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Agriculture during the great depression
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The Winds of Change: A Coming of Age Story Coming of age can be described as a difficult and tedious process. It can happen at any age and it can even come without warning or expectation. Many individuals may welcome it while others have no desire to go through with it at all. There are even moments when change is forced on the individual and they are given an opportunity to embrace it and grow. John Grisham was able to illustrate such a process in the life of a young boy in the novel, A Painted House. In this novel, a seven year old boy named Luke goes through one of the most depressing and distressing years of his life. This story is told from Luke’s point of view and it describes the process that his family had to go through in order to …show more content…
They end up losing two of the strongest workers that they have. This does not matter in the end because they lose all of their crops and even have some damage done to the family home due to floods from a series of rain storms. The storms destroy their livelihood, however, they also wash away all of their problems in order to help the family move forward. Families during this time period were dependent on weather that they could often be ruined by a sudden mishap or by Mother Nature itself. This would place more of a debt burden on them and they would be forced to work another year even further behind then the preceding one. Many families became trapped by this and it could be described as being reminiscent of the Great Depression. The only option for these families was to move north or to the cities and embrace the industrialization of the country. They ultimately decide that they would move north in order to have a better life and save up …show more content…
The floods had washed away their old lives and the painting of their home represented them creating a new life that they would begin in the north. Luke’s mother was even pregnant and that symbolized a new life being brought into the world. This could have even been a reflection of their new lives that would begin in the north. The grandparents were both happy and sad to see their family leaving them. They knew that they would have better lives up north and be able to be more successful and comfortable in the future. This shows how the country and its citizens were changing during this time period and the cities were in a period of growth while the countryside was going through a waning period. The country had been thrown into a period of modernization after decades of social turmoil, warfare and economic depression. This was the beginning of a great change in the country at this time and a marked change into one of the most powerful industrial and service industries on the
Author Arin Andrews, in his memoir, Some Assembly Required: The Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen, describes his early life and his transition between genders during high school. Andrews’ purpose is to demonstrate that accepting people and how they define themselves is important. He adopts a sentimental tone in order to extract empathy from his young adult readers.
In the beginning of the novel, we meet the Bergson family. As one reads the beginning chapters of the novel, one learns that the Bergson family has dealt with an awful toll on the family. They lost two children in between the births of Lou and Oscar. Not only did they lose two children, who they surely loved dearly, they lost a herd of cattle to a blizzard. They lost a very important plowing horse to a broken leg. They lost their hogs due to cholera. They also lost an important breeding stallion. All of these hardships occurred within a relatively short time of eleven years. Then at the end of chapter two, the Bergson's lost the head of their family in John. With the loss of the father, the famil...
Ultimately, the children lacked security all of their childhood and were still able to get out of poverty and be successful for once in their lives. This story is a perfect example that people that are brought up in poverty can get themselves out and live a healthy life style. Security would have shielded the children from traumatizing events such as Jeannette getting raped by Billy Deel and Brian getting molested by Erma. Mom and Dad handled their economic situation poorly because they could have started their life from scratch again with one million dollars, but instead chose to live off the land and on the streets.
Someone once said, “Maturity is not measured by age. It’s an attitude built by experience.” (SearchQuotes). These experiences help advance maturity and prepare adolescence for adulthood. In coming of age literature, the key is to evolve an authentic character through different incidents. Accordingly, Evan Hunter demonstrates this characteristic development in “On the Sidewalk Bleeding”, through the protagonist, Andy. Within the story, there are moments that illustrate the development in thinking realistically rather than idealistically, a prominent transition from ignorance to knowledge and experiences that demonstrate a shift from selfishness to selflessness. Consequently, the various developments Andy encounters in “On the Sidewalk Bleeding”
is a hard, dangerous, and filthy place where it is difficult to find a job. Some relatives of the couple and themselves get a house, but find out it is a swindle.
As a result, their lives changed, for better or for worse. They were inexperienced, and therefore made many mistakes, which made their life in Chicago very worrisome. However, their ideology and strong belief in determination and hard work kept them alive. In a land swarming with predators, this family of delicate prey found their place and made the best of it, despite the fact that America, a somewhat disarranged and hazardous jungle, was not the wholesome promise-land they had predicted it to be.
