The Harvest Gypsies
In essence, the Harvest Gypsies was written as a documentary elucidating on the lives of American immigrants into California in search of employment that would help feed their families. The low-income families would work for minimal wages as there were plenty of laborers in the town because of increased immigration. Despite the existence of high wages that could be received from employment for instance harvesting crops, the neighboring towns would not match the extent of labor supply in such a time. Understandably, this period was marked by great depression, affecting poor and rich individuals across the country (Steinbeck and Charles 1998). Due to such, the native poor had to migrate to other states, for instance, California,
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Further, during the great depression, there were reduced resources available for budgetary allocation hence resources collected would only be used to finance necessary government operations while development projects would be postponed for a later date when the economy had recovered from the recession. The mass migration into California has affected the economic performance of the region for instance by reduction of wages, quality of healthcare services, and sanitation (Migration.ucdavis.edu, 2003). Further, there was increased deterioration of social factors for example increased insecurity in regions densely populated by the immigrants and prostitution. Those who did not want to leave their homes would be forced by banks since many lacked finances to pay for loans and mortgages. Besides, the banks offered high rates for loans hence many had no access to such since they lacked collateral that would be used to secure the loans. However, the Fed would have taken various steps to help the immigrants reduce poverty levels as well elevate their living
The migrants came from the midwest, in search of a job. The foreign workers came from different countries, such as China, Japan, Mexico, and the Philippines. The demand for peon workers was increasing dramatically, foreign workers were just what the farmers needed. The foreign workers were also treated much worse than the migrants. They worked for little pay, but there was not really another way they could get money. The migrants were paid more, possibly because they are foreign born. When foreign workers came to the United States, they had to adapt to the languages, traditions, wages, etc. As for the migrant workers, they were raised in the United States, so they have a better understanding of how to live. Foreign workers had a very poor standard of living and often faced discrimination. In The Harvest Gypsies, the first sentence of the sixth article is, “ The history of California’s importation and treatment of foreign labor is a disgraceful picture of greed and cruelty.” Steinbeck had a strong belief that foreign workers were treated different from migrants, which is true. Another example is when the article talks about how the whites could not compete with the foreign workers anymore. “ Mexicans were imported in large number, and the standard of living they were capable of maintaining depressed the wages for farm labor to a point where the white could not compete.” This quote is saying that the wages and standard of living got so low, that whites gave up on trying to get a job in the fields. Some may say that the migrants and foreign workers were treated very similar, but this is untrue. They both had to live in very poor conditions, but the foreign workers had it much harder than the
The Great Depression often seems very distant to people of the 21st century. This article is a good reminder of potential problems that may reoccur. The article showed in a very literal way the idea that a depression can bring a growing country to its knees. The overall ramifications of the event were never discussed in detail, but the historical significance is that people's lives were put on hold while they tried to struggle through an extremely difficult time.
During the Great Depression millions of families lost their jobs, homes, and depleted their savings in both urban and rural areas. In 1930, 15 million people became unemployed due to the Dust Bowl. Millions of families lost their jobs, homes, and depleted their savings in both urban and rural areas. Out of the 15 million, 0ne million citizens moved to California between 1935 and 1940 in search for work of work. This made the population increase from 1.3 million Americans to 5.7 million. For most Americans work was not the only issue families were faced with, but also shelter. Between the early 1930s and 1932 families were squeezed in with relatives, the unit densities sky-rocketed, and either defied eviction or found shelter in vacant buildings. Most could not even pay for normal rent housing. This left people finding shelter under bridges, in courts, and vacant public lands where they began to build their own shelter. Thus this is when Hoovervilles began and Government camps arrived soon after.
A major drought, over-cultivation, and a country suffering from one of the greatest depressions in history are all it took to displace hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners and send them, and everything they had, out west. The Dust Bowl ruined crops all across the Great Plains region, crops that people depended on for survival. When no food could be grown and no money could be made, entire families, sometimes up to 8 people or more, packed up everything they had and began the journey to California, where it was rumored that jobs were in full supply. Without even closing the door behind them in some cases, these families left farms that had been with them for generations, only to end up in a foreign place where they were neither welcomed nor needed in great quantity. This would cause immense problems for their futures. It is these problems that author John Steinbeck spent a great deal of his time studying and documenting so that Americans could better understand the plight of these migrant farmers, otherwise known as "Okies." From touring many of these "Hoovervilles" and "Little Oklahomas" (pg. v) Steinbeck was given a firsthand look at the issues and hardships these migrant workers faced on a daily basis. With the help of Tom Collins, manager of a federal migrant labor camp, Steinbeck began a "personal and literary journey" (pg. v), revealing to the world the painful truth of these "Okies" in his book Harvest Gypsies.
John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath: “And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Carloads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless – restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do – to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut – anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land.” This, just a small excerpt from Steinbeck’s novel, depicts the hardships and struggles that farmers faced during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. The Grapes of Wrath is an excellent source of information for this time period and includes historical facts, themes, and intricate details of living conditions of the migrant farmers.
