lifestyles clearly influenced the creators of early superheroes. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman appear to be representations of the desire many Americans had for a type of “safety net” for the people, just as the New Deal programming was doing prior to the creation of superheroes

LiberalHerosDemotivationalEarly Superheroes represent an individual who is protecting the people, generally within one city, but they usually put the well-being of the people before their own. These heroes could even go as far as being described as a safety net for humankind, just as those who lived through the Great Depression wanted a safety net after falling on hard times. Superheroes were beginning to be made in as vehicles of liberal American desires, or even borderline socialist desires. Their actions towards for betterment of Americans clearly have some liberal undertones, especially when you look into some of the villain counterparts to major heroes.

Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman each have at least one villain counterpart who represents some conservative beliefs of the late 30s and early 40s. Superman has Lex Luthor, a business tycoon who uses his wealth and knowledge to combat Superman. Lex Luthor was first introduced to the comics in the 1940 and has stuck around as Superman’s archenemy. Batman has The Penguin, a business owner and criminal under-lord, and was introduced to the Batman universe in 1941. Wonder Woman’s villains in the early 1940s usually stem from her feminist background, but Cheetah represents both ideas. Cheetah is an aristocratic woman and philanthropist who becomes obsessed with Wonder Woman and feels eclipsed by the attention Wonder Woman receives. Cheetah may not be as popular a villain today, like Lex Luthor and The Penguin are, she still represents the same rhetoric as the other comics. This borderline socialist rhetoric may have lost its influence in comics today; it still can be seen today in the history of these first Superheroes.

Marston told many that Wonder Woman is a feminist icon, a point that can’t be argued, but is inherently representing a liberal agenda as well. Wonder Woman may not have villains who represent liberal enemies in her early comics, but her feminist background gives her a liberal, potentially socialist, feel. Wonder Woman has been utilized by liberal feminist publications, like Ms. Magazine, affirming the liberal position for her and other even other superheroes. This liberal influence superheroes have may not be so obvious to many people, especially those who aren’t interesting in comic books, and gives it an interesting flavor when looking back through their history.

Migrant Mother- May the odds be ever in your favor, by Brittany N. Cozzens

When looking at Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother photograph I couldn’t help blog 2but feel despair for this poor woman and her children.

This image, while taken during one of the most turbulent times in our nation’s history, does not reflect the “American Dream” that I picture in my head. For many, the foundation of their vision of the American dream for lies in having shelter, family and money. But when looking at Migrant Mother and reading Carter Revard’s autobiography Winning the Dust Bowl, it made me wonder about Revard’s reference of the Dust Bowl being a game. How is it that those that truly needed help, like Florence Owens Thompson (Migrant Mother) weren’t getting it? Was getting some kind of government assistance a stroke of luck?

From here, my mind threw together all of these different images of being a poor farmer, doing a grueling trade every day all day even though no significant money was really being brought in; a mother with hungry mouths to feed; a widow; and other people in other parts of the country having resources but not giving them away.

And then it clicked.

Florence Owens Thompson and her situation is very similar to that of Katniss Everdeen’s family in the Hunger Games. Mrs. Everdeen, like Florence Owens Thompson, was a widow who had children to fend for, though she could barely provide for herself. Her family lived in District 12 and was known for coal mining and migrant mother was a pea picker like many others in her area. Both worked tirelessly but couldn’t leave. This is not the ideal image of the American Dream.

Meanwhile, there were people in the Capital (in both places) that were well off; eating food served by those that had nothing. These people in the Capital were living the American Dream, while others who were much worse off got no aid. Is this how we understand America to be? Those who have resources choosing to maintain their unrestrained lifestyle rather than give to those who are desperately in need in, such as the coal miners of District 12, the pea pickers and orange grove farmers in California?

Part of the problem of poverty, as addressed through Dorothea Lange’s photo, in Revard’s poems, and in the Hunger Games is that those with resources are not willing to give them up in order to better support someone else. This is not how I want American to be pictured through any medium. Getting assistance shouldn’t be a stroke of luck, or “if they odds are in your favor,” it should be because someone is in dire need and because people care. The American dream is something that Americans should help their fellow Americans try to achieve rather than just leaving people out in the dust.

