The Great Depression: The Agricultural Adjustment Act

The Great Depression was an incredibly trying time for Americans, especially American farmers. After years of plowing and overgrazing, the land was no longer able to support life, and dust storms swept the nation. Acre after acre of crops were destroyed by the dust storms that plagued American farmland during the 1930s. Farmers were forced from the land they had been sharecropping for generations. Sharecropping land all across the nation was foreclosed upon by the banks as they were no longer making any profit. On top of all this, the stock market crashed, leaving those once wealthy broke, or worse, deeply in debt, leaving them with nothing but the clothes their backs. A few of those who lost everything became hobos, stealing rides on trains

Those who made the journey were met with incredible hardships. When they arrived, there wasn’t enough work to go around, so instead of being met with a new and prosperous life, the majority of migrant families were unable to find work, and those who could were barely making enough to survive. The Agricultural Adjustment Act was paying farmers not to develop large portions of their land to raise the price of farm products. Had this act not been passed, millions of acres of land would have been available to provide work for migrant families. Hoovervilles, or small shantytowns, formed along the edges of every town in California as very few migrants could afford a place to stay. John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath” describes in detail the struggle of these migrant families using the Joad family. The Joads, like many migrant families during the 1930s, relied on their automobile, the kindness of others and the strength of their families to

Migrant families lived a hard life, and if they were by themselves, or didn’t have a strong family connection, many would turn to unsafe habits, especially getting drunk. Alcohol was viewed as a form of relief to many during the Great Depression, and without a strong family, many would get drunk more often than is healthy. After losing all of their land, it isn’t unrealistic to believe that a sharecropper would turn to alcohol for relief. Without the rest of his family, John Joad would have no one to turn to except alcohol during this time of great loss and sorrow. Because John found support in his family, he was able to rise above the temptation on most days, allowing him to make the journey to California. A life of crime would have been a simple way to make enough to stay alive for many during the Great Depression, but a strong family could help prevent that. If a family separated while en route to California, they were at a greater risk of turning to a life of crime. But if a family was strong, they would be able to rely on each other to go the distance, and wouldn’t have to rely on crime inorder to support themselves. No matter how much he denied it, Tom presents himself as a rather angry young man. If it weren’t for the strengh he found in his family, specifically Ma, he would struggled to make it all the way to California