Another example of their poverty is when the family goes to the slumps to pick up a plow that Mr. Slump had borrowed. The author explains that the Slumps just left their tools where they unhitched but, the little girl’s family had a shed where they put the machinery when it was not being used. Obviously the Slumps are not as openhanded as the little girl’s family, and are being treated as inferior because of this.
After reading Allison Baker's " Better Be Ready 'Bout Half Past Eight" it made me realize that discovering one's self is a situation our world is going through right now. In her short story one of Allison Baker's main characters, Zach tells his best friend of thirty-eight years that he is going to have a sex change. Zach tells Byron that he feels trapped in the wrong body and that he is going to become a woman. Byron is shocked about what he is hearing and can't seem to deal with the news. He's known Zach for some time now and he didn't pick up any of the signs about Zach's sexuality. Through the rest of the story you see Byron coping with the news. He talks to his baby boy about the situation and tells him that he will grow up to a man. He also starts to think about his own sexuality and even goes as far as applying makeup to his face. Byron watches the transformation of his best friend Zach into a woman named Zoe. As the story comes to an end Byron, his wife Emily, and their son Toby are at Zoe's shower. Byron squeezes Zoe's hand and I think, right then and there, he finally comes to terms with Zach's decision and is happy for his friend. As his friend walks away, he says that his son Toby Glass could grow up to be anything.
Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person: through childhood and adolescence. (9th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
With a large family such as the Stanleys, financially supporting everyone in the family is difficult with a stable economy, let alone during a period of struggle (Frontline Video, 2013). During this time, the middle class was in poverty, meaning people in poverty originally, are far financially worse (Frontline Video, 2013). The father, Claude, was a pastor (Frontline Video, 2013). The mother, Jacki, made efforts to find work (Frontline Video, 2013). She spent most of her time helping her husband run the church (Frontline Video, 2013).
Sadly, the children had no choice but to work for very little pay. Their mothers and fathers made so little money in the factory system that they couldn’t afford to let their children enjoy their childhood: “Other working children were indentured—their parents sold their labor to the mill owner for a period of years. Others lived with their families and worked for wages as adults did, for long hours and under hard conditions” (Cleland). The child had no other choice, but to work for these big businesses.
The phrase ‘Coming of Age’ refers to the process of growing up or entering into adulthood. In these three coming of age tales of Barack Obama, Malcolm X and James Baldwin they all share a component in their lives with each other as they tell their tales of their dark pasts. Baldwin’s story is about how he becomes aware of himself and who he is as a person. Baldwin also shares a component with Obama because they both suffered from psychological loss of innocence of the protagonist between the ages of 10 to 20. The components Malcolm X has are both acquiring knowledge and he was accepting of the complexities and ‘greyness’ of the world.
The story is told through the eyes of seven year old Luke Chandler. Luke lives with his parents and grandparents on their rented farmland in the lowlands of Arkansas. It takes place during the harvest season for cotton in 1952. Like other cotton growers, these were hard times for the Chandlers. Their simple lives reached their zenith each year with the task of picking cotton. It’s more than any family can complete by themselves. In order to harvest the crops and get paid, the Chandlers must find cotton pickers to help get the crops to the cotton gin. In order to persevere, they must depend on others. They find two sets of migrant farm workers to assist them with their efforts: the Mexicans, and the Spruills - a family from the Arkansas hills that pick cotton for others each year. In reading the book, the reader learns quickly that l...
Adolescence is the stage in life when you are no longer a child, but not yet an adult. There are many things that still need to be explored, learned and conquered. In the film Thirteen, the main character, Tracy Freeland, is just entering adolescence. While trying to conquer Erikson’s theory of Identity vs. Role confusion, Tracy is affected by many influences, including family and friends that hinder her development. Many concepts from what we have learned in class can be applied to this character from identity development, to depression, to adolescent sexuality and more. In this film Tracy is a prime example of an adolescent and much of what I have learned this year can be applied to her character.
A main theme in this novel is the influence of family relationships in the quest for individual identity. Our family or lack thereof, as children, ultimately influences the way we feel as adults, about ourselves and about others. The effects on us mold our personalities and as a result influence our identities. This story shows us the efforts of struggling black families who transmit patterns and problems that have a negative impact on their family relationships. These patterns continue to go unresolved and are eventually inherited by their children who will also accept this way of life as this vicious circle continues.