 

The Great Depression, Poverty, and the American Way by Nicole Thomas

If I had to define the American Dream, I would define it as being able to have tamerican_wayhe opportunity to be successful (however you might find fitting), having the opportunity to be free to express yourself, and being able to live independently. These things require some financial stability. The migrant mother photo contradicts my own idea of the American Dream, and I’m sure it also does so to the rest of the world. The Encyclopedia of American Studies entry on “America Perceived” states that “The perception of America as a land of economic opportunity was broken only during the years of the Great Depression.” The migrant mother photograph does a really good job in representing that sudden change in view of America with the coming of the Great Depression.

The Depression was full of inequality between the rich and the poor, and whites and blacks. African Americans were hit very hard by the Depression, and because of discrimination, they often had to give up their jobs to white workers. The image below is from the Depression, the background shows the happy all white family of four as the “American Way,, and in the foreground is a line of jobless African American and migrant workers.

In the Migrant Mother photo, I see poverty and depression, but I also see strength and perseverance. In the selection of readings from Carter Revard, he mentions “bridges” frequently. On page 132 in the Going to College section he says “we should remember that a small group of persons who have shown themselves unusually able to learn from the regular curriculum what their teachers want them to learn are supposed to include the bridge-builders, the language-translators, the power-transformers who will help us get across time and space and the rivers of Babylon to significant others, even as we are swinging dangerously into the future.” Revard is trying to get a certain point across about the Great Depression. The hard working impoverished people in the United States, like the Migrant Mother, were able to survive, even when the odds were against them. They were able to build the bridges to the future by surviving the Dust Bowl. The people were able to push the widely ridiculed President Hoover out, and bring Roosevelt in. After elected, President Roosevelt promised his “New Deal”, creating several programs to help end the depression, including an effort to eliminate discrimination.

Although I define America as a land of opportunity and success (overall), the “American Dream” and the ability to live the “American Dream” did not come without sacrifice. Going back to the America Perceived entry, although the rest of the world viewed America as “young, fresh and full of possibility,” they also viewed it as “immature” and “lacking history.” The Great Depression is a prime example of our “New World” and the flaws that were (and still are) in it. Because America was youthful and young and new, it made many mistakes.  And through those mistakes, America created its own history and learned what was good and what was not good for the nation. After spending some time with the Migrant Mother and the Great Depression, I have come to find that as Americans, we really are (as Revard puts it) a nation of “bridge-builders” and “language translators” and we continue to pave our way into the future, trying our best to decide right from wrong. We strive to learn from the people of our past, like the Migrant Mother, in order to build more bridges towards the future of America. At first glance, America (easily and simply) seems like the land of opportunity and independence, but when we take into consideration what we had to go through as a country to get to where we are now, that is what defines America.

 

The American Dream and Poverty in the U.S. by Sarah Butler

The American Dream to me is the idea that you have to be successful and have 2childrenmoney to be happy. The American Dream has many facets that change over the course of US history as well as facets that contradict each other.

There is the idea that with hard work, you can come from nothing and achieve the dream life of a happy family and successful career. The iconic Migrant Mother photograph from 1936 during the Great Depression paints a picture of poverty in the West during this time period. This photo is hard to relate to the American Dream. The mother, Florence Owens Thompson is working as a crop picker to provide her 7 children with food. This family doesn’t have a home all they have is a tent and an old car.

It is hard to relate my idea of the American Dream to this family because they are in such dire conditions. Their mother is stressed and worn down because she is unsure of where their next meal will come from. She is caring a heavy burden and wants to care for her children. Because The United States was so poor at this moment in history it was hard to pursue the American Dream without an income. Thompson could hope to achieve the American Dream but in the state she was in, as well as the state the country was in, it was more about survival than dreaming.

The problem with poverty during the Great Depression according to Dorothea Lange and Carter Revard is that it was so severe. Poverty was on a new level and when people would go to California for jobs they were met with low pay and increasing debt. This level of poverty relates to the American Dream in that the dream becomes unattainable. These people were putting in hard work with nothing in return. They were not slowly climbing the ladder to happiness through hard work. The American Dream becomes distant because during the Great Depression it is unrealistic because of the high level of poverty.

The American Dream relates to how we understand the ideas of America in the ways that America was founded. America was built on the ideal of freedom. Europeans moved to America to be free but at the same time that was a contradiction in that there were slaves and women didn’t have equal rights. This is similar to the American Dream in that the American Dream can be a contradiction. In the case of the Migrant Mother hard work didn’t lead to overall happiness and success, which is the basis of the American Dream. The American Dream is an idea that creates what America is, but its complexity has to be fully understood to find the deeper meanings of what America stands for.

Photo: http://gogetfunding.com/project/helping-families-overcome-poverty