Farmers were greatly affected by The Great Depression. In the early 1930’s prices dropped so low that many farmers went bankrupt and lost their farms (“The Great Depression hits farms and cities in the 1930’s”). The stock market crash prevented the farmers from being able to sell their produce (McCabe). Through the depression farmers were still producing more food than consumers were buy, and now the consumers could buy even less. Farm produce prices fell even lower (“The Depression for Farmers”). Some farm families started burning corn rather than coal in their stoves because the corn was cheaper (“The Great Depression hits farms and cities in the 1930s”). Non-farmers had also been hit hard by the depression. With the banks failing and businesses closing, over fifteen million people became unemployed (“The Great Depression”). The unemployment rate skyrocketed from three percent to nearly twenty five percent (McCabe). The Great Depression brought a rapid rise in the crime rate as many unemployed workers restored to petty theft to put food on the table. Suicide rates rose greatly as did recorded cases of malnutrition (“Social and Cultural Effects of the Depression”). More and more people were found standing in bread lines, hungry and homeless (McCabe). The depression affected people and businesses but many programs later America pulled out of their
People, especially blacks, were being put out of work everywhere; the wave of depression had hit the entire country. Banks were failing, and the cities, in a desperate attempt to provide relief, were running out of money. Because President Hoover was confident that business conditions would soon improve, federal funds were not used to provide relief; relief was the responsibility of private charities. City allowances soon ran out, and there was no money left. Pennies were used to buy food and fuel. Many people went without food in order to p...
During the late 1920s the United States was going through an economic depression that was caused by the failure of the stock market. When the stock market crashed, millions of people lost their savings, jobs and also their homes. About millions of people end up traveling across the country in order to find a job to help them to support their family. After becoming the president, Franklin D. Roosevelt want to help the country by stopping the depression and it too never occur again in the United States.
John Steinbeck wrote about what surrounded him. At the time he was writing, the nineteen-thirties, a great depression was plaguing the United States. Many people were out of work. Many farmers were losing their farms and homes. An extreme drought had also wrecked the farms of the Midwest and made them into what is now referred to as the "dust bowl". It was a terrible time to be poor, and most were. People died of malnutrition every day. In California, where Steinbeck resided, migrant workers dominated the workforce. Thousands traveled from all around to pick fruit in the farms of the Salinas Valley for minuscule wages. Thousands more could not find suitable Many people theorize why the depression happened. Speculation in the stock market was one reason. The dust bowl also multiplied the depression's effects. The depression did happen to coincide with another event though. It happened soon after the last frontier vanished from the United States. There was no longer free land for the taking. The long held American dream was no longer simple and cheap to achieve. Many Americans simply wanted their own plot to take and set up their lives, but the depression made this an impossibility. Steinbeck wrote about this class of people.
The Great Depression was felt worldwide, some countries more than others. During this time many Americans had to live in poor conditions. In the United states, 25 percent of the workers and 37 percent of all nonfarm workers lost their job(Smiley 1). Unemployment rates had increased to a 24.9 percent during 1933(Shmoop 1). Unable to pay mortgages, many families lost their homes. The cause of this was the Stock Market crash in 1929. Many investors of the stock market panicked and sold all their stocks. The results of this include frightened Americans withdrawing all their saving causing and hoarding it in their homes many banks to shut down and less money to circulate in the economy. Although the economy had taken a dramatic blow, there was hope. A new program was administered by the government to help people suffering from the depression. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) program helped improve lives of Americans affected by the Great Depression.
The Great Depression is known as the greatest time of recession in American history. Many factors contributed to this hard time. With the stock market boom in the 1920’s, our country was filled with optimism for the future. Although there were signs of problems to come former President Herbert Hoover was just as convinced as the nation that they were only going through a rough patch and would be back on their feet in no time. That was until the stock market crash of 1929, which marked the beginning of the Great Depression. The stock market crash led to bank and company failures. Many people became unemployed and had to leave their homes. Families also had to move away because of the drought that caused dust storms and ultimately the Dust Bowl. Soon enough, thousands were migrating to find jobs elsewhere. Eventually when former President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected into office, he presented America with “The New Deal,” the plan that would save America and bring the nation up and out of the recession.
Such an event caused many problems in the country. The first problem had been that many people became unemployed due to the stock market crash. Many industries had too many products left over that was not being sold in the country in which lead to job layoffs since they didn’t have money to pay their workers. In the early days of the depression many employers including the government tried to give jobs to whoever was the head of the households. (Doc 5) Unemployment helped lead to another problem which was hunger. In document 2 families who were hungry had to live off of dandelions and blackberries. Also they had to stand on lines for cheap food. The American people desperation to have a decent meal that would satisfy their needs eventually led to them fishing food out o...
The economy had both positive and negative impacts on the host country. Having an increased growth in the number of immigrants, the government was burdened with the task of providing social programs like health centers and schools. The immigrants were included in the housing programs like the other inhabitants of the country (Wilson, n.p). Undocumented immigrants were also an accountability of the United States government whereby it was entitled to the provision of privileges any human being would deserve though not in the same way like the American
John Steinbeck does not portray migrant farm worker life accurately in Of Mice and Men. Housing, daily wages, and social interaction were very different in reality. This paper will demonstrate those differences by comparing the fictional work of Steinbeck to his non-fictional account of the time, The Harvest Gypsies.
Along with the job crisis and food shortages that affected all U.S. workers, Mexicans and Mexican Americans had to face an additional threat: deportation. As unemployment swept the U.S., hostility to immigrant workers grew, and the government began a program of repatriating immigrants to Mexico. Immigrants were offered free train rides to Mexico, and some went voluntarily, but many were either tricked or coerced into repatriation, and some U.S. citizens were deported simply on suspicion of being Mexican. The Great Depression was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world. In the United States, the Great Depression began soon after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and rising levels of unemployment as failing companies laid off workers. The Great Depression had devastating effects in countries both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its nadir, some 13 to 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half of the country’